Planning and guidance

National priorities

Two of the three priorities for cancer named by NHS England relate to waiting times. In the 2024-25 priorities and operational planning guidance, these were to:

  1. Improve performance against the headline 62-day standard to 70% by March 2025

  2. Improve performance against the 28 day Faster Diagnosis Standard to 77% by March 2025 towards the 80% ambition by March 2026

  3. Increase the percentage of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2 in line with the 75% early diagnosis ambition by 2028

The three priorities were similar in 2023-24 guidance.

Cancer Alliance plans

20 Cancer Alliances lead the local delivery of NHS priorities for cancer. The alliances will receive £266m of ‘place-based Service Development Funding (SDF)’ in 2024-25, to support them to deliver the national priorities described above.

While Cancer Alliances can use place-based funds to reflect local circumstances and delivery arrangements, 2024-25 guidance states that emphasis should be given to cancer waiting times and early diagnosis. It indicates that 45% of funding (£120m) has been budgeted for improving cancer waiting times - the largest budget allocation.

Long Term Plan

The NHS Long Term Plan, published in 2019, set out NHS priorities for the next 10 years, including the introduction of the Faster Diagnosis Standard.

It also committed to developing new guidance on diagnostic pathways for specific cancers, adding to those introduced for lung, colorectal, and prostate cancer. These are known as ‘best practice timed pathways’ and form part of a broader Faster Diagnosis Framework.