Government listening exercise

The Government is taking the opportunity of a natural break in the passage of the Health Bill to pause, listen, reflect and improve. Over an 8-week period, there will be a series of events, led by the NHS Future Forum, to hear from a range of people working right at the frontline, and to speak directly to those who lead the NHS. By June, the Government will decide how to take forward the Bill in a way that reflects what has been heard.

The Government wants to hear what people have to say on all aspects of the changes, and particularly across the four themes within the Listening Exercise.

Choice and Competition
How can we best ensure that competition and patient choice drives NHS improvement?

Public Accountability and Patient Involvement
How can we make the NHS properly accountable to the public, and make sure that patient involvement is at the heart of its decision making?

Clinical Advice and Leadership
How can we ensure that advice and leadership from NHS staff themselves on improving services and tackling patient needs are at the heart of the health service?

Education and Training
How can we make sure that NHS staff in the future have the right skills to meet changing patient needs? Are the arrangements we have proposed for education and training the best ones to ensure this?

To lead the NHS Listening Exercise, a group of patient representatives,
the Government has established the NHS Future Forum – a group of 45 health professionals, patient and public representatives and others who have a stake in getting the health reforms right. This forum wants to hear the views of patients, their families and carers, and staff and community and voluntary organisations. They have been asked to report back to Government by the end of May.

To have your say and find out more about the listening exercise, please visit www.dh.gov.uk/healthandcare