The NHS has published its national planning guidance for 2025/26 – an annual suite of documents that set out the national priorities and targets for local systems, alongside funding and financial planning assumptions. Against the backdrop of an extremely tight financial settlement, the focus this year is on performance recovery – bringing down the hospital waiting list, cutting long A&E wait times, and enabling more people to access GPs.
Click here to see the response of experts at The King’s Fund who set out what the document tells us about NHS priorities in a range of areas and what it might mean.
Date: 9 February