Last month, NHS England released its 2025/2026 Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance in line with the government mandate. This document provides NHS Trusts, Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), and other healthcare providers with details on key priorities, financial management, and performance targets.
There are four main priorities within the guidance:
Reduce the time people wait for elective care
– Improve the percentage of patients waiting <18 weeks for treatment to 65% and for first appointment to 72% nationally, with every trust delivering a minimum 5% point improvement
– Improve the percentage of patients waiting 52 weeks for treatment to less than 1% of the total waiting list
– Improve performance against 62-day cancer standard to 75% and 28-day faster access standard to 80
Improve A&E waiting times and ambulance response times
– Reach minimum of 78% patients admitted, discharged and transferred from ED within 4 hours
– Improve Category 2 ambulance response times to an average of 30 minutes across 2025/26
– Reduce avoidable ambulance conveyances and handover delays by delivering hospital handovers within 15 minutes and improving access to urgent care services at home or in the community
– Improve and standardise urgent care by using the principles of same day emergency care (SDEC)
Improve patients’ access to general practice (GPs) and urgent dental care
– Improve patient experience of access to GPs as measured by the ONS Health Insights survey
– Improve access to urgent dental care, providing 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments
– Put in place action plans by June 2025 to improve contract oversight, commissioning and transformation for GPs to tackle unwarranted variation
Improve mental health and learning disability care
– Improve patient flow through mental health crisis and acute pathways, reducing average length of stay in adult acute mental health beds
– Improve access to children and young people’s (CYP) mental health services to achieve the national ambition of 345,000 additional CYP aged 0-25 receiving support compared to 2019
– Reduce reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with learning disabilities and autism, delivering a minimum 10% reduction
The priorities outlined in NHS England’s 2025/26 guidance present significant opportunities for innovation across the healthcare system. Digital tools such as AI-powered scheduling systems and virtual consultations could be used to reduce waiting times and improve patient flow by optimising resource allocation.
In urgent and emergency care, expanding the use of remote monitoring and virtual wards could help reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and improve ambulance response times.
Mental health services also stand to benefit from innovation, particularly through the adoption of digital mental health platforms, AI-driven early intervention tools, and community-based support models that reduce reliance on inpatient care.
Collaboration between NHS organisations, technology providers, and frontline staff will be key to truly drive innovation. By embracing innovation, the NHS has an opportunity to not only meet these targets but also create a more sustainable, responsive, and patient-focused healthcare system.
For more information, and the full guidance click here: 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance.
