New care models

NHS England's Five year forward view pictured a range of new ways of breaking down the traditional divide between primary care, community services and hospitals.

Changes would be achieved through new models of care, designed around the reality of a person's experience as opposed to how different services are structured. Managing long-term conditions is now a central task of the NHS and caring for these needs requires a partnership with patients over the long term rather than providing single, unconnected episodes of care. In short, services need to be joined up around the patient.

Along with our system partners, we will support services to innovate, collaborate and improve - while ensuring that people continue to receive high quality care.

Our supportive approach is designed to ensure regulation is not an unnecessary barrier to innovation, but continues to protect people from harm.

We wrote to providers in July 2016, setting out our approach to new models of care.

New care models: letter from David Behan

New care models: statement of intent