On 2 July, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, health secretary Wes Streeting and other government leaders outlined their plans for the NHS in England.
What is the NHS 10-Year Health Plan?
Its official name is . In the rest of this article, we’ll shorten the phrase to "the 10-year plan” or “the plan”. As the full name suggests, it’s the Westminster government’s plan for the NHS in England over the next decade.
What about Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales?
Health and social care are controlled by those countries’ own administrations under devolved powers, so the 10-year plan doesn’t apply to Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales.
What’s in the 10-year plan?
The plan sets out a high-level direction for the next 10 years, although there isn’t much detail on when changes will be made or how they will be implemented. Here we pick out some of the key highlights.
Launching the 10-year plan, the prime minister said the NHS needs to “reform or die”, promising patients "easier, quicker and more convenient care, wherever they live". The plan outlines three "shifts” where the government wants to make strategic changes.
- Hospital to community.
- Analogue to digital.
- Sickness to prevention.
These shifts were , but the plan sees more detail added within them. A key theme for nursing comes under the “hospital to community” strategy. The main proposal within this is the creation of a “Neighbourhood Health Service”, where nursing staff will play a key role within neighbourhood health centres (NHCs).
The plan promises to establish an NHC “in every community”, initially prioritising areas where life expectancy is lowest. Ministers have promised 50 NHCs by the end of this parliament (by 2029) and up to 300 by 2035. These centres will be open at least 12 hours a day and six days a week. The plan describes an ambition to make NHS care less “hospital-centric”. Instead the government wants patients to be treated as locally as possible, at home where feasible and in an NHC when needed.
Ministers also recognise that it is the NHS workforce that will deliver the three shifts mentioned above. In the plan, they reiterate their commitment to publish a new 10-year workforce plan for the NHS in England “later this year”. This was and will include details of the training needed to ensure the NHS has the staff it needs. It’s important to note the new workforce plan will have a different approach to the previous 2023 Long Term Workforce Plan, with fewer staff expected in the NHS in 2035 than projected in the 2023 plan.
To improve health care staff’s working lives, the 10-year plan also promises to develop a new set of standards for working conditions. This will be produced in collaboration with the Social Partnership Forum, an organisation that brings together NHS employers, the Department of Health and Social Care, trade unions and others, to create policy that affects staff working in health care. These standards will include nutritious food and drink at work, flexible working options, and protection from violence, racism and sexual harassment. They will be introduced in April 2026 and employers will publish data on this every quarter.
Ministers also want to increase use of the NHS app to book appointments and order prescriptions. Patients’ health records will be available on the app, including the “red book” (Personal Child Health Record) given to parents or carers to record a child’s health and development.
An extra £120m of funding over five years has been promised to create 85 dedicated mental health emergency departments across England.
There are also plans to “end the obesity epidemic”, including giving more people access to weight loss medications such as Wegovy and Mounjaro.
What does the plan mean for nursing?
Key announcements for nursing include promises to:
- end the “disgraceful spectacle of corridor care”. This is an important focus for the RCN, with thousands of our members telling us the scale of corridor care and the harrowing affect it has on nursing staff and patients, in a report we published in January 2025
- introduce neighbourhood nursing and midwifery leads who will act across multiple local areas to coordinate strategy, convene partners and represent the community’s voice
- increase the number of nurse consultants, particularly in neighbourhood settings
- create a new professional nursing strategy, led by the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), which will include measures to reduce student attrition and outline how nursing staff and midwives can be supported throughout their careers
- create 2,000 more nursing apprenticeships over the next three years
- overhaul education and training curricula for the NHS workforce
- make the NHS “the best employer”, meaning NHS staff will “be better treated and more motivated, have better training and more scope to develop their careers”
- reduce nursing and midwifery student attrition by 1%, which the Department of Health and Social Care says is equivalent to an additional 300 nurses and midwives joining the NHS each year
- explore options to improve financial support to students from the lowest socio-economic backgrounds
- make the NHS less dependent on international staff, moving recruitment to its own communities. It is the government’s ambition to reduce international recruitment to less than 10% by 2035.
The RCN is doing further analysis on the plan and we will continue to share our insights with you, our members, as and when we have them.
- Read more: RCN career frameworks to guide nursing staff
How is the RCN involved?
The RCN has been shaping the 10-year plan since the beginning by lobbying influential individuals, carrying out research and analysis and engaging with our members.
This has included submitting evidence to the Darzi review and meeting regularly with the Chief Nursing Officer for England and nursing representatives on working groups for the plan. RCN Chief Executive and General Secretary Professor Nicola Ranger has also met officials throughout the plan’s development, including Sally Warren, Director General for the 10-Year Health Plan at the Department of Health and Social Care.
In February, the RCN arranged a meeting between some of its members and staff and Wes Streeting to talk about the plan, where we told the health secretary that nursing must be central to any plans created for health and social care.
We continue to be active and vocal on the issues that affect the nursing profession, and the working lives and careers of our members.
The work of the RCN was referred to in the plan itself and in ongoing debate and discussion.
- Health secretary Wes Streeting said he was looking forward to working closely with the RCN and Unison to ensure the status, conditions and impact of nursing on the NHS go from strength to strength. He called nursing staff the backbone of the NHS, saying “we would not have a National Health Service without them”.
- RCN research on mental health wait times in A&E was referenced in the plan.
- During the parliamentary debate, Florence Eshalomi MP highlighted RCN analysis on the number of nurses who will leave the profession by 2029 after working less than 10 years in the service.
What does the RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive say about the plan?
Professor Nicola Ranger gave the following response to the 10-Year Health Plan.
“Nursing staff are crying out for change and we stand ready to get behind this plan. Modernising services, bringing care closer to home and helping people to lead healthier lives couldn't be more necessary. The commitment to eradicate care in corridors is the correct one – we need the detail on exactly how this will be achieved and for commitments on transparency to be honoured.
“The government and the NHS must bring about a reset with the nursing profession too. Nursing staff are identified as the expert leaders to deliver a neighbourhood health service and that should be truly empowering. As the professionals delivering the vast majority of care, we know what keeps patients safe and well.”
- Read more: Nicola’s full statement
Find out more
- The RCN's initial response to the plan, after it was announced.
- Our members and staff tell Wes Streeting what's needed in the plan: a look back at the meeting the RCN arranged in February 2025.
- Corridor care: one of the key topics highlighted in the 10-year plan, an issue the RCN is leading the fight against.
