News and Insights
What to expect this year from the implementation of the 10-Year Health Plan
January 30, 2026
NHS England’s 10-Year Health Plan frames 2026 as a year of visible “on‑the‑ground” delivery: scaling neighbourhood or community models, accelerating NHS App–centred digital access, and expanding prevention programmes. Much of the detailed delivery is being driven through the Medium‑Term Planning Framework for 2026/27–2028/29 and related operating guidance.
So, what progress can we expect to see in 2026 in support of the three seismic shifts: from hospital to community care, from analogue to digital systems, and from sickness to prevention, and what may impede progress?
From hospital to community care
For those needing ongoing care, frequent trips to hospital are often characterised by frustrating journeys, crowded waiting rooms and rushed appointments. Today, the ambition is to bring care closer to home, offering greater convenience, but this hinges on resourcing and properly coordinating services across NHS and social care systems.
Some of the progress we can expect to see this year includes:
- Neighbour health – selection will begin this year for the 42 areas in which to pilot the “neighbourhood health models” that will see mental health, frailty and long-term conditions management brought closer to home.
- Primary care decompression – from April, ICBs and providers must identify GP practices where demand significantly exceeds capacity and put in place plans to support or decompress them.
- Virtual wards – as of December 2025, Digital Ward capacity under NHS England stood at 12,673. From April 2026, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) must begin embedding virtual wards into Integrated Neighbourhood Teams, moving care away from hospital-centred models toward proactive community management.
- Pharmacy First – a continued push to grow community pharmacy clinical services (e.g. Pharmacy First, contraception, minor illness, long-term condition support) to divert demand from GPs and A&E departments.
- Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) – a drive to ensure those CDCs that are up and running achieve full operationality as soon as possible, offering services for 12 hours per day, seven days a week and delivering same-day tests (i.e. all tests carried out on the same day for the patient in one visit), where possible, to meet optimal patient access requirements.
Accountability and data-sharing between services remain fragmented though. Community-led models could reduce hospital demand, support long-term condition management and enhance patient experience, but only if workforce training and digital infrastructure keep pace. Meanwhile, acute trusts remain under severe financial and performance pressure, making it difficult to release capacity and funding to community alternatives without destabilising organisations.
From analogue to digital systems
Paper records, fax machines and siloed information is still a reality in the NHS. The aim is for an individuals’ entire health story to be accessible digitally to the right professional at the right time.
Some of the progress we can expect to see this year includes:
- NHS Online – by 2028/29, providers are expected to make at least 95% of appointments bookable (after triage) via the NHS App and to offer full medicines management, pre/post‑appointment questionnaires and waiting time visibility. 2026 is the start of that adoption curve.
- AI Triage – the service is set to go live in the App from April this year as the default “front door” to NHS services, although alternative methods – e.g. telephone calls – will remain to continue to support the elderly and those with limited digital literacy.
- NHS Notify – this year should see the start of direct-to-patient communication services funnelled through NHS Notify, with providers completing migration by the end of 2028/29.
- Federated Data Platform (FDP) – by March 2026, 85% of all secondary care trusts are expected to have adopted the NHS Federated Data Platform, which will eventually automate virtual ward data flows.
- Interoperability – the roll out of projects to improve shared care records and population‑health data flows across primary, community and acute settings.
Digital literacy among both clinicians and patients influences the success of technologies like electronic prescribing, remote monitoring and AI decision support. The transition from paper-based to interoperable digital records is critical for efficiency and safety, but legacy systems and uneven adoption across trusts slow progress, while cybersecurity concerns remain a hot topic. Opportunities for better preventative care and real-time decision support are growing, but only if systems are joined up, and training supports everyone to make the most of new technologies.
From sickness to prevention
The new vision for health aims to get ahead of sickness, using screening, vaccinations and targeted community support to stop problems before they start.
Some of the progress we can expect to see this year includes:
- NHS Health Check – June 2025 saw the first pilots rolled out, with the ambition of supporting a 25% reduction in CVD‑related premature mortality over 10 years. Early 2026 should see the next phase of rollout to more local authorities to further test and evaluate, before the planned national rollout later in the year.
- Genomic Testing – the expansion of genomic testing and integrated risk scores (using genomics and non‑biological risk factors) for earlier detection of cancer, CVD and other conditions.
- Liquid Biopsies – a national rollout of advanced liquid biopsy testing (blood tests) for genetic variations in certain lung and advanced breast cancers that will help speed up access to targeted therapies.
- Cancer Blood Tests – the final results are expected to be published this year for the NHS-Galleri trial(the world’s first randomized controlled trial of a Multi-Cancer Early Detection test) assessing impact of a blood test to detect 50+ cancers at population scale in the real world. A decision on a wider NHS rollout will follow.
Turning the preventative vision into reality necessitates a focus on social and behavioural determinants that shape health outside the clinic. And it requires a shift in mindset, as a focus on short‑term waiting time targets may risk deprioritising preventative action that doesn’t immediately show “front‑page” results.
From a communications perspective, as care continues to be brough closer to home, the drive to digital accelerates and prevention is prioritised, it’s vital to ensure all communities are engaged in, and informed of, transitions in their local area, and that underlying inequalities are not only surfaced, but addressed, so all benefit equally from these shifts.
If you are looking to engage with NHS stakeholders across the evolving ecosystem, contact our London team today to discuss your 2026 engagement strategy.
POSTED BY: Sophie Taylor-Roberts
