Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that NHS targets and metrics incentivise improvements in patient care and experience.

The Government is committed to putting patients first. This means making sure patients are seen on time and ensuring that people have the best possible experience of care.

Earlier this year, acting on the findings of The Darzi Review, and in order to move power from the health centre to local leaders, NHS England published the 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance, setting out the first steps for reform and the immediate actions for systems to take to deliver on the Government’s objectives. This rationalised the number of targets given to National Health Service systems, with the previous version for the 2024/25 financial year having had 32 targets, while this year’s has 18 and focuses on what matters most to patients, including, for instance, improving patient experience of access to general practice as measured by the Office for National Statistics’ Health Insights Survey and shifting focus from inputs to outcomes for patients.

Additionally, in the Elective Reform Plan, published on 6 January 2025, the Government committed to working with patients, carers, and their representatives to publish the standards that patients should expect to experience while they wait for care. Once published, these standards will set an expectation to all trusts for the service they are expected to deliver. We will continue to work with patients and carers to build on this work and establish a gold standard for experience.

We will support NHS trusts to prioritise the experience of care by ensuring they make customer care training available to non-clinical staff with patient facing roles, as well as ensuring the take up of training already available on the e-Referral Services to support more effective referral, booking, and waiting list management processes. NHS trusts will also be required to name an existing director who will be responsible for improving experience of care.