Health and social care - surge and winter preparedness: national planning priorities and principles

Undertaking local surge planning in alignment with these national priorities and principles

Agreeing and setting out this clear set of national planning priorities and principles means that surge and winter planning can be flexible enough to enable services to plan based on what best works for their local systems whilst ensuring consistency of the core underlying approach.

This should not represent a substantial change to existing local surge and winter planning; these principles are based on those previously agreed in support of winter planning and align with wider health and social care priorities which put people at the core of the approach.

Rather, the intention is that these priorities and principles provide a clear national benchmark against which local health and social care systems can review their existing surge planning arrangements to ensure that they are fully aligned. Robust local surge and winter planning aligned to national priorities and principles will ensure that people continue to receive the highest possible quality of care and treatment regardless of the pressures services are facing.