On World Cancer Day, the government called for evidence to inform the development of a 10-year Cancer Plan. We joined the One Cancer Voice, a coalition of over 50 charities, to develop recommendations on behalf of the millions of people living with cancer. We developed a consensus statement and set out the actions which the government and NHS need to undertake to ensure people diagnosed with cancer in England get the best care and treatment. Today, we have put our name to a public letter to the Secretary of State to urge the government to take forward our recommendations.
Annwen Jones OBE Chief Executive at Target Ovarian Cancer, said:
We want everyone with ovarian cancer to have the best possible survival and care but currently we are a long way off from that. In collaboration with One Cancer Voice, we are signing this letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care urging the government to meet the essential 10 tests so that the 10-year Cancer Plan fulfils the potential of its ambition to achieve world class outcomes for everyone diagnosed with cancer, including ovarian cancer.
With the 10-year Cancer Plan due to be announced imminently, it is vital that we remind the government of what it must do to achieve to be the world leader in cancer outcomes and experiences.
Every day, a person dies every two hours because of ovarian cancer. We can and must do better. We want the government to hear our collective voice and implement the recommendations set out, here.
Read the letter:
The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Department of Health and Social Care
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0EU
20th June 2022
Dear Secretary of State
As you consider the final detail of the forthcoming 10-Year Cancer Plan, we are writing, with One Cancer Voice, to urge you to ensure the plan meets the essential tests we set out in our submission as being essential to deliver on your ambition of having the best cancer care in Europe. The plan must include robust, fully costed and funded plans to deliver on its ambitions, and set out how it will address shortages in workforce and equipment – key hurdles that have hindered previous commitments and strategies.
This 10-Year Cancer Plan could not be coming at a more important time for people affected by cancer in England. As you know, the devastating impact of the pandemic on cancer services continues to be felt, and growing waits for care stubbornly persist. Worrying new survey data from Cancer Research UK shows that 3 in 4 (75%) adults in the UK don’t think the NHS has enough staff or equipment to deal with cancer. With rising cancer incidence over the 10 years of this Plan, the challenge is only set to grow – meaning tangible, decisive action is needed now.
We are incredibly grateful for your personal commitment to this plan, and have welcomed the engagement from you and your officials as the plan has been developed. In that spirit of constructive engagement, we believe it is important to reiterate the key tests to which the whole cancer community will hold this 10-Year Cancer Plan. These include:
- Fully planned, costed and funded: The power to truly transform the outcomes for people affected by cancer by 2032 is in your hands. To reach that potential, this plan must be visionary and set bold and stretching targets to achieve what really matters to people affected by cancer – preventing more cancers, diagnosing more cancers earlier and offering the best treatment and care tailored to the needs of every patient. In doing so you will also have the opportunity to deliver on your ambition to tackle health inequalities and truly harness the power of the UK’s world beating research and innovation to improve outcomes and experience. Ambition and vision must be underpinned by a clear, fully costed and funded plan for how we will get there. That means publicly announced objectives for how you will transform cancer outcomes and experience with timelines for implementation for each part of the plan, along with associated costing and funding.
- No more shortages in the cancer workforce: Fundamentally, without investment in growing the cancer workforce to meet demand, to tackle backlogs, make more time for patients and drive innovation in cancer services the plan will not have the confidence of the cancer community. The plan must deliver on the existing Ministerial commitment that “the forthcoming 10-Year Cancer Plan will also ensure we have the right workforce in place.” That cannot be achieved without robust workforce modelling for the lifetime of the plan, matched by committed investment for at least the lifetime of the current Spending Review period.
- Match ambition with accountability: The whole cancer community wants to see this plan succeed. To support you to deliver the ambitions of the upcoming plan, we need a transparent accountability framework with clear political leadership and annual assessment of progress. For accountability to be meaningful, it must include independent governance that involves the whole cancer community including cancer charities and people affected by cancer.
Underpinning these three key measures is a more detailed set of ten important tests, developed by our One Cancer Voice coalition. We have shared these with you previously and they serve as the cancer community’s collective priorities for