On 6 April, the UK Government announced that it would take advantage of a natural break in the legislative timetable to “pause, listen and reflect” on modernisation plans and bring about improvements to the Health and Social Care Bill relating to England where necessary.
An eight‐week NHS Listening Exercise was announced. The objective was not to repeat the formal public consultations which had already taken place, but to reflect on the areas which had prompted the most heated discussion and debate and bring forward improvements to the legislation where necessary. The four core themes of the NHS Listening Exercise were:
• Choice and competition
• Clinical advice and leadership
• Patient involvement and public accountability
• Education and training
The NHS Future Forum was established as an independent advisory panel to drive engagement around the listening exercise, listen to people’s concerns, report back on what we heard and offer advice to the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health on how the Government’s modernisation plans for the NHS might be improved.
The report published on 13 June can be downloaded from
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_127443
