BRIS-175

NSF must include incentives for improving children's healthcare services, aiding needy trusts

Bristol Heart Inquiry · Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report · Issued 18 July 2001

Government responseNot tracked (historical inquiry)

DeliveryDHSC and NHS England state no delivery position (Feb 2026)

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation

The NSF should include incentives for the improvement of children’s healthcare services, with particular help being given to those trusts most in need.

Bristol Heart Inquiry, Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report · 18 Jul 2001 Source PDF →

Government response

●No formal government response recorded

The Index has not yet recorded a verbatim government response to this recommendation.

Delivery

●DHSC and NHS England state no delivery position · 27 Feb 2026

Please see our response to Recommendation 172 for the NSF and Recommendation 181 on service specifications for paediatric specialised services. Clinical networks play a vital role in co-ordinating pathways of care, supporting equitable access to healthcare and assuring and improving quality for specialised services. Clinical networks are clinically led groups of professionals, service users and organisations working together across professional, organisational and geographical boundaries, and are governed via service specifications. Established clinical networks for children and young people include:

• Congenital Heart Disease (including paediatrics)
• Neonatal critical care
• Paediatric clinical care
• Surgery in children

CQUIN (Commissioning for Quality and Innovation) additionally uses commissioning incentives to deliver specific quality improvements through the standard contract. Note that the clawback element of the scheme has been paused for 2024/25. This contains specific indictors for routine outcome monitoring in children and young people accessing mental health services.

From: The Thirlwall Inquiry: Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025)

Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Superseded”. Table row: section 6.2 No. 175, PDF page 149.

What other bodies have found

In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.

●Thirlwall Inquiry legal team · 15 May 2024

The Government agreed with this recommendation.

In its January 2002 response, the Department of Health said incentives for the improvement of care would be part of the ‘earned autonomy’ programme for the NHS.

From: The Thirlwall Inquiry: Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024)

Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review does not colour its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green; it leaves the cell uncoloured where a recommendation was rejected, where evidence of implementation was insufficient, or where steps had been taken but implementation was not yet complete. Table row: section 6.2 No. 175, PDF page 129.

How this page is built

The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.