Trust Strategy 2025/26 - 2031

Drivers for change

The Trust operates in a landscape undergoing significant transformation. This refreshed strategy responds not only to existing challenges but also to the evolving demands of the wider NHS. To remain fit for purpose, we must reimagine how we deliver care, support our people, and manage resources.

Demand is rising faster than funding available, and this pressure will only increase: With the ratio of working age people to those in retirement set to further decline there will be less money available to invest in public services. What money there is, is increasingly being prioritised elsewhere as global instability increases. This coincides with rising demand on health services from an aging population with more long-term conditions requiring more complex care, and rising costs driven by inflation.

Shifting national direction: We must align to the 10-Year NHS Plan, which is set to focus on three major ‘left shifts:

• Moving more care into communities
• Embracing digital transformation and data-driven decision-making
• Placing greater emphasis on disease prevention and population health

We must also adapt to the changing national footprint of Integrated Care Boards and requirement for greater provider collaboration and joint decision-making.

Increasing pressure to reverse the declining public satisfaction with the NHS: Public satisfaction with the NHS is at an all-time low, driving a focus on reducing waiting times, improving urgent care services and enhancing access to primary care. Doing this within the budget available will require widespread digital transformation.

These drivers provide both a compelling need and an opportunity to act boldly and differently.

 

Our role in the wider system

North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust is proud to play a leading role in the delivery of health and care across the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough region. While our roots lie in delivering hospital-based care, we are increasingly shaping a future built on meaningful partnerships, integrated care, and services delivered closer to people’s homes. This evolution supports our strategic ambition to provide safe, effective, high-quality care and experience for everyone, no matter where they are on their health journey. 

We host one of the system’s two Health and Care Partnerships, the North Place, which is designed around our geographical footprint and grounded in shared strategic priorities and trusted relationships across the health and care system. Together we will look to implement Integrated Neighbourhood services, led and enabled by the North Place partnership. 

Integrated Neighbourhood^* Teams (INTs) will be at the heart of ‘out of hospital’ healthcare, bringing together general practice, community nursing, therapy services, social care, voluntary sector partners and local authorities to co-ordinate care for defined neighbourhood populations. Our shared ambition is for these teams to drive health equity, improve continuity and experience of care, and foster community resilience through anticipatory management and self-care support. 

^* Neighbourhood: A neighbourhood is a more localised footprint within a place, often aligned with Primary Care Networks (PCNs) or council wards. It usually serves between 30,000 to 50,000 people, and focuses on integrated, proactive care through groups of GP practices working with community health, social care, and other local partners. 

 

Our Partners

We work closely with Cambridgeshire Community Services, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge University Hospitals, Royal Papworth Hospital, Primary Care, local government, the voluntary sector and educational institutions to address health and care needs locally. 

These partnerships will be even more critical in the future as the role of the Integrated Care Board changes and as the impetus for rapid transformation increases. We will need to work in new and innovative ways with partners to meet growing demand in a financially sustainable way. 

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The Trust is supported by the North West Anglia Hospitals’ Charity, and is focussed on improving patient experience and staff wellbeing by funding the ‘added-extras’ that can make such a big difference. The charity is generously supported with fundraising by the local community, patients and their families, staff, and Charity Patron, Craig Revel Horwood. 

Working together to provide outstanding care for our local communities

Our vision, established when the Trust formed in April 2017, remains as powerful and relevant today as it was then. To support us in achieving our vision, we have three strategic goals, and five values.

As we deliver this vision we are guided by the Trust’s values that shape our culture, behaviour and approach to decision making. The Values represent our purpose and inform our organisational identity. They set the tone for how we deliver care, ensuring patients are at the centre of everything we do. 

Our values

Our goals

Safe, effective, high-quality care and experience for everyone	People are skilled, supported, and  empowered	Equity, sustainability, and good health
Safe and high-quality care Improving patient outcomes and experience Keeping people well for longer Providing care in the right place Providing care in a timely way Targeted effort in high risk areas Systematically incorporating patient voice into decision making	Education and Teaching hospital status Supporting leaders’ development Cross-organisational working Culture of Quality Improvement High engagement from staff Digital capability Be a great place to work Supporting local people into  work Inclusive recruitment	Research and development Innovation Anchor institution Digital Environmental sustainability Health equity Value Partnerships

We are committed to delivering excellent care that is consistently safe and tailored to the needs of every individual. By embedding a culture of quality improvement and continuous learning, we aim to provide services that are trusted, responsive, and driven by what matters most to our patients and their families.

