Health Management and Policy Alert: 24 April 2026
Health Management and Policy Alert
The King's Fund report
Environmental sustainability in the NHS: a new approach to national leadership and accountability
This report, co-written with the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare and commissioned by the Health Foundation, draws on expert interviews, literature review, and analysis of existing sustainability metrics to examine how national and local NHS bodies are held to account for sustainability.
NHS England
Neighbourhood health centre guidance for regions and integrated care boards
This guidance is both a statement of policy intent and a practical planning instruction for neighbourhood health centre (NHC) development in the current planning period. It sets out the strategic framework for how integrated care boards (ICBs) and NHS England regions, working with providers, should identify and develop NHC schemes to support neighbourhood health: the archetypes to consider, estate planning, pipeline development and funding routes. The guidance also instructs ICBs and NHS England regions on the planning work now required to develop a coherent pipeline of NHC schemes.
Neighbourhood health centres: design and performance specification
This specification supports the planning and delivery of new-build neighbourhood health centres. It is not a detailed technical rulebook, but a tool for consistent planning and design by providing a common starting point for local systems to develop designs that reflect community needs while remaining aligned with national policy.
These minimum standards support integrated care boards (ICBs) as they commission keyworking services for autistic children and young people and children and young people with a learning disability who are at risk of an inpatient mental health hospital admission or who are currently in an inpatient setting.
The future of Freedom to Speak Up
Following the Dash review of patient safety across the health and care landscape, the government has agreed that the National Guardian’s Office will close at the end of June 2026. From 1 July 2026, NHS England will deliver some activities previously undertaken by the National Guardian’s Office, and healthcare organisations will take on greater responsibility and accountability for embedding effective Freedom to Speak Up arrangements. This document sets out the revised responsibilities for Freedom to Speak Up across the NHS.
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)
The PHSO’s new five-year strategy is built around three priorities: driving public service improvement; improving user experience; and raising awareness and trust. The strategy sets out how the PHSO will take a more active role in using complaints data and evidence to identify risks, prevent harm and strengthen accountability across the NHS and government.
Healing Justice London
Breathing spaces: crisis, denial, and building collective care in the age of pandemics
This report reflects on the Covid-19 pandemic and the experiences of disabled and clinically vulnerable communities in the UK and Ireland, and what we can learn from them in building for our current moment. The research seeks to make sense of Covid-19 within a social justice framework.
Department of Health and Social Care
This is the government’s formal response to the Health and Social Care Committee’s report ‘The First 1000 Days: a renewed focus’, published in January 2026. The Committee’s report set out its conclusions and made recommendations on the following themes: Family Hubs and Start for Life programme; health visitors; workforce; vaccinations; and integration between services.
Patient Information Forum
Health and digital literacy survey 2025/26
This report looks at actions taken by health organisations on health and digital literacy. The number of organisations with a health literacy policy in place stood at 26% with 15% in development – 41% in total compared to a total of 33% in 2023. This is progress since 2019 when the number of organisations with a policy stood at just 13%. However, progress is slower in the NHS where the total stands at 30% compared to 47% in the charity sector. It also finds that the number of organisations assessing the equalities impact of digital services was 68%, down from 80% in 2022/3. Please note that the full report is available to members only.
The Health Management and Policy Alert is produced by The King's Fund. Its purpose is to alert subscribers to recently published content that is relevant to health and care policy in England. Inclusion of material in the alert does not imply endorsement of either the content or the publisher by The King's Fund. Subscribers should use personal judgement when considering the work included in The King’s Fund emails.