Published on: 09,Jul 2025

Beth Colliety, Policy Manager, The Richmond Group

The 10 Year Health Plan has been published – we’ve watched and waited, and now we’ve read all 168 pages. What are our first impressions?

Neighbourhood health  

The plan’s focus on neighbourhood health offers real potential to provide the kind of high-quality care that will inspire trust and confidence in the health service again.  

We think it’s an unmissable opportunity to deliver a ‘team around the person’ approach to care coordination for patients with multiple and complex needs who currently experience the highest burden of treatment. ‘Living well’ goes beyond clinical needs, so we are pleased to see that neighbourhood teams will incorporate non-health advice and support.  

Patients – not structures or processes – must be at the centre of neighbourhood working. We have already set out our five tests to assess whether neighbourhood health makes a true difference for these patients.  

The voluntary sector has a vital role to play. While the plan says voluntary services could be co-located in neighbourhood health centres, this needs to go further – we should be seen as partners in neighbourhood teams. Care can remain poorly coordinated even in co-located services, and teams need the time and resource to join up their work around patients.  

Managing multiple and long-term health conditions  

We welcome the plan’s recognition that increasing prevalence of multiple health conditions is a central reason for change. Multiple conditions are underrepresented in research and we welcome the plan’s commitment to address this.  

We wanted to see the plan aiming for consistent levels of care across different long-term conditions, so it’s positive to see that Modern Service Frameworks will be established to set care standards and implement a clear strategy for uptake.  

There are other commitments we welcome to help support the management of long-term conditions, including most people having a holistic care plan, creating a single patient record, and increasing the number of people offered a Personal Health Budget.  

Prevention 

We’re glad to see the plan’s shift from reacting to sickness and crises towards anticipating and preventing. The delivery of prevention commitments must be linked to resource allocation, system incentives, and measurable outcomes over time. We look forward to the development of new “Prevention Accelerators”, with an initial focus on cardiovascular disease and diabetes interventions. 

It’s great to see physical activity included as an essential tool in healthcare and prevention. We welcome the intention for cross-departmental collaboration on physical activity, and the ambition to get millions more moving, as we called for in our report of the same name. Look out for an upcoming blog discussing these commitments. 

Health inequalities  

We called for the plan to take significant measures to tackle health inequalities and target resources and funding to where they are most needed, so we’re glad to see a commitment to review the GP funding formula. Similarly, we welcome neighbourhood health centres beginning in areas of lowest healthy life expectancy. We want to see these services co-designed with underserved communities, and our research shows determination, expert local knowledge, and genuine listening and collaboration will be needed to foster trust.  

Patient voice and accountability  

The plan abolishes organisations that advocate on behalf of patients, most notably Healthwatch England, and will bring patient voice “in-house” to a Director in the Department of Health and Social Care. 

While we will reflect on the Dash review recommends, we’re concerned this may reduce capacity for collective patient advocacy. The plan does outline smoother processes for patient feedback, via the NHS App. However, patients shaping services must go beyond individual views and routine feedback, with strong mechanisms to co-produce services.  

We welcome the plan’s commitment to expand Patient Report Outcome Measures and Patient Report Experience Measures, and these should be used to invest in areas that matter most to patients.  

What’s next?  

There’s a lot to be positive about in the plan, and we welcome the ambitions. We now need to see this plan deliver where others have fallen short and really make integrated, holistic and proactive care a reality.  

How much money will be shifting into community services, and when? How will the upcoming workforce plan enable the staff changes needed to deliver the shifts? Is the upheaval of system reform drawing efforts and resource away from the transformation and improvement of services?  

To answer questions like this a clear plan for implementation and delivery is needed.  

Look out for our upcoming blogs delving into themes in the plan in more detail.