NHS 10 Year Plan 2025 | Immediate Priorities for 2025/26

2025 Mandate to NHS England formally embeds the three shifts into policy and grants ICBs autonomy, but within tight financial limits. Autumn 2024 investment of £26 billion over two years.

Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of the NHS 10‑Year Health Plan (England), due in Spring 2025 and extending through to 2035:

🧠 1. The “Three Strategic Shifts”

Outlined in the upcoming plan and 2025 Mandate:

1. Hospital → Community
   Expanding care in GP surgeries, community hubs, pharmacies, integrated neighbourhood teams. Aiming to decrease reliance on hospital-based services.

2. Analogue → Digital
   Deep roll-out of the NHS App, shared electronic patient records, AI (e.g., ambient‑voice tools), telehealth, and digital diagnostics.

3. Sickness → Prevention
   Shift resources to public health initiatives, early detection, chronic disease management (e.g. obesity, smoking, mental health), and community-level wellbeing .

📆 2. Immediate Priorities for 2025/26

• Clear backlogs: End 18-week elective waitlist backlog—deliver ~2 million extra treatments a year.

• Urgent care improvements: Better A&E and ambulance targets.

• Strengthen primary care: Additional GP access, online booking, contract reforms agreed with BMA (extra £889 million) .

• Efficiency savings: Achieve 4% productivity gains annually; reduce administrative costs ~50% at ICS/ICB level.

👥 3. Workforce & Infrastructure

• Expanding training places:

  • Medical school seats ⬆ 33% to 10,000 by 2028/29, total 15,000 by 2031/32.

  • GP training up 50% to 6,000 by 2031/32.

  • Nursing & midwifery up to ~58,000 by 2031/32.

• New roles & retention: Advanced practitioners, nursing associates, physician associates; flexible working and pension reforms to reduce attrition.

• Tech and capital investment: £10 billion by 2028/29 for digital upgrades & infrastructure; but still a shortfall compared to NHS needs.

💷 4. Financial Mandate & Oversight

• 2025 Mandate to NHS England formally embeds the three shifts into policy and grants ICBs autonomy, but within tight financial limits.

• Budget: Autumn 2024 investment of £26 billion over two years, plus capital; working towards balanced finances in 2025/26 with planned 7% efficiency cuts and lower agency staff use.

🔬 5. Innovation & Regulatory Reform

• Robotics & AI: One in eight surgeries to be robot‑assisted within 10 years; AI documentation tools to boost clinician productivity by ~20%.

• Speedier drug approval: MHRA and NICE to streamline approvals—cutting wait times by ~⅓, benefiting innovators and patients.

📊 6. Broader System Reforms

• Abolition of NHS England: Reintegrated under government for streamlined governance, reducing bureaucracy (announced Mar 2025).

• Integrated Care Systems & Boards: Central to commissioning and community care—ICBs are being heavily restructured and shrunk in size to focus on strategic delivery.

✅ Summary: Goals by 2035

What Comes Next?

• Final publication in Spring 2025.

• Implementation in phases through 2025/26 and refreshed operating mandates.

• Ongoing public & staff consultation via Change NHS, which gathered 220,000 responses