The NHS 10-Year Health Plan: ‘Now it’s down to people to make it a success’

After years in the making, the NHS has unveiled its 10-Year Health Plan – a sector-wide transformation set to radically reshape how healthcare is delivered across the UK. But as with any large-scale plan, success will come down to execution – and that will rest firmly in the hands of NHS professionals, say Simon Bricknell and Steve Boam from Develop Consulting.

Three weeks have now passed since the launch of the 10-Year Health Plan, and much has already been said about the plan’s pillars and priorities. Within NHS ranks, leaders at every level have spent time poring over the plan’s details, trying to translate broad national goals into what they mean for their local trusts, integrated care boards and wider health providers.

In a nutshell: the NHS is set to become more digital and AI-enabled – not just for patients, but for practitioners too. There will be a greater focus on providing care closer to home, rather than in hospitals, and on preventing illness before it begins.

These structural shifts will touch every corner of the NHS. “The system spans more than 900 hospitals, numerous social care and health trusts, and over 38,000 General Practitioners. Every one of them will need to embrace new ways of working,” says Simon Bricknell, Head of Healthcare at Develop Consulting.

But delivering that level of change ultimately comes down to people, emphasises fellow Director Steve Boam. “The 10-Year Plan is a brilliant blueprint. Now it’s up to the NHS’s people – supported by the right technologies, models, and processes – to bring it to life.”

Back to the basics

Based in Coventry, Develop Consulting is an award-winning firm specialising in large-scale transformation and operational improvement. The firm has a long track record in healthcare. “We’ve worked with over half of all GP practices and more than 50 hospitals across the country,” says Bricknell.

Having seen the system from all angles, both Bricknell and Boam describe the plan as timely and well-justified. “The vision to shift the NHS from a hospital-centric, reactive model to a community-led, digital-first and prevention-focused service is not just ambitious – it’s essential. It reflects the real needs of patients and families across England,” says Bricknell.

Boam agrees: “It’s needed because the system hasn’t kept up with the reality of today’s population – let alone the demands of tomorrow. People expect more personalised, timely and joined-up care – yet the NHS still lags behind other sectors in delivering a truly customer-centric experience.”

Working smarter (not ‘efficiency’)

One of the fundamental shifts will be about doing things more smartly. “In NHS circles, ‘efficiency’ can be a dirty word,” says Bricknell. “But like it or not, improving efficiency is key to delivering better care in a financially sustainable way.”

A major part of this is reducing the administrative burden on staff – a task which currently eats up a significant portion of their time, leaving less capacity for actual patient care.

Boam offers an analogy from manufacturing, another key sector where Develop Consulting operates. “If you think of a hospital as a kind of factory, it’s not far off. A factory takes raw materials and transforms them through coordinated steps into a finished product. Hospitals do the same – taking in patients and guiding them through diagnosis, treatment, and recovery to restore health.”

The difference is that factories are far more mature in areas like standardising workflows, managing resources, embedding continuous improvement, and measuring outcomes. “In the NHS, these practices are still developing – and that’s where we come in.”

At Develop Consulting, we help health and care organisations redesign their processes around patients from start to finish – what we call a ‘value stream’. It’s about mapping and optimising the full care journey, from first contact right through to discharge, to eliminate waste and improve flow.”

People change – inside and out

Of course, where machines power factories, it’s people who power healthcare. “The NHS plan sets out a new future for its workforce – one that’s smaller but more skilled, more flexible, and digitally enabled,” Bricknell notes.

“But this kind of cultural shift can’t simply be handed down from above. Real change will take long-term investment in leadership, coaching, upskilling and engaging staff at every level. Change management must be baked into the daily reality of NHS teams.”

“It’s not enough to roll out a ‘digital front door’ or ‘neighbourhood teams’. You need to give staff real-time support to redesign workflows, adopt tools, and work effectively across disciplines,” he adds.

And the same attention must be paid to patients, says Boam. “As healthcare moves from analogue to digital, the patient experience must stay front and centre. People need help navigating these changes. Technology’s a great enabler – but if we don’t support those less comfortable with it, we risk leaving people behind. Digital inclusion is critical. If someone can’t use the new tools, there must be an easy, accessible alternative.”

Tailored to the community

Another crucial factor in the plan’s success is recognising that one size does not fit all. Bricknell stresses the importance of tailoring national goals to local realities. “The NHS simply can’t offer identical services in Birmingham and Hereford. The demographics, health needs, and community profiles are vastly different. Services must be designed around that.”

“The plan must be grounded in the needs of local people, with NHS trusts building or reshaping their delivery models around the specific communities they serve.”

Getting started

So what should NHS leaders be doing right now? Boam says the first step is assessing what needs to change. “At the top level, there are significant shifts like rolling out new digital patient record systems. But what will catch many off guard isn’t the nature of change – it’s the volume of change.”

Prioritisation is therefore key, he says. “Most NHS teams won’t have the internal capacity or skill sets to deliver transformation at this scale all at once. The real challenge is figuring out what’s most urgent – and what’s actually feasible.”

From there, it’s about designing the processes and new ways of working. And just as the NHS is encouraged to monitor the performance of its organisations through league tables, Bricknell advises leaders to apply the same principle to their own transformation efforts. “Defining clear KPIs and measuring outcomes is essential to making sure the changes needed are successfully delivered.”

“NHS teams need to track their own KPIs to monitor whether transformation is actually working. That discipline must exist at every level.”

This approach, he says, borrows from manufacturing – balanced scorecards, metrics, outcomes – but with extra sensitivity in a health context. “Take the example of improving staff productivity. This means doing the same work with fewer staff, but in the NHS, it’s not that easy to downsize the workforce. So, while you’ve delivered the efficiency in one place, there could be a knock on somewhere else.”

And when doing so, it’s crucial to take a holistic approach to KPI tracking. “Increasing staff productivity may be positive, but it can’t be at the expense of patient care, that’s a red flag.”

To effectively manage progress, change needs to be tracked at a portfolio-level. “This should take place across staff, systems, and patients. Everything must align with the goals of the 10-Year Plan.”

A tech-driven future

Technology runs throughout the plan – and central to it is the NHS App. The NHS app will be expanded from its current form to become a central place for logistics, allowing patients to book appointments, manage prescriptions, enrol in clinical trials, and track vaccine records – reducing delays and improving access.

More than that, the app will serve as a kind of digital companion. The introduction of ‘My NHS GP’ – an AI-driven tool – will allow users to describe symptoms and receive personalised guidance or signposting to NHS services.

Digital transformation won’t stop there. Across the NHS system, patient records, referrals and communications between primary and secondary care will be digitised. “It’s about pushing digital across the board,” says Bricknell.

Boam adds: “Process automation and better use of data is a real opportunity for the NHS, because so much time is wasted within the system. We’ve worked with trusts where nurses spend less than 40% of their time on direct patient care. The rest is lost to logistics, admin and chasing information.”

“And that’s on the logistical side of things,” he adds. “When it comes to the healthcare side, AI can be a gamechanger for the quality of diagnostics and care. But even with AI in place, you always need to keep the human in the driving seat.”

Back to people

And that brings the conversation full circle. “In over two decades of working with the NHS, we’ve learned one key lesson,” says Boam. “People are the bedrock of any transformation. If you don’t support and invest in them, even the best strategy won’t stick.”

“As we see it, real change doesn’t happen in Whitehall or on paper. It happens in hospital corridors, on wards, in practices, and in community teams. And it’s people who make it happen.”