Shelford Group Managing Director David Furness introduces our new Shelford Strategy for 2025-2029…
As we reach the end of our previous strategic planning period, it feels like the right moment to pause, reflect, and chart our course for the years ahead. The NHS landscape has shifted dramatically since we last set our strategic compass, and that means that we need to look afresh at what we want to achieve – building on past successes but being open to working in a different way.
That’s why I’m delighted to share the Shelford Group’s new strategy, which will guide us through to the end of this parliament. This strategy represents a renewed sense of clarity about the purpose of the Shelford Group and what we’re here to achieve. It’s deliberately light-touch and high-level, setting out our mission and vision, our delivery mechanisms and our key focus areas for the year ahead.
Clarity of purpose
The Shelford Group exists to strengthen the entire NHS, and our new strategy puts that front and centre. Yes, the Shelford Group consists of some of England’s largest teaching and research NHS trusts, but our mission extends beyond our own organisations.
Our refreshed vision captures this: “A thriving Shelford Group using our experience, expertise and capability to strengthen the NHS, improve health and care and contribute to economic growth.” It’s ambitious but it’s also deeply practical. We have the collective weight, the clinical expertise, and the research capabilities to make a real difference—not just for our patients, but for health and care across the country.
Embracing the three shifts
We can’t afford for the new 10 Year Health Plan to be a corporate exercise that gathers dust on a shelf. We need it to be a roadmap for transformation. The plan’s “three shifts”—from sickness to prevention, hospital to community, and analogue to digital—aren’t abstract concepts for us. They’re challenges we’re already grappling with, and opportunities we’re uniquely positioned to lead on. We want to show how large, acute trusts can deliver the promise of a transformed NHS with a greater emphasis on prevention, out of hospital care, and power in the hands of patients equipped with the best digital tools.
Research that changes lives
To deliver those shifts we need to innovate. Research and innovation is part of the DNA of Shelford Group trusts, and we want it to be at the heart of what we aim to achieve together. Our strategy commits us to strengthening research that supports improvement and contributes to economic growth, including our role in contributing to the aims of the new Life Sciences Sector Plan. Whether that’s speeding up commercial trials, showcasing clinical innovation, or supporting research careers, we’re determined to translate brilliant ideas into better outcomes for patients.
And we’re working together today on innovative ideas that improve patient care. Our collaborative programme of surgical robotics training, a joint project using AI to reduce DNAs that impact waiting lists, or our collective work to support and improve the health of people waiting for treatment are all examples of how we can pioneer approaches that we can then share with the wider NHS.
Working together
Perhaps most importantly, our new strapline—”working together to improve health and care”—captures something essential about how we operate. We’re not a federation of competing institutions; we’re a network that learns from each other, shares best practice, and speaks with a collective voice when it matters.
This approach to collaboration extends beyond our own membership. “Working together” means collaborating with partners in the wider healthcare system, recognising that we don’t have all the answers and that more can be achieved through partnership.
We’re building partnerships across healthcare, life sciences, academia, and government. We’re giving back to the wider NHS through our Safer Nursing Care Tools which are provided free of charge to NHS trusts in England and help to support patient safety and deliver a better patient care experience. We actively embrace our role as anchor institutions in our local communities.
Looking ahead
The next few years won’t be easy for any of us in the NHS. Resource pressures remain intense, workforce challenges are significant, and demands for care continue to rise.
But that’s precisely why collaboration matters more than ever – we need to do things differently and to do that we need to learn from each other. And we are energised and positive about how we can help to change the NHS for the better.
Our new strategy isn’t a magic wand, but it is a commitment—to each other, to the NHS, and to the communities we serve. We’re not just working together because it’s nice to do; we’re working together because it’s the only way we’ll truly improve health and care for everyone.
Read our 2025-29 Shelford strategy.
For more information about our work, contact info@shelfordgroup.org