From "hear, hear" to "All clear"

10 Year Health Plan

Consultation guide

The UK Government has announced the development of a 10 Year Health Plan for England, to build an NHS fit for the future. As a part of the development of the plan, the government has launched a public consultation, to get the public’s experiences and views. 

This is a vital opportunity to ensure that cancer is right at the heart of the government’s plans to improve the NHS, as the responses to the public consultation will help to determine what goes into the health plan. 

The consultation is a once in a decade chance to shape the future of cancer care, and the NHS as a whole. 

We want to make sure that the experiences of people affected by cancer shape the 10 Year Health Plan, so we’ve put together some guidance to help you participate in the consultation. 

Accessing the consultation

Click here to go to the consultation, keep this page open in another tab for help.

You will need to register with your first name, last name, email and set a password. Once you have signed up you will need to go into your email to confirm your account.

The questions in the consultation are all optional, so you can choose which questions you wish to respond to. Depending on how long you have, and which questions you respond to, the consultation should take between 5 and 30 minutes to fill out. We have some suggestions for which sections to focus on depending how much time you have:

If you have 30 minutes- fill out all the sections with a particular focus on the sections on ‘the 3 Shifts’.

If you have 15 minutes- fill out the sections ‘Best things about the NHS’, ‘Challenges facing the NHS’, ‘The Darzi report’ and ‘Satisfaction with the NHS’.

If you have 5 minutes- focus on just two sections: ‘The Darzi report’ and ‘Satisfaction with the NHS’.

While we have provided some guidance, the most important thing is that you respond in your own words about your or your loved one’s experiences with cancer, and wider healthcare services.

We know that not everyone will have responded to a government consultation before, so whether this is the first or fifth time you have filled one out, we have a few tips to help:

  • Consider using a computer or tablet, rather than your phone, as this will allow you to type out your responses better
  • Your response will have the greatest impact if it comes from you as an individual, so write in your own style.
  • Make sure you set an appropriate amount of time aside to consider your answers to the questions. You can save your answers and come back to them so long as you press save and log in on the same account, but we recommend completing the survey in one go. 
  • For the open-ended questions, where you type out your own ideas, prepare your answers beforehand in a separate document, like in Word, Google Docs or even a notes app on your phone, and then copy these across into the consultation. 
  • Where possible, include your experiences, including any experiences you may have had of cancer, and other evidence to support your recommendations. However, avoid including any information that could identify you or somebody else e.g. name, age, job title or email address where it is not asked for.  

The consultation is accessible and easy to navigate. If you have any technical problems, please log the issue by emailing [email protected]. Do not contact Cancer Research UK as we cannot help with this type of problem.

However, we can help guide you through the consultation and answer any questions you have about how to fill it out. Email [email protected] for advice.

You can take part in an alternative format by emailing [email protected]

If you would prefer to post a written response to the consultation, a printable version of all the survey questions are available the bottom of the page linked here. Make sure to structure your response using the questions.

Once you are done, post your response to: Thinks Insight and Strategy, West Wing, Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA.

Question step by step 

In this section we outline guidance for each question in the consultation. We recommend you keep this webpage open, and open the consultation in another tab, so you can easily move between them. 

After reading this guidance, draft your responses to the open-ended questions in a seperate document, then copy them into the consultation.  

When considering your responses remember that you are an expert by experience. Your opinions are valid and important.

If you have use this guidance to fill out the consultation- to let us know! Just click here and press send.

One optional, free text question.

This section asks you to outline the three best things about the NHS.

One optional free text question.

This section asks you to outline the three biggest challenges facing the NHS.

For example, Cancer Research UK is focusing on the key issues that are holding back improving cancer outcomes. These include the need to: 

  • Speed up actions that help the NHS diagnose more cancers at an earlier stage, when more treatment options are available to improve survival - progress so far has been slower than we need.
  • Invest in the staff, equipment, technology and other NHS improvements that are needed to ensure everyone can get a GP appointment quickly, receive tests to find cancer in a timely way, and have access to the best possible treatment as quickly as possible no matter where they are.
  • Boost research in the NHS, which is vital to discovering the treatment of the future but is currently held back by a lack of focus and resources.
  • Focus more on preventing more of the 4 in 10 cancers linked to risk factors like smoking.

2 optional multiple-choice questions.

This section asks which challenges in the NHS you have personally experienced. If you haven’t experienced any of the issues listed, that’s okay! If an issue you’ve experienced isn’t listed, you can select ‘other’. You can select as many issues as you like. 

  • Delays in being referred for treatment.
  • Long wait times in A&
  • Poor co-ordination between different health and care services
  • Treatments or services not available on the NHS
  • Difficulties getting a GP appointment
  • Poor communication with patients from health and care services
  • Waiting to access mental health services
  • Poor quality care
  • Long wait times for a hospital procedure
  • Waiting to access community services (e.g. district nursing, community physiotherapy, community occupational therapy)
  • Other

The second question in this section asks “Which of these challenges do you think is most important for the 10 year health plan to address?”

