Minister of State for Health (): I am updating the House about
the publication of a data tool and league tables that make NHS
performance under the NHS Oversight Framework (‘the framework')
open and accessible. This delivers a commitment in the 10
Year Health Plan for England: Fit for the Future to publish
new league tables and as part of our Plan for Change; ensuring
our investment in the NHS delivers meaningful outcomes, greater
efficiency, and real value for patients.
At last year's NHS Providers conference, the Secretary of State
for Health and Social Care announced league tables as part of our
plan to stop rewarding failure and to create a better and more
transparent health service. We know that this is more important
than ever, and the public expect better care and value following
the record investment in the NHS made by this government. This is
why today NHS England has published these league tables along
with a data tool that gives a high-level view of the performance
of NHS Trusts. With this, the public will be able to see how
their local NHS organisations are performing, including data on
key areas such as urgent and emergency care, ambulances and
electives – data that MPs and peers can also draw upon. Everyone
can now see for themselves how their local services are doing and
better hold their local NHS organisations to account.
The top trusts will be rewarded for their performance with
greater autonomy, including the ability to reinvest surplus
budgets into frontline improvements, such as diagnostic equipment
and hospital repairs. We are also introducing a new wave of
Foundation Trusts, which will give the best-performing trusts
more freedom to shape services around local needs.
Meanwhile, trusts facing the greatest challenges will receive
enhanced support to drive improvement, with senior leaders held
accountable through performance-linked pay. The best NHS leaders
will be offered high pay to take on the toughest jobs, sending
them into challenged services and turning them around.
This is not a name and shame exercise, we know that there is
amazing work carried out every day in every NHS organisation and
the information we are releasing will shine a light on the
achievements of the front-line and back-office staff who push
hard every day to improve the lives of everyone in this country.
We are publishing these tables to drive high-level performance
changes and, where needed, to inform difficult conversations
about organisational performance, to inspire improvement and
deliver a better NHS for all. We are also improving the
fundamentals of oversight through the NHS oversight framework,
which NHS England published on 26 June. It sets out a revised
transparent approach to the oversight of ICBs and trusts
following feedback from these organisations and wider system
partners. The streamlined set of metrics within the new framework
will enable systems and providers to focus on the recovery that
we know the NHS needs, while maintaining quality, safety and
patient experience. Trusts will be placed into one of four
segments based on their performance against these metrics. The
framework explains how NHS England will use the segmentation of
providers to inform incentives and consequences for performance,
and support improvement.
This is a transitional year for ICBs, as they transform in line
with NHS England's Model ICB Blueprint to focus on strategic
commissioning and implement plans to meet the running cost
reductions the Government requires. We have decided, therefore,
that they will not be scored, segmented or ranked this year. NHS
England will still conduct annual assessments of ICBs to reviews
how well each is performing its statutory duties and will
introduce ranking in the next performance year (2026/27).
The league tables, data tool and underpinning framework are an
important first step in both the recovery and the transformation
of our health service in line with the Ten-Year Plan. We will
continue to refine our approach to both the league tables and the
data tool in the light of feedback from the NHS, experts, and the
public. They will make what the NHS is good at – and what it
needs to improve – more visible to the public, so that they can
hold us to account for its successes and failures.