 

 

Focus areas

Safe and high-quality care: We will improve the fundamental aspects of care received by patients every day. This includes striving to be the best through benchmarking and external measurement. Ensuring that we meet the CQC requirements and continue to develop towards “outstanding”, we will improve the quality of care and outcomes such as falls prevention and pressure sore prevention. 

Improving patient outcomes and experience: We will Improve the effectiveness of our care, and the experience patients have during care. This includes meeting 4-hour and 12-hour national targets for urgent and emergency care, reducing elective waiting times through increasing day treatment and the development of an elective hub, ensuring people do not stay in hospital for longer than they need. We will deliver new models of care such as virtual wards and a frailty hub. We will maximise the safe use of high volume, low complexity procedures that more effectively meet peoples’ needs and will increase use of day cases. 

Keeping people well for longer: We will prevent escalation of health and care needs through earlier intervention to keep people well for longer. This includes developing a new Community Diagnostic Centre in Peterborough to ensure more timely and convenient diagnostics access, as well as the development of a new Day Treatment Unit at Stamford Hospital.

Providing care in the right place: Often care is provided in hospital when it doesn’t need to be; hospitals tend to be difficult places to get to and often aren’t the best places for people to be cared for. Where appropriate, we will work with partners to offer care closer to home through enhanced multidisciplinary provision at a neighbourhood level, through Integrated Neighbourhood Services, and by reviewing what services we provide at each of our sites to ensure we’re making best use of community assets. 

Providing care in a timely way: We will cooperate with our partners to manage shared waiting lists, streamline patient pathways and reduce delays to care, offering greater patient choice. 
Online appointments, appointments in convenient locations for patients, and more appointments in the evenings or at weekends, will help us to provide care differently and in ways that people now expect.

Targeted effort in higher risk areas of ill health and deprivation: We will focus on improving care for specific population groups at high risk, such as frequent attenders, those in the last two years of life and frail patients; and develop pathways to streamline emergency care services. This includes the establishment of a Frailty Hub in Peterborough.

Systematically incorporating patient voice into decision-making: We will prioritise the voice of patients in how we plan, make decisions and design services. We will launch a programme to strengthen public and patient engagement.

Capital Investments: Ensuring that we continue to deliver the care for tomorrow through investment in new services and the new Hinchingbrooke Hospital - a smart, digital hospital that is sustainable for the future.

 

What success looks like

1. Meeting all national targets for the delivery of acute care (both urgent and emergency care, and planned care) supported by the ‘Back on Track’ transformation programme and our Quality Improvement Programme.
2. Positive Care Quality Commission (CQC) ratings across all sites and services.
3. Reduction in avoidable harm and serious incidents e.g. falls and pressure sores and, by reducing the
4. Emergency Department journey time and reducing the length of stay for medical patients, a reduction in the use of escalation capacity for inpatient beds, and the number of occasions that corridor/ boarding care is provided for patients.
5. Neighbourhood health model established, operational and making significant contribution to supporting people to stay well at home for longer and reducing avoidable hospital attendances and admissions.
6. Improved patient experience, satisfaction, and involvement. 
   Meeting and exceeding national performance standards, ensuring the Trust remains an attractive place to invest.
7. High levels of trust, engagement and confidence from our communities in the redesign of our services.
8. Improved population health management, reducing the pressure on hospital services and established new models of care for end of life and frailty. 

Our focus on culture in 2024-25 is beginning to pay off: the 2024 NHS Staff Survey named us the 15th most improved trust in the UK, with strong gains across all seven People Promise themes, from compassion and inclusion, to learning, flexibility and recognition. Yet almost 40 percent of staff still report burnout, and some behaviours fall short of our values.

Focus areas

Education and Teaching Hospital Status: As an Associated University Trust with the University of Leicester, and through growing links with Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University, we are able to attract talent and provide continuous opportunities for continued professional development. These partnerships are also helping us to work toward Teaching Hospital Status. 

Supporting leaders’ development: Actively supporting the growth of individual leaders as well as distinct leadership groups into effective, agile leaders through various interventions such as coaching, mentoring, targeted upskilling and practical experiential opportunities. We will recognise and reward positive leadership remodelling and areas of best practice. 

Cross-organisational working: Staff are supported and enabled to work in partnership across organisations to deliver integrated care pathways and share resources, workforce and skills to 
transform the way we deliver care.

