As we look ahead to 2025/26 and beyond, the role of the NENC Provider Collaborative will become even more important. The challenges facing our health system - rising demand, financial pressures, and workforce needs - are shared across all providers. These cannot be tackled in isolation. Instead, they require strong, collective leadership and a commitment to working together in new and innovative ways.
Our achievements so far show what is possible when we work together with purpose and ambition.
"We’re stronger together - and by staying focused on shared priorities, we can build a better, more resilient NHS for our region."
In the year ahead, our Collaborative is focused on a refined set of priorities. For 2025/26, our operating model is evolving to reflect a more streamlined, strategic structure - captured in the ‘house’ diagram below that now underpins how we deliver collaborative working across the region.
The challenges ahead are significant, but so are the opportunities. By continuing to collaborate, innovate, and learn from each other, we are confident that we can deliver a more equitable, efficient and high-quality health system for the 3.2 million people we collectively serve.
Strategic Approach to Clinical Services (SACS)
We will work together across all trusts to develop and deliver a long-term plan for hospital services in our region. This includes shared decisions on how services are run, support for teams under pressure and clear ambitions for the future of hospital care.
Elective Care
We’ll continue to cut waiting times and improve planned care. This includes getting the best use of surgical hubs, aiming for 85% theatre use and day-case rates, supporting advice and guidance for GPs, growing patient-initiated follow-up (PIFU) to at least 5% and tackling missed appointments. We’ll also develop a strategy to bring back 20% of elective activity from the independent sector. A big focus this year will be bringing together our work on electives, diagnostics and cancer into one joined-up plan.
Unplanned Care
We will support changes that reduce pressure on emergency services and improve the way patients move through the system. This includes helping people leave hospital safely, getting them to the right place first time and keeping services flowing during busy times.
Workforce
We plan to launch a shared staff bank for nursing and medical roles, make it easier to hire for hard-to-fill posts and reduce sickness absence by 1%. We’ll also work together to meet national expectations to reduce corporate staffing costs and build joint recruitment and career pathways across the system.
Digital
We’ll support staff to work from anywhere by improving digital access and support. We’ll also map out our current digital workforce and needs, look at shared buying of systems and spot chances to modernise how
services are delivered using tech we already have.
Infrastructure
We will continue to deliver our regional strategy to guide decisions about buildings and estates. This includes making better use of space, planning future capital projects together and finding ways to save
money or bring in income from our sites.
Financial recovery
Improving our finances is essential. We’ll work as a system to save money through better buying, reviewing patient and non-patient transport services to avoid overlap, and take part in programmes that help us meet recovery targets.
Medicines Manufacturing Centre
Our new regional production facility will launch in 2026. Ahead of this, we’ll finalise our aseptic strategy by
summer 2025 and set up the necessary governance for delivery.
Leadership development
We’ll build on the success of the NExt Board Leaders programme and continue developing leaders across both provider and primary care settings.
Commercial opportunities
We’ll explore ideas to grow income and support innovation by looking at what we can do together that adds value across the region.
