Acute and Ambulance Network
Practical support and a unified national voice for acute and ambulance trusts.
Exclusively for acute and ambulance trusts, we provide a unified national voice for providers and practical support through a time of operational and financial challenge.
Shaped by a member-led advisory board, we advocate for members, raising issues at the highest levels, championing achievements and working hand-in-glove to achieve goals. This includes supporting progress on:
- Tackling urgent and emergency care as a whole-system challenge
- Accelerating transformation and supporting service reconfiguration
- Maximising productivity and optimising patient flow in
- Enhancing patients’ choices
- Defining what bringing care closer to home means in reality
Recent work
Media interventions
7 April 2026 - Strike is “bitterly disappointing”
14 May 2026 - Welcome progress, increased activity, but more demand for care
18 May 2026 - Hard-won NHS gains at risk amid growing concerns of cuts to services
11 June 2026 - Demand rises across the NHS as leaders work hard to treat patients and tackle corridor care
13 June 2026 - Industrial action will cause “hugely frustrating” delays for patients
22 June 2026 - Hot weather adds to NHS pressures
9 July 2026 - NHS leaders working hard as extreme heat strains frontline services
15 July 2026 - Response to the report on women’s experiences after birth
28 July 2026 - Response to heat health alerts
3 September 2026 - Response to the PM’s intervention on maternity services
10 September 2026 - Response to the latest NHS performance figures
15 September 2026 - Response to the Thirlwall inquiry
22 September 2026 - Welcome for the rollout of Martha’s Rule to A&E departments
25 September 2026 - Comments on the study of overcrowded emergency departments
8 October 2026 - Hitting headline NHS target by the end of this parliament “is not going to happen”
8 October 2026 - The NHS is just about holding up, but hard-fought gains cannot be taken for granted
15 October 2026 - Comments on the latest NHS estates data
19 October 2026 - NHS leaders need air cover for “inevitable difficult decisions” on maternity services
Reports
18 May 2026 - Targets and trade-offs: NHS finance and performance ambitions in 2026/27
21 May 2026 - Improving emergency care for people in mental health crisis: actions for change
3 July 2026 - NHS financial reform and the 10 Year Health Plan: aligning vision with delivery
8 July 2026 - Delivering eye care closer to home: enabling it at scale from acute to community
8 July 2026 - Delivering hospital eye care closer to home: what needs to change nationally to enable scale
22 July 2026 - Acute provider collaboratives: delivering system impact in a changing NHS landscape
Activity tracking and analysis
April 2026 - NHS activity tracker: April 2026
May 2026 - NHS activity tracker: May 2026
June 2026 - NHS activity tracker: June 2026
July 2026 - NHS activity tracker: July 2026
August 2026 - NHS activity tracker: August 2026
September 2026 - NHS activity tracker: September 2026
Blog posts
Podcasts
17 May 2026 - Are financial pressures and performance targets squeezing the NHS?
14 July 2026 - Are NHS foundation trusts losing the heart of local governance?
4 August 2026 - Is summer the new winter?
1 September 2026 - Zero-hours reform: a bad deal for the NHS?
29 September 2026 - Tackling the NHS productivity challenge and lessons from the Thirlwall Inquiry
28 October 2026 - NHS maternity reform and changes to vaccination commissioning
Case studies
26 May 2026 - Eye Care Navigation Service (ECNS)
Why join?
Membership unlocks access to specialist forums for executives to connect and explore solutions to shared challenges.
This is in addition to:
- exclusive insights, resources and digital communities designed to help navigate complexity
- opportunities for direct engagement with government, parliament and national bodies.
Forums to connect, share and learn
Forums exclusively for Acute Network members
- Acute Advisory Board: closed forum by invite only for trust chief executives; meets quarterly.
Forums exclusively for NHS trusts and foundation trusts
- NHS Leaders Forum: chairs and chief executives from NHS trusts and foundation trusts; meets twice a year.
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Trust Chief Executives Forum: hairs and chief executives from NHS trusts and foundation trusts; meetsa year.
- Shared Leadership Forum for Chairs: chairs of acute, community, mental health and ambulance trusts in (or considering) shared leadership arrangements; meets quarterly.
- Non-Executive Directors Forum: ICB and trust NEDs; meets three times a year.
- Company Secretaries Forum: for company/trust secretaries and directors of corporate affairs.
- NHS Chief Finance Officers and Commercial Leads Forum: for chief finance officers, directors of finance, and Commercial and business development leads.
- NHS Chief Operating Officers Forum: for chief operating officers, directors of operations and site operational directors.
- NHS Chief People Officers Forum: for directors of HR, workforce and organisational development. working in trusts and foundation trusts; meets two to three times per year.
- NHS Strategy Directors Forum: directors of strategy and transformation; directors of planning and performance; meets three times a year.
Forums available to all members of the NHS Alliance
- NHS Leaders Forum: chairs and chief executives from across NHS trusts, ICBs, community CICs and primary care collaboratives. Meets twice yearly with all system leaders invited. Meets twice yearly in sector-specific groups – e.g. NHS trust chairs and chief executives only.
- NHS Digital Leadership Forum: digital and innovation leaders at board level across trusts and ICBs; digital primary care senior leaders; board-level non-statutory members providing NHS funded patient care. Meets quarterly.
- NHS Communications Forum: directors of communications and engagement across trusts, ICBs and other parts of the system; other senior communications leads. Meets quarterly.
- NHS Quality and Safety Forum: series of webinars for board-level leaders on key issues relating to quality and safety.
- NHS Work and Health Forum: broad ICB membership including ICB work and health leads, strategy and workforce leads and chairs. Non-ICB membership includes NHS trusts, local/strategic authorities, DWP, VCSE and national colleagues Currently monthly.
- EDI Directors Forum: directors, associate directors and high-level strategic leads for EDI or health inequalities within NHS organisations
- Neighbourhood Leads Forum: primary care, acute, community, mental health and ICB neighbourhood health leads who are responsible for making neighbourhood working a reality at place and system.
- Elective and Outpatient Reform Forum: NHS trusts, community trusts, primary care and neighbourhood ICB; anyone involved with outpatient pathway redesign. Meets quarterly.
- Urgent and Emergency Care Forum: anyone involved in UEC pathway redesign and operational delivery; meets quarterly.
- BME Leadership Network: black and minority ethnic leaders, aspiring leaders and allies from across the NHS. We convene network members through our three annual in-person events: our anti-racism conference in April, network lunch at NHS ConfedExpo in June and our Black History Month event in October.
- Health and Care LGBTQ+ Leadership Network: LGBTQ+ leaders, aspiring leaders and allies from across the NHS. We convene members every quarter via virtual meetings and annually for our in-person networking session at NHS ConfedExpo.
- Health and Care Women Leaders Network: women working at all levels across health and care. We convene members several times a year via mix of in-person and virtual events including our quarterly fireside chats, annual conference and International Women’s Day celebrations.
- NHS Disability Leadership Network: new network.
- Learning Disabilities Forum: members who provide or commission services for people with a learning disability; meets quarterly.
The Evolve Collaborative
For those looking to improve performance, we have partnered with data analytics experts Beamtree to establish The Evolve Collaborative , introducing an enhanced analytics and improvement subscription.
The Evolve Collaborative combines data tools with vibrant peer-led learning communities so organisations can identify opportunities for improvements that make a tangible difference for patients.