Cervical Cancer elimination strategy: action plan

Section 3 Governance, monitoring and implementation

3.1 Context

As set out in previous sections, the scale and complexity of the tasks ahead requires coordinated leadership, clear accountability, and mechanisms to monitor progress and adjust course where needed. The actions in this plan span a wide range of areas, including digital transformation, data modernisation, workforce development, and a review of screening itself.

A strong governance structure is therefore essential to ensure that all areas remain aligned, and that equity - a core principle of this plan - remains central to decision-making, particularly where early gains may appear faster in some population groups than others.

Robust governance is also essential for transparency and public trust. Achieving elimination requires sustained participation in vaccination and screening programmes, with progress dependent on individuals, communities, and frontline staff understanding and underpinning everything we do. Of equal importance, a clear governance framework - with regular reporting, ministerial oversight, and visible accountability – will ensure that progress is being measured, challenges are being acknowledged, and decisions are grounded in evidence.

However, governance and decision-making must not happen only through our standard structures and processes. As noted throughout this plan, we must go beyond the NHS. And provide a meaningful platform for lived experience to shape what we do and how we do it.

3.2 Actions

We will:

• Drive coordinated progress toward cervical cancer elimination, ensuring accountability and transparency by:
  • Establishing a Ministerial oversight board by summer 2026, with representation from our community network, and a specific objective of improving links between vaccines and screening while monitoring progress against the action plan
  • Publishing annual delivery frameworks to ensure the action plan is underpinned by clear timelines and targets
  • Publishing annual reports detailing progress against actions, with the first report to be published in June 2027

What we will achieve

By uniting coproduction, regular reporting and ministerial oversight, governance arrangements will support transparent decision making, allow the system to respond rapidly when progress stalls, and sustain public trust in cervical cancer prevention services.

The delivery framework will act as the operational backbone of the governance framework and will set out who is responsible for each action, when it should be completed, and how progress will be measured. This will help prevent fragmentation and ensure coordinated delivery across all workstreams. Most crucially, by ensuring it is developed with our community network, implementation will be driven by equality and lived experience from the outset.