You can only choose up to 3 options that you think are the most important to address, so think carefully about which of the challenges is most important to you. Again, if the issue you feel is most important to address isn’t listed - select ‘other’. 

This introduces the 3 ‘shifts’, read the information and then press next. 

The following sections will probably take the longest to complete, we’d recommend spending most of your focus there if you have time. 

In all the questions, we’d recommend using your personal experiences to back up your responses.

2 optional questions, free text

This section seeks to understand people’s feelings on a shift to delivering more health services, such as diagnostic scans and tests, and ongoing treatments and therapies, away from hospitals and closer to people’s homes. For example, by making better use of GP surgeries, pharmacies, and local health centres like Community Diagnostic Centres, and delivering more care in people’s homes. By driving this shift, the government hope to be able to make better use of the resources we have available, break down barriers to accessing care and allow hospitals to focus on looking after the sickest patients. 

The section asks two questions:

  • In what ways, if any, do you think that delivering more care in the community could improve health and care? 
  • What, if anything, concerns you about the idea of delivering more care in the community in the future? 

While answering these questions it may be useful to think about the following:

  • The potential benefits of cancer diagnostic tests, checks and scans being able to be done outside of hospitals and closer to home. 
  • The need for enough staff and equipment to provide and process cancer diagnostic scans and tests.
  • In September 2024, there were more than 1,190,000 people waiting for a radiology or endoscopy test in England, two of the key diagnostic tests for cancer.
  • Any potential barriers to accessing care in the community, e.g. accessibility of GP appointments.
  • What kinds of cancer related treatments and care it may be useful to receive outside of hospitals.
  • What kinds of cancer related treatments and care should continue to be delivered in hospitals and how they could be improved. 

2 optional, free text questions

This section seeks to understand your opinions on how technology could be better used across health and care services. New technologies and innovations could help better detect, diagnose and treat cancer and help relieve pressure on the NHS if rolled out effectively and equitably. Lots of innovations are ready for use in the NHS and more are coming down the pipeline in the next 3, 5 and 10 years. For patients to get the most benefit from these new technologies, NHS infrastructure and staff must be supported and prepared to adopt them.

The section asks two questions:

  • In what ways, if any, do you think that technology could be used to improve health and care?
  • What, if anything, concerns you about the idea of increased use of technology in the future?

When answering these questions, it may be useful to think about:

  • How technology could support patient access to health and care services e.g. reminders for screening appointments, video or other remote consultation approaches.
  • Investment in upgrading technology and training in new technology.
  • Improving how data is shared across the NHS, so that people have more joined up care and help the NHS can better plan services.

2 optional questions, free text

This section seeks to understand your opinions on spotting and preventing ill health. Early diagnosis and prevention are key to improving cancer outcomes. Around 4 in 10 cancers are preventable, due to risk factors such as tobacco, obesity and HPV. Early diagnosis saves lives, but currently far too many cancers are diagnosed at stage 4 when there are often more limited treatment options

The section asks two questions:

  • In what ways, if any, could an increased focus on prevention help people stay healthy and independent for longer?
  • What, if anything, concerns you about the idea of an increased focus on prevention in the future?

When answering these questions, it may be useful to think about:

  • How accessible services that help people with risk factors for cancer such as smoking or obesity are.
  • The importance of services that help people with risk factors for cancer, such as smoking or obesity, being well funded.
  • The need for, and importance of, earlier diagnosis of cancer.
  • Today around 44% of cancer patients are diagnosed at a late stage, where treatment options are more limited, and outcomes are worse.
  • Improving awareness of the availability of cancer screenings amongst the public.

2 optional multiple-choice questions

This section asks you about your satisfaction with the current way the NHS runs and for you to outline which NHS services you have personally engaged with in the last 12 months.

This section aims to gain your demographic information.

Like everything in the survey, your answers will be kept anonymous and confidential. To find out more, please see the privacy policy here

At this stage you can go back and review your answers to make sure you’re happy with them. When you’re happy, press submit (after which you won’t be able to edit your answers).

After you have submitted your answers, it would be great if you could email us to let us know! Just click here and press send. We would love to know if you found the guidance useful.

After you have completed the first survey, if you have time, navigate to the ‘ Your experiences: public’ section of the website, or click here.

This survey consists of one optional, free text question to share a recent experience of health/and or care services in as much or as little detail as you wish.

It may be useful when answering this question to consider any recent experiences you may have had of:

  • Treatments
  • Waiting times for appointments
  • Quality of care
  • Ease of accessing services