In Autumn 2024, the Labour Government committed to a 10 Year Plan for the NHS.
2025 was therefore predicted to be a big, transitional year for the health sector, and following extensive public consultation, the 10 Year Plan was launched on 3 July.
It commits to achieving 3 ‘shifts’ in how the NHS operates:
- moving care from hospitals into communities
- making better use of technology
- focussing on preventing sickness, not just treating it.
As older people make up a significant proportion of NHS users, Age UK welcomed being able to contribute to this plan, co-chairing one of the working groups on care for people living with long-term conditions. We’ve now outlined what the 3 key shifts may mean for older people, as well as some of the concerns and challenges that may be faced in delivering them.
1. Moving care from hospitals into communities
The headline proposal in the plan is the development of Neighbourhood Health Services – an approach to care for which Age UK has long called.
The aim of these services is to bring together a range of health and care professionals who are based in the community and who can work closely with GPs to better meet people’s healthcare needs. Ultimately, this could include proactive care to better manage long-term conditions and avoid crisis care, as well as offering more convenient access to other key services such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and community nursing. Successfully delivering integrated, multi-disciplinary services, close to people’s homes and including proactive care and prevention, would make a huge difference to the lives of many older people.
The plan contains further commitments to adapting training and recruitment approaches to ensure professionals have a better grounding in community care, with a specific emphasis on achieving an appropriate multi-disciplinary skills mix and widening ‘generalist’ skills within the workforce. Achieving this would also make a significant difference to the quality and effectiveness of NHS care for older people.
Following the publication of the 10 Year Plan, the Government and NHS England announced the rollout of the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation programme (NNHIP), and local areas are being encouraged to apply to be in the first wave of places adopting this approach. There is a clear directive that local health and care leaders, including integrated care boards (ICBs), councils, GPs, and the voluntary, community and social care sectors, should be working together on how neighbourhood health is defined and delivered in their areas.
The upcoming Casey Commission on Social Care has also been asked to look at how social care fits into Neighbourhood Health, signalling a welcome focus on tackling the long-standing challenges of making services work well at the intersection of health and social care.
2. Making better use of technology
Other key proposals include a heavy emphasis on the use of technology, including expanding the functionality of the NHS App. This is seen as a key mechanism for providing rapid access to advice, booking appointments, planning care, and capturing feedback on services. This underpins a ‘digital by default’ approach for accessing the NHS on the part of people who are generally fit and well, who will often be of working age as opposed to older.
While this could speed up access and free up in-person resources for those with more complex needs, it raises important questions about digital inclusion. Many older people face barriers to using technology, whether due to lack of access, skills, or physical challenges. The plan acknowledges this concern but does not provide a clear strategy to ensure the digitally excluded are not left behind.
By 2028 the NHS aims to deliver a single patient record accessible via the app, alongside digital self-referral options for therapies and specialist services, and tools for medication management. These innovations promise greater convenience and control for patients but must be implemented with strong safeguards and support for those less comfortable with digital platforms.
3. Focussing on preventing sickness
The NHS 10 Year Plan signals a major shift from reactive treatment to proactive prevention. This includes leveraging advances such as genomics and personalised health risk scores to identify risks earlier and intervene sooner.
For older people, prevention is crucial and means not only reducing the risk of disease but also preserving independence and quality of life for as long as possible. The plan does not really recognise this, choosing to focus almost exclusively on younger groups. This is an area where Age UK will want to influence as the plan is rolled out.
What this all means for older people
The Government’s 10 Year Health Plan sets out an ambitious long-term vision to transform healthcare. For older people, if successful, the shift towards community-based, integrated care through Neighbourhood Health Services could significantly improve the quality, convenience, and responsiveness of NHS care. However, achieving it will be challenging. In addition, the expansion of digital tools offers potential benefits but must be carefully balanced to ensure no one is excluded, with many older people at potential risk of this at present.
Prevention and personalised care offer promising avenues to maintain health and independence into later life, but the lack of focus on older people in this section suggests that further emphasis is needed to ensure that prevention efforts benefit all age groups equally.
Ultimately, the success of the plan for older people hinges on its implementation. This in turn requires adequate resources, meaningful partnerships between different parts of the NHS, and between the NHS and local government – including voluntary groups too – and a strong and ongoing commitment to equity and inclusion. As further details emerge Age UK will be watching carefully to ensure that the plan really does deliver for older people.
