What does the 10 Year Health Plan for England mean for the VCFSE sector (2025–2035)
Today (Wednesday, 3 July), the government released its 10-year plan for the NHS. We've broken down what it means for the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector, where the opportunities lie, and how we can help shape the NHS of the future.
Overview
The plan sets out a radical reform agenda for the NHS, focused on three fundamental shifts:
From hospital to community
From analogue to digital
From sickness to prevention
It recognises that the NHS cannot deliver these shifts alone and positions civil society, local government, and the third sector as vital partners in a reimagined, devolved, and preventative model of care.
Neighbourhood health services
Integrated Neighbourhood Teams will become central to care, with cross-sector collaboration essential.
Neighbourhood Health Centres will operate as “one-stop shops”. Opportunities exist for VCFSE organisations to co-locate or deliver services from these hubs.
Social prescribing and care navigation will be key; VCFSE groups already doing this will be vital delivery partners.
Emphasis on supporting complex needs, prevention, and tackling fragmentation aligns closely with many VCFSE roles.
From analogue to digital
Push toward digital access through the NHS App may create digital exclusion risks - VCFSE can help bridge this gap.
Opportunities for VCFSE involvement in digital upskilling, advocacy, and ensuring inclusive access.
The plan references using AI and wearables. VCFSEs working with disabled people, older adults, or digitally excluded communities have a key role in ensuring ethical and equitable implementation.
Sickness to prevention
Major role for local charities, food initiatives, youth organisations, and health inequality campaigners in:
Combatting obesity
Supporting smoke-free and vape-free environments
Promoting healthier behaviours
VCFSE sector seen as essential in delivering the “healthy choice as the easy choice” especially in disadvantaged areas.
Plan includes expanding mental health hubs for young people and school-based mental health teams, an area where many VCFSE organisations already deliver.
A new operating model
NHS will decentralise power to Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and local providers, with a focus on partnership with local government and civil society.
Plan explicitly promises to make the NHS a better partner to third sector organisations.
ICBs are expected to work closely with voluntary sector infrastructure bodies, this could boost commissioning and co-design opportunities.
Workforce and community anchors
The workforce plan includes a focus on community-based roles, new career pathways, and diversity. VCFSE can help recruit, train, and retain local staff, particularly from underrepresented backgrounds.
“Neighbourhood Health” will require culturally competent, hyperlocal delivery, an area of strength for many grassroots charities and social enterprises.
Transparency and data
New emphasis on data transparency, patient choice, and outcome monitoring.
Opportunities for VCFSE organisations to contribute to local health intelligence, patient-reported outcomes, and community feedback mechanisms.
Concerns may arise around data sharing and privacy, particularly for smaller organisations - support may be needed.
Funding and sustainability
NHS will shift funding toward prevention and community care, creating potential new funding flows for VCFSE-delivered preventative interventions.
However, reforms also aim to improve efficiency and end block contracts, which may challenge legacy VCFSE commissioning models.
NHS aims to reserve 3% of spend for innovation. VCFSE innovation pilots could be supported here.
| Opportunity area | Role for VCFSE sector |
|---|---|
| Community-based care | Delivery of holistic, wraparound, culturally competent support |
| Digital transformation | Tackling digital exclusion, advocating for accessible tools |
| Prevention & health inequalities | Designing and delivering behaviour change, peer support, food & fitness projects |
| Partnership working | Young people’s services, suicide prevention, culturally tailored support |
| Evidence & data | Co-producing models with ICBs, local authorities, GPs |
This is a major shift in NHS strategy, creating real opportunities for the VCFSE sector to lead on prevention, reduce inequalities, and deliver localised care models. But delivery will require:
Clear commissioning pathways
Investment in VCFSE capacity
Genuine partnership and co-production
If you’re working to shape the VCFSE role in the North West, advocate for inclusion in neighbourhood models, and prepare for opportunities in data, digital, and prevention. However, the reality remains that the ambitions in this plan largely rely on redirecting investment when, certainly in the North West, the NHS faces huge challenges in just breaking even.