Policy paper

Fit for the future: the 10 Year Health Plan for England (easy read - text only)

Updated 7 July 2025

Applies to England

Who we are

We are the Health and Social Care department in the government. Government means the group of people in charge of the country.

We help make sure people in England can live long and healthy lives.

This is an easy read guide to our new 10 Year Health Plan for England. The plan says how we will fix problems in the NHS in England.

The NHS is the National Health Service. It was set up in 1948 to give free healthcare to everyone in the UK.

What we did

We listened to thousands of people all over the country to understand how to make the NHS better.

We know that people are not happy with some things in the NHS.

Like waiting a long time to see a GP or have an operation. And NHS staff feeling stressed at work.

This plan tells you what we will do over the next 10 years in the NHS in England.

Fixing healthcare for everyone

We want to make sure everyone gets the healthcare they need.

We will do this in 3 ways:

1. We will give you more healthcare in your neighbourhood and at home. A neighbourhood is a small area where people live near each other.

2. We will use more technology to make it easier for you to see a doctor and get healthcare. Technology means things like apps, computers and the internet.

3. We will help you stay as healthy as possible. Like making it easier for you to choose healthy food and do more exercise.

Why the NHS must change

We need to make big changes to the NHS so everybody gets good healthcare.

If not, only people with money for private healthcare will get good healthcare. Private healthcare is when someone pays a company for health services.

This is not fair for people with less money. We need to make the NHS the best it can be.

We will give people the healthcare they need and help people trust the NHS again.

Changing how we spend money

Making big changes to the NHS is hard but we promise to do it.

We will spend money to change the NHS so that people get more healthcare in their neighbourhood.

We will spend more money helping people be as healthy as they can. This means they are less likely to:

• get sick
• need to go to hospital

We will use money to make technology better so more people can get help more quickly. This gives staff more time to see patients in person who need it most.

Change 1: neighbourhood health centres

There will be more health services in local neighbourhoods where people need it.

We will make it easier to get help with your health. We will:

• train lots more GPs
• give people appointments on the same day when they need it

This means you will see a GP or other healthcare staff more quickly.

Hospital care will be better for when people need it.

We will make sure people do not wait a long time for an operation.

And do not wait a long time to get help from staff in accident and emergency.

Change 2: single patient record

We will keep all your health information safely in one place. We call this your single patient record.

For example, information about:

• medicines
• health visits
• test results

This means you will not have to tell people the same thing again and again.

You can also share your patient record with your care team.

We will make the NHS App better and easier to use so you can:

• find any NHS service you need
• choose the healthcare you want
• book appointments
• see healthcare staff online
• check and order your medicine
• tell us what you think

The NHS App will use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to give you personal advice at any time. AI is when computers or machines can think and learn like humans.

Change 3: help you to stay healthy

We will work with other organisations in England to help people be healthy.

This keeps more people out of hospital.

For example, we will work with:

• schools and colleges
• workplaces
• businesses and charities
• local councils

Many adults in England are overweight and drink too much alcohol, like beer or wine. This means they can get unwell more easily.

We will help people in England to be a healthier weight and drink less alcohol.

Thousands of people die from smoking every year in England.

By 2035 children in England will be the first group of people who will never be able to buy cigarettes.

Leaders in research

We want the NHS to be a leader in health research. This plan will help us do this.

This means finding new medicines and ways to save lives.

And using new technology and tools in our healthcare work.

Good care

We want to make sure everyone gets good care. This plan will help us do this.

We will make the NHS App better so people can tell us what is good and bad about NHS services.

If someone does not get good care, we will:

• be honest
• say how we will fix it
• fix it quickly
• learn from our mistakes

Lots of people die from cancer, heart problems and mental illness. We will look at these illnesses first and make sure care is the best it can be.

Support for NHS staff

We want to make sure people can get good jobs in their local NHS. This plan will help us do this.

We will give all NHS staff the skills and training they need to care for people well.

We will make the NHS a great place to work. We will:

• let staff choose when they work
• give staff rewards for good work
• help staff get the training they want

We will use computers and technology to save time. This means staff have more time to care for people who are sick.

How to find out more

There is more information in the non-easy read version of the 10 Year Health Plan.

For questions about the plan you can email us at 10yearplan@dhsc.gov.uk.