The NHS Mandate: What objectives should the NHS focus on?
The Government publishes the NHS Mandate every year, which sets out the objectives and goals it wants health services to focus on.
Using your experiences of care, Healthwatch England, our national organisation, advise the Government on what should be included in these objectives.
Thanks to people speaking up, the Government has listened and told the NHS England, in the NHS Mandate for 2025, published today, to:
- Enable patients to access general practice appointments in a more timely way.
- Focus on improving access to urgent NHS dental care.
- Implement the new 10-year plan to expand primary and community services, including dental practices and pharmacies.
Overall, the Government has made cutting waiting lists its top priority, asking the NHS to work towards meeting the 18-week referral-to-treatment target.
It has also asked the NHS to do more to:
- "Empower patients with choice and control" over where they receive planned hospital treatment, including from the independent sector.
- Expand the use of the NHS App "as a key part of the drive to improve communication with patients so that individual needs are better met and patients exercise greater control over their health and care".
A new NHS Mandate will be published after the new NHS 10-Year Plan is published in Spring 2025.
What did we say?
In our advice, we call attention to the problems people have accessing primary care services, especially NHS dentistry, which remain the top concern you've told us.
With patients facing long waiting times for care, doing more to support people while they wait is another focus. This includes ensuring patients are given regular updates and a named contact who can help them access extra support like pain management.
We also stress the importance of listening to patients before, during and aftercare.
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Tackle primary care access: Many people struggle to access dental, GP and pharmacy services.
NHS dentistry remains especially inaccessible to a considerable portion of the population due to the cost of care or the inability to be seen by local dentists.
We have seen no evidence of improvements in access since the Dental Recovery Plan was launched in early 2024.
We urged the Government to reiterate to the NHS the importance of concerted efforts to improve dental access.
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Doing more to support patients waiting for care: NHS England, integrated care boards, and trusts must work together to ensure patients are regularly informed of appointment dates, have a point of contact if they have questions, and receive support when required.
NHS England should consider appointing a point of contract and referral management via the NHS App to improve the people's experience of waiting for care.
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Emphasise the importance of listening to patients: We urge a strengthening of the wording that tells the NHS to engage with patients, carers, and the public to improve the quality of care.
The NHS should do more to listen to the public and involve them in the planning and delivery of services, and a focus on complaints and feedback as core components to improve care.
Read the full recommendations
Healthwatch England have set out some recommendations to the Government.
Read our recommendations in full:
