Responding to the health and social care secretary’s speech at the Labour Party Conference, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:

“The health and social care secretary is absolutely right that there needs to be an honest diagnosis of the problems facing the NHS before we can begin to address them. Healthcare leaders recognise and accept many of the issues raised in Lord Darzi’s recent report and look forward to working with the government to address them.

“But while the public deserves honesty about where the NHS needs extra support, every effort must be made to avoid creating an atmosphere where patients are put off accessing care, people do not want to work in the health service or existing staff feel the government does not value their hard work. Key to this is celebrating the excellent care that the NHS is delivering, as well as that change is both possible and on the horizon through the government's anticipated ten-year plan backed by additional investment.

“We also welcome the commitment to a new pay deal for social care workers. Improving their pay and conditions is a good first step to boosting staff numbers and improving retention.

“Healthcare leaders agree that a healthy NHS is vital to both a healthy nation and a productive economy and will therefore welcome the government pledging more support to NHS trusts in areas where there are the highest levels of sickness absence. As our recent analysis with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows, reintegrating people who have dropped out of the workforce for reasons of ill health back to work could provide a huge boost to the UK’s GDP and unlock billions in fiscal revenue.

“While we look forward to understanding what this announcement will mean in practice, it is clear that NHS services won’t need help to simply learn from the best but they will need additional investment and the space to put this into practice too.

“With a challenging winter period on the horizon, the government will need to use its Autumn Budget to address the NHS’s short-term deficit of at least £2.2bn as this is leading to local organisations either cutting or freezing posts, and to services halting or scaling back their transformation projects in order to respond to their immediate pressures.”