The King’s Fund Annual conference 2026: good health for all

This panel will explore some of the most significant changes already underway across health and care, including advances in technology and artificial intelligence, changing demographics and new models of care, and consider how they are being experienced by people working across health and care and those who draw on its services.

We will then look ahead to 2040 and consider: 

• What ‘good health for all’ means for different people in health and social care and those who access these services. 

• What the health and care system might look like in 2040, and how it differs from today’s. 

• Whether the changes already underway are taking us closer to that vision, or further away. 

• What this means for the workforce, for people using services, and for the role of the state. 

The NHS doesn’t lack ideas; it lacks the time, stability and relationships to see them through. In a system bloated on short-term policymaking, slowing down might be the most radical step the government can take to improve health care. 

In this session, we’ll ask if we’re hooked on fast-food policymaking and what it means for how we approach change? 

• Is the pace of policymaking helping or hindering long‑term improvement? 

• Why does change so often fail to take hold at scale, despite strong intent? 

• What gets in the way of sustained, system‑wide change? 

• What would it take to create the conditions for change to last? 

The coming decade will bring fundamental change to the number of health and care staff we need, the type of skills and work they do, and how people organise their working lives. 

Advances in technology, changing expectations of work, and the shift towards care delivered in communities all have the potential to reshape the workforce. But while these changes are already underway, the system is not preparing at the pace required. 

We’ll consider the changing nature of work and how this can support the health and care system to adapt to future challenges. 

• What could the changing nature of work mean for health and care, and for those who work in it? 

• How are expectations of work shifting, and what does this mean for recruitment, retention and staff wellbeing? 

• How do roles, skills and ways of working need to change to meet future challenges? 

• Is the system currently set up to respond to these changes, and where does it fall short? 

Interactive sessions have limited capacity and operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Get there early to avoid disappointment. 

Hear from The King’s Fund’s Good Health For All: reimagining The Welfare State project team on why this work matters now, how it is developing and what come’s next. 

Set against a backdrop of growing pressure on public services and increasing demand, this session will explore more radical perspectives on what it takes to reimagine the welfare state. 

It reflects a wider set of questions: why don’t we have this debate more openly at a political level? Are we thinking big enough about the future of the welfare state? What would a system designed for good health for all actually look like? 

We’ll hear from a small number of speakers, each setting out a different vision for the future of the welfare state. 

You will be able to respond to these visions as we consider what it means to reimagine the welfare state. 

Using a series of provocations to test whether we are preparing for the right future, we’ll test how different futures could shape people’s experience of health and care in the years ahead.  

• What do these futures suggest about how people might experience health and care by 2040? 

• What do they mean for leaders, policymakers and those shaping the system now? 

• Is the system preparing for the right future, or responding too narrowly to the pressures of today? 

• What changes when we take a ‘people first’ view of the future? 

This interactive session will explore the human side of digital and AI transformation, and ask, what do leaders need to navigate this complexity with confidence for themselves, their organisations and the people they serve? 

Focusing on the ‘stuck paradox’ – where leaders feel an urgency to accelerate the use of AI alongside real constraints on their ability to act –you’ll consider whether we are doing enough to harness the opportunities that technology presents? What does this mean for how we lead, organise and deliver care in the years ahead? 

• What does the adoption of digital and AI look like in practice? 

• What gets in the way of moving from early use to widespread adoption? 

• Is the system moving quickly enough to respond to the scale of change underway? 

• What does this mean for leaders and how they support their teams through change? 

• What would need to be different to see these approaches used at scale? 

Interactive sessions have limited capacity and operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Get there early to avoid disappointment. 

Across the day we’ll have focused on the changes already underway in health and care. But many of the forces shaping the future sit outside the system itself. 

So, who is really behind the wheel?  

Looking at the impact of changing consumer trends and behaviour, shifting generational expectations of health and care, new technologies, and wider pressures such as climate change, we’ll ask what this means for the future of health and care, the role of the state, and the system we are building. 

• How is demographic change reshaping demand and the workforce? 

• What do changing attitudes to work and health, including amongst Gen Z, mean for the future of health and care? 

• How are people already using technology to manage their health? 

• What does the blurring of public and private provision mean for people’s experience and expectations of health and care? 

• How will wider pressures, including climate change, shape future demand and public services? 

The 2000–2010 health inequalities strategy remains one of the clearest examples of governmental action having a measurable impact on health outcomes and inequalities. So, what changed, and what lessons have we failed to carry forward as progress stalled and inequalities widened again? 

We’ll look back at this period and draw out what worked, what didn’t, and what was lost as political priorities shifted, considering how we make change stick this time. 

We will consider: 

• what the 2000–2010 strategy did to improve healthy outcomes and reduce health inequalities 

• which levers need to be pulled nationally, and where local, regional and mayoral leadership can go further or faster 

• whether responsibility for progress is best led nationally or locally, and what it would take to turn proven approaches into sustained change. 

We’ll focus on the practical conditions that support improvement, including leadership, governance, organisational capability and stability. 

We’ll also draw on learning from other sectors, particularly education, to reflect on how evidence, peer learning and approaches to improvement across large, multi‑site organisations can inform operational practice in our sector.

Understanding people’s experience of health and care is central to improving outcomes. But while there is no shortage of feedback and insight, it doesn’t always translate into meaningful change. 

This session will consider what the future of patient and public voice looks like in practice, and ask how we ensure people’s experiences are acted on, not just heard, including: 

• how the health and care system hears from the people it serves 

• the routes for people to feed back on the care they have received 

• what the health and care system should do with this feedback 

• how patient voice becomes central to the health and care system. 

The government has published its long-awaited Neighbourhood Health Framework. 

So how can this agenda be shaped locally, and how do you make sure that the national agenda supports and stimulates communities to deliver the radical change needed? 

At its best, neighbourhood health is not just about moving services closer to home. It is about shifting from a model that does things to people to one that works with them, recognising the energy, assets and insight of individuals, families and communities. 

This session will explore: 

• what gets in the way of neighbourhood health becoming genuinely neighbourhood-led 

• what it means to work with communities as equal partners rather than treating them as recipients of services  

• what leaders need to do differently if neighbourhood health is to be led with people and communities rather than from the centre. 

Children’s mental health has deteriorated over the past decade, with rising prevalence and increasing complexity. 

While the NHS is seeing and treating more children than ever, it can’t address this challenge alone. Supporting children’s mental health requires shared responsibility across those working in and outside health and care, including those in education, local government and business, alongside families and communities. 

What does this mean in practice? What role does each part of the system play and how can different roles have an impact on children’s mental health? 

This interactive session – where you’ll step into someone else’s shoes – will focus on understanding each other’s roles in supporting children and young people’s mental health. 

Interactive sessions have limited capacity and operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Get there early to avoid disappointment. 

We’ll have spent two days exploring what it means to have good health for all by 2040; the changes already shaping health and care, and what needs to happen nationally and locally to get there. 

This final session asks a simple question: are we aiming high enough? 

If we are serious about good health for all, what kind of ambition does that demand now, and what would it take to build a system that is compassionate, equitable and centred on people’s lives? 

This session brings us together to focus on what matters most to people, and where our energy, leadership and action should focus.