The King’s Fund responds to the resignation of the Prime Minister

Responding to the resignation of the Prime Minister, Kier Starmer, Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund said:  

'The next leader of the Labour Party has the chance to define how the next generation experiences health and care. In their in-tray will be a colossal set of both opportunities and risks.

'At the heart of these opportunities is both the chance to reverse our declining national healthy life expectancy and revamp an approach that champions good health in all policies, as well as to finally deliver on the reform of adult social care. These reforms remain the biggest unresolved policy question of the past 25 years, and has left too many people living with unmet needs, unable to access the care they deserve. Whether it is through accelerating the timetable for the Casey Commission or proposing a concrete model for reform, the test of the next prime minister will be if they can deliver reforms where so many have previously failed.

'Another clear opportunity is in seeing through the work to establish a Single Patient Record, which is part of the Health Bill currently working its way through parliament. The opportunity to link disparate sets of health data and deliver care that is less fragmented and more tailored to our individual health needs is to too large to squander.

'Just days before his resignation, Prime Minister Starmer used one of his last major addresses to the nation to announce plans to restrict access to social media for younger people. This has kick-started an approach to understand how a social media ban could be implemented to deliver better wellbeing and mental health for children in this country. Together with the smoking ban first proposed under Prime Minister Sunak, this is the type of bold action on prevention that any future government should be thinking about to deliver a healthier nation.'