Streeting tells NHSE and DHSC to ‘work as one team’ and air ‘competing views’

The new health and social care secretary today held an all-staff call with civil servants and NHS England staff, alongside chief executive Amanda Pritchard, and the department’s permanent secretary Sir Chris Wormald, HSJ understands.

Mr Streeting told them: “We will only succeed in turning the NHS around by working as one team. This government has been elected on a platform that said the NHS was broken and it needs to change. It will take time to fix it, and it will only happen with a team effort.”

He added, in comments shared with HSJ: “That means I expect joint submissions from NHS England and the department, collaborative team working across both organisations, and again, where there are sometimes competing views and interests, I want that relayed to me, too.”

Leaders and officials across NHSE and DHSC have had notoriously difficult and sometimes dysfunctional relationships, with tensions over policy development, funding, and sharing of information from the NHS to government.

Mr Streeting indicated he wanted the two organisations working together and indicated that, where there were disagreements, he should be informed of conflicting views so he could make a decision.

The joint meeting itself is also unusual and appears aimed to underline the joint working. Mr Streeting called on staff to challenge ideas, and said: “Given we are grappling with some enormous challenges that involve difficult choices and trade-offs, where there are contested views in different teams… I want to hear a range of views and opinions.”

Also speaking at the joint all-staff meeting, Ms Pritchard said: “The fact that we are doing this as a joint call, I think really speaks volumes about the sincerity behind what you have just said, which is we are all in this together.”

She offered ”a commitment to work in lockstep with Chris [Wormald and the department]… to support the NHS to do what is necessary”.

Ms Pritchard said Mr Streeting was taking over during a period of “really significant challenge” but also “of massive opportunity”.

She said her “advice number one” to the new minister was “employing brilliant people”, but also, “to spend as much time as possible with frontline teams”.

She said: “Everywhere I go… I talk to people who are dealing with real pressures, and often are really frustrated at the limitations that they’re working within. But despite that, they are almost always genuinely excited to be able to show the progress that they have made despite those limitations.”

The comments come amid speculation in some media reports that Ms Pritchard may be replaced in the role, although Mr Streeting told HSJ in an interview before the election he had “total confidence” in her. There are reports NHSE chair Richard Meddings will be replaced by a government loyalist, and that the new ministers may seek to combine DHSC and NHSE staff in joint teams.

Mr Streeting also met with the British Dental Association on Monday, having been appointed as Labour’s health and social care secretary after the party won the general election last week. He held the shadow position since 2021.