Culture of Quality Improvement: We will foster a culture of learning through listening, where employees are encouraged and empowered to identify and implement changes at work to enhance both employee and patient experience. We will foster a culture of continuous improvement, where mindset and process align to design and embed change into the Organisation. 

Staff Networks: We will continue to support and develop our staff networks to foster inclusion, amplify diverse voices, and strengthen a sense of belonging across our organisation. 

High engagement from staff: Clinicians and wider staff are engaged in their work, understand the Trust strategy and clinical strategy and know what they need to do to deliver them

Digital capability: Staff are digitally competent and equipped to embrace and optimise new digital innovations as they are introduced across the Trust. 

Be a great place to work: We will be an employer of choice, able to attract and retain our best talent, through a journey of continuous professional development, and can therefore safely reduce the use of bank and agency staff. 

Supporting local people into work: We will support local people to have the skills and support to access good quality jobs and improve their life chances through our apprenticeships offer, widening participation programme, and our Anchor Programme. 

Inclusive recruitment: Our recruitment pathways are designed to actively support local people, particularly those from under-represented or disadvantaged backgrounds to access opportunities. This is supported by targeted outreach and accessible volunteering programmes that help people build interest, confidence, skills, and pathways into employment. 

 

What success looks like

1. Improved response rate and results in the NHS Staff Survey, particularly around morale and engagement. 
2. Increased staff retention and reduced turnover in key areas, leading to a reduction in bank and agency usage. 
3. Higher levels of staff wellbeing and reduced sickness absence. 
4. More staff recommending the Trust as a place to work and be treated. 
5. Greater representation of under-represented groups in leadership roles. 
6. Enhanced results in digital skills audits and in the number of staff trained and developed. 
7. Improved clinical and non-clinical staff engagement. 
8. Fewer reports of discrimination, violence and aggression, acknowledging reports may go up initially as people feel more able to voice concerns. 
9. Higher proportion of local people employed by the Trust and supported to develop skills for employment.

We recognise our responsibility to improve long-term health outcomes, address inequalities, and protect the environment for future generations.

Focus areas

Research and development: Through research and development, we will bring cutting edge treatments to our population, and work in partnership to widen access for our populations to engage with research. 

Innovation: We will build our innovation capabilities as a Trust, both investing in staff to realise their own innovative ideas, as well as creating a supportive infrastructure to land and scale innovations from outside of the Trust. 

Anchor institution: An anchor organisation is a large, place-based institution—such as a hospital or university—that actively uses its influence, resources, and partnerships to improve social, economic, and environmental outcomes in its local community. We are committed to increasing opportunities for local people to access meaningful employment, education, and skills development. We will strengthen our local economic impact by directing more of our organisational spending into the local area and leveraging procurement to drive social value. We will also make better use of our estate to support community needs, including working in partnership to determine the future use of the legacy site following the redevelopment of Hinchingbrooke Hospital, with a clear focus on creating community benefit. 

Environmental sustainability: We are committed to reducing our environmental impact by empowering staff to actively deliver on our ‘Green Plan’. As we develop smart, digitally enabled hospitals of the future, we will embed sustainability into the design of our services, estate, and operations. These efforts will accelerate our progress toward achieving Net Zero by 2030 and to improving population health, reducing resource use, and creating healthier environments for patients, staff, and communities alike. 

Health Equity: Targeted initiatives will address healthcare disparities, using data to identify focus areas and impact. Targeted initiatives for adults will focus on maternity, severe mental illness, chronic respiratory illness, early cancer diagnosis and hypertension. For children, focus is on Asthma, Epilepsy, Diabetes, Mental Health and oral health conditions. 

Value: We will deliver a sustainable financial surplus to reinvest in our services and wider system, improving our benchmarked performance against other providers.

What success looks like

1. Long term financial sustainability and improved financial performance across the Trust. 
2. Measurable progress on Net Zero goals and sustainable practices. 
3. Increased number of local people supported into employment within the Trust and more broadly. 
4. Proportion of spend going back into the region through our procurement, and enhanced social value secured through contracted delivery partners. 
5. Reduced health inequity across our services, with clear data to demonstrate progress. 
6. Improving local access to care and services for communities who face barriers to healthcare, including through our Community Diagnostic Centre in Peterborough. 
7. Development of the Hinchingbrooke legacy site which will generate substantial social value and opportunities for local people. 
8. Adoption of the most impactful, proven innovations from elsewhere across the NHS.

Over the next five years and beyond, the Trust is set to benefit from a level of capital investment that is transformational in both scale and scope. This investment represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine the future of care in our region.

The capital programme is not only about buildings, equipment, and systems — it is a lever to deliver on our three goals. There are four major capital programmes of note. These are:

Stamford Hospital Day Treatment Unit Investment 

With the new Day Treatment Unit, local residents will benefit from:

• Quicker, more convenient access to outpatient procedures and diagnostics
• Reduced need to travel for care, promoting equity and independence
• Increased surgical throughput and reduced waiting times
• Facilities designed around staff wellbeing and modern workflow

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Peterborough Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC)

The development of the Peterborough CDC brings significant benefits to local people, including:

• Faster access to critical diagnostic tests, including imaging, endoscopy, and physiological measurements
• Reduced travel and waiting times, particularly for patients with mobility issues or limited access to transport
• Improved early diagnosis and management of conditions, supporting better outcomes and reducing pressure on acute care
• Modern, patient-friendly facilities that streamline diagnostic pathways and improve staff experience

By embedding advanced diagnostic services in a community setting, the CDC, when opened, will directly support our vision for high-quality, timely, and equitable care — bringing services closer to home and enabling earlier intervention that improves health and independence.

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Electronic Patient Record (EPR) Implementation

The introduction of a unified Electronic Patient Record system will modernise and connect care across all sites and services. By replacing fragmented legacy systems, the EPR will:

• Enable real-time access to accurate patient data, improving clinical safety and decision-making
• Support system-wide integration with local and regional partners
• Enhance patient and staff experience through more seamless, joined-up care
• Lay the foundation for future digital innovation, including population health analytics and personalised medicine

This system will transform how we manage and deliver care — empowering our people with better tools, improving efficiency, and driving better outcomes.

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New Hinchingbrooke Hospital Redevelopment

This landmark project will deliver a state-of-the-art digital, smart hospital to improve safety, efficiency and experience across the patient journey. The new hospital will:

• Enhance clinical environments that support the latest models of care
• Offer new employment opportunities and economic growth for the local area
• Improved patient safety, infection control, and operational flow
• Reduced carbon footprint through modern, energy-efficient infrastructure

It is vital our new strategy resonates with patients and staff alike. We have therefore summarised what our strategy means for them.

Our strategy will ensure that patients  and local communities:

Our strategy will ensure that staff:

Live longer, healthier and more independent lives. Experience compassionate, joined-up care delivered seamlessly at home, in the community and, when they need it, in hospital. Benefit from quicker, more convenient access to diagnostics and treatment when and where they need it, such as through the new Diagnostics Centre in Peterborough. Receive more care within community settings or in the familiarity of their own home or care setting through the delivery of wrap-around virtual wards and telemedicine. Are supported by digital and technological advancements to meet their healthcare needs — with inclusive alternatives for those unable to access digital platforms. Are encouraged and supported to take an active role in managing their own health and wellbeing, including through a focus on care planning with patients. Can access relevant, timely, and user-friendly information about their care.

Are supported to grow, adapt and thrive and are ready for the challenges and opportunities  ahead. Feel heard, respected, appreciated and proud of the contribution they make. Are supported to grow professionally and contribute to ongoing quality improvement, including through our Quality Improvement programme. Work in an organisation that is fair, inclusive and celebrates the value of diverse experiences including through our Equality Diversity and Inclusion programme and staff networks. Consistently deliver high-quality, compassionate care, including getting the Fundamentals of Care right. Work in modern, welcoming and sustainable environments designed for excellent care and staff wellbeing. Work efficiently and effectively — ensuring that every pound spent brings maximum value to people in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

We will embed this strategy into everyday practice through structured delivery plans, strong leadership, and continuous learning. Our approach includes:

• Establishing clear, measurable objectives for each of the three goals each year.
• Implementing governance structures and clear lines of accountability for the delivery of these, including updating the Board Assurance Framework and oversight by the Hospital Management Committee and Trust Board.
• Launching a new Decision-Making Framework to ensure decisions align with our strategic goals and ambitions.
• Publishing a Trust Annual Report each year, detailing progress against strategic goals, key performance indicators, and outcome metrics.
• Designing and implementing a new Target Operating Model for the Trust. This will provide the blueprint for how we organise our services, people, and systems to consistently deliver the outcomes we seek. We will co-develop the Target Operating Model through a structured design process during the start of 2026, shaped by input from staff, system partners, and patient representatives.
• Staff engagement, including; Induction programmes, Council of Governors, leadership development programmes, and staff briefings.