Prominent figures from leading health and social care organisations have responded to the recently published NHS 10-year health plan, which details the government’s priorities and policies for the health service in England.
The King’s Fund, Health Foundation, RCOT, BHTA, and SCIE, have all responded to the 10-year plan.
Reactions from across the health and social care sector to the NHS 10-year plan have been broadly supportive of its ambitions, particularly its focus on prevention, digital innovation, and community-based care, but are tempered by significant concerns.
Sector leaders warn that without coordinated reform of social care, increased investment, and a clear implementation strategy, the plan risks repeating past failures and falling short of its transformative goals.
SCIE
Kathryn Marsden OBE, Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), said: “Health and social care are two sides of the same coin. You cannot deliver meaningful reform in one without sustained, strategic attention to the other.
“The 10-Year Health Plan sets out a welcome ambition to move care closer to home, to focus on prevention, and to invest in digital tools, but these aims will fall short unless they are matched by a coherent, long-term vision for social care. While SCIE has welcomed the Casey Commission and its forthcoming work, the Commission is not due to report until 2028. By then, healthcare reform will be three years ahead of a roadmap for social care reform.
“Social care supports people to leave hospital safely, helps them stay well at home, and to live meaningful, independent lives. That’s why the success of the Neighbourhood Health Service rests on the strength and stability of our social care infrastructure. Neighbourhood working, at its best, is about trust, shared decision-making and holistic, person-centred care. If we want a future NHS that is proactive rather than reactive, social care should be recognised as a driver of wellbeing and prevention in our communities.
“The government has set an ambitious mission of building an NHS fit for the future. SCIE calls on government and NHS leaders to bring the care and health sectors together as equal partners to deliver the Plan’s aims for prevention, wellbeing, community support and tackling inequalities.”
BHTA
David Stockdale, Chief Executive of the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA), commented: “We welcome the plan’s shift to community-centric care, but at its foundation must lie the manufacturers and suppliers of essential medical equipment who enable independent living and timely hospital discharges. Without them, this vision simply won’t take hold.
“We strongly support measures like the Innovator Passport and MedTech Compass IT system that can do much to meet our longstanding calls for reduced red tape, helping BHTA members’ innovative products make their way to patients more quickly.
“Our members are natural allies in this ambitious project, but for this our sector must be able to operate reliably and securely. Tackling current financial and regulatory barriers is the crucial first step to making this ambitious 10 year plan an achievable reality.”
RCOT
Joseph Brunwin, UK Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT), said: “This long-awaited plan sets out an encouraging vision for the future of health and care – with a clear focus on prevention, digital transformation and delivering more care in the community. These are all areas where occupational therapy already makes a vital contribution and we welcome the alignment with our own workforce strategy.
“Occupational therapists have the skills and insight to be at the heart of neighbourhood health services – working across communities to keep people well and connected to the support they need close to home. They are central to preventing hospital admissions, supporting mental health and enabling people to do the activities – occupations – they want and need to do.
“But there aren’t enough occupational therapists and many people are waiting too long for the support they desperately need. So, while we’re encouraged that the government will publish a new 10-Year Workforce Plan, it’s imperative that this delivers an enlarged and strengthened occupational therapy workforce to achieve these ambitions.
“We look forward to working with government, the NHS, and partners across health and social care to embed occupational therapy across systems where they can have most impact, ease pressure on frontline services and help people stay well for longer and live their best life.”
Health Foundation
Dr Jennifer Dixon DBE, Chief Executive of the Health Foundation, said: “The 10-year health plan sets out the government’s positive ambition to make the NHS sustainable for future generations. We welcome many of the changes in the plan – more integrated services, boosting primary and community care, harnessing innovation and technology, reducing health inequalities – but these are not new ideas and questions remain about how will be implemented and whether they will be backed by sufficient resources.
“On the face of it, proposals to develop more integrated neighbourhood health services look similar to a long line of NHS policy initiatives, and it’s unclear whether past lessons have been learned to enable the latest versions to succeed. Plans to abolish or merge a swathe of NHS bodies and change the roles of many others might promise a less fragmented structure, but the NHS risks getting lost in organisational change when it should be focused on improving patient care.
“Without investment and reform of the threadbare social care system, or co-ordinated action to address the wider social and economic causes of ill health, the plan remains largely a vision for the NHS, rather than a plan for rebuilding the nation’s health. The government’s health mission – which promised just such an approach – is currently missing in action and is in urgent need of resuscitation.
“Technology brings hope for the future – and the plan places big bets on new innovation and an expanded role for the NHS App in delivering the government’s shift from analogue to digital. Used effectively, the App has the potential to empower patients and support them to better manage their health, make processes more convenient, and improve efficiency. But it is just one part of more complex changes in services and behaviours needed to bring the NHS into the 21st century – changes that fundamentally depend on the hard work and dedication of NHS staff, working with patients and the public.
“Standing back, making the plan happen with the resources on offer will be tough. Health spending will grow by 2.8 percent a year in real-terms between 2025/26 and 2028/29 – lower than the historic average (3.7 percent) and much lower than Labour’s last period in government (6.8 percent). Capital investment – in buildings, equipment, and IT; the stuff NHS staff need to work effectively and improve services – will grow by just one percent a year.
“The NHS is not broken but it is in a critical condition, so we welcome the scale of the government’s ambition. We now await the concrete action needed to turn rhetoric to reality.”
The King’s Fund
Discussing finances and neighbourhood health specifically, Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, said: “NHS finances have been in a critical state for most of the past decade. It is no secret that the NHS is showing signs of financial distress despite its allocation in the recent comprehensive spending review.
“Today’s plan includes a call for NHS organisations to balance their books and to improve productivity. While we agree with the government that the answer to the NHS’s challenges is not simply to provide more money, there has to be realism about how the financial situation impacts the ability to deliver all the reforms proposed today and the impact this will have on services.
“It also remains to be seen how credible this ambition is given it repeats previous commitments to reduce deficits in the NHS without compromising on the range or quality of services the NHS delivers. With a few exceptions, there is far more detail on what the NHS is expected to do in future within its budget than indications of what it will stop doing to avoid busting its budget.
“A vision to create a neighbourhood health service is welcome, but this has long been argued for. Actually delivering this major shift of care and focus for our NHS out of hospital into communities, where previous governments have failed, would be the real win.
“A commitment to invest more money as a proportion of health spend in the community over the next 3–4 years is to be commended. It’s this sort of concrete action that’s needed to make the shift from hospital to community a reality. We also need to see health professionals working differently, NHS estate renewed and used more imaginatively, and better links between health and social care data.”
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