Beyond Ambition: Global Lessons on the NHS 10 Year Health Plan

The UK Government’s Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England sets out an ambitious vision for reform — shifting care from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.

In response, IFIC has published Beyond Ambition: Global Lessons for an Integrated NHS, bringing together voices from across our international network to reflect on what this vision means in practice. Drawing on experience different countries and different perspectives, the report explores the opportunities and recurring challenges that accompany long-term health system reform.

This webinar convened contributors to the report from Scotland, New Zealand, Canada and Singapore for a live roundtable discussion. Together, they reflected on what their own reform journeys have taught them — what works, what does not, and what requires sustained attention when ambition meets real-world complexity.

The discussion explored:

• The central role the people and communities can and must play in the radical shifts set out

• The persistent gap between policy ambition and delivery

• The risks of structural reform without sustained learning

• Central control versus collaborative leadership

• Digital transformation and inequality

• The leadership, governance and system capabilities required for lasting change

As IFIC prepares for ICIC26 Birmingham (13–15 April 2026), this session contributed to the wider global conversation on integrated care. The insights shared here will carry forward into the conference, where leaders, practitioners, researchers and people with lived experience will come together to examine how ambition can be translated into sustainable, system-wide change.

Panel

Moderator: Niamh Lennox-Chhugani

Chief Executive and Director of Research, International Foundation for Integrated Care, IFIC

Anne Hendry
Director, IFIC Scotland; Professor, University of the West of Scotland (United Kingdom)

Carolyn Gullery
Executive Leader in Health System Design, Analytics and Digital Transformation (New Zealand)

Pamela Barkhouse
Patient and Family Advisor, Nova Scotia, (Canada)

Kerry Kuluski
Dr. Mathias Gysler Research Chair in Patient and Family-Centered Care, Trillium Health Partners; Professor, University of Toronto (Canada)

Ng Yeuk Fan
Adjunct Associate Professor, National University of Singapore; Director and Head of Corporate Development, Yishun Health (Singapore)