Under the guidance, which coincides with the announcement of a new health mandate, the number of NHS targets have been cut from 32 in 2024/25 to 18 in 2025/26.

Wes Streeting, health and social care secretary, said: ‘If everything is a priority, then nothing is. I want to empower NHS leaders to deliver the innovation and reform required to fix the NHS, rather than overload them with targets which have failed to deliver better outcomes for patients.

‘This new approach will see the NHS focus on what matters most to patients – cutting waiting lists, getting seen promptly at A&E and being able to get a GP appointment.'

The key targets are:

• patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks for elective treatment down to 65% by March 2026 with each trust expected to deliver a 5% point improvement
• 75% and 80% of patients, respectively meeting the cancer 62-day and 28-day Faster Diagnosis Standard by March 2026
• a minimum of 78% of A&E patients being seen within four hours in March 2026 and Category 2 ambulance response times averaging no more than 30 minutes in 2025/26
• 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments
• 345,000 people between 0 to 25 receiving children and young people's mental health services compared with 2019
• a 4% overall improvement in trust productivity and reducing the cost base by at least 1%.

Reaction

Interim chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said: ‘Reducing the time people wait for planned care, improving excessively long A&E waiting times and ambulance response times and improving access to mental health services, particularly for children and young people, are understandably top priorities for the year ahead.

‘But the focus on these priorities doesn't mean leaders will take their eye off the ball on other key health services. They are committed to improving services for all patients, but they will need the help and support of national NHS leaders to do this.'

Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King's Fund, said:  ‘Achieving the target of patients being seen for planned hospital care within 18 weeks will seem like a small and isolated victory in four years' time if it meant the Government took its eye off the ball in reforming adult social care, helping the NHS to turn into a prevention-focused service that helps keep people well, and reducing health inequalities between different parts of the country.'

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: ‘NHS leaders will welcome the reduction in national targets and clearer priorities that are set out in the planning guidance, so it is clear that the Government and NHS England have been listening to our members. But we should be under no illusion – this is going to be one of the most challenging financial settlements of recent years and these ambitions will be unbelievably stretching for the NHS.'

Nuffield Trust director of research and policy, Dr Becks Fisher, said: ‘The decision to cut back the number of targets, ringfences, and priorities in today's Planning Guidance and Mandate is the right approach. Many of the indicators dropped or missed out were important and will be painful to let go of, but the reality is the list of goals from last year was already too long given the tightness of NHS finances, and many were missed by miles.'