Recommendation 11

The Department recognised that there is an element of accountability in its relationship with the NHS, and said it was holding NHS England to account through the trajectories set out in numerous recovery plans, from primary care to elective recovery. The Department believed that the NHS was on trajectory to meet targets, but this was dependent on meeting ongoing challenges.26 NHS England confirmed that it was particularly worried about the next winter.27 When asked whether or not it was on trajectory for recovery for urgent and emergency services, NHS England told us that meeting Category 2 30-minute ambulance response time would be the most challenging as it required whole system-level working to achieve. However, NHS England remained confident that the plan was the right one, that early signs of better performance were visible, and that the NHS would perform better than it did last winter.28