Department of Health Skip to content

Please note that this website has a UK government access keys system.

You are here:

Liberating the NHS.

Liberating the NHS: Legislative framework and next steps

Published: 15 December 2010

Liberating the NHS: Legislative Framework and Next Steps is the response to the White Paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS which was a consultation document. It also responds to three of the accompanying consultations:

Increasing democratic legitimacy in health (closed 11 October 2010)
Liberating the NHS: commissioning for patients (closed 11 October 2010)
Liberating the NHS: regulating healthcare providers (closed 11 October 2010)

Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS

Published: 12 July 2010

The NHS White Paper, Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS, sets out the Government's long-term vision for the future of the NHS.  The vision builds on the core values and principles of the NHS - a comprehensive service, available to all, free at the point of use, based on need, not ability to pay.  It sets out how we will:

  • put patients at the heart of everything the NHS does;
  • focus on continuously improving those things that really matter to patients - the outcome of their healthcare; and
  • empower and liberate clinicians to innovate, with the freedom to focus on improving healthcare services

The consultation on the implementation of the proposals in the White Paper is now closed.

DH Business Plan 2011-2015

The DH Business Plan 2011-2015 sets out the vision and priorities for the Department, and the Structural Reform section highlights the key commitments involved in delivering our reform programme. The Structural Reform Plan is a key tool for holding government departments to account for the implementation of Programme for Government commitments. Each month a simple report on meeting these commitments is published.

Consultations

The White Paper, ‘Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS’, published earlier this year, set out this Government’s ambition to achieve healthcare outcomes that are among the best in the world. It set out proposals for a new approach that puts people in the driving seat, putting them in charge of making decisions about their health and care. It also set out a number of commitments around giving people more information and control and greater choice about their care.

Two public consultations Liberating the NHS: An Information Revolution and Liberating the NHS: Greater choice and control, both launched 18 October 2010, set out our proposals for what we think is needed and asked how people think we should approach this huge task so we can start making shared decision-making a reality. We worked with a number of partners to engage with as many people as possible and there were a number of events throughout the consultation period.

Joint resources

Access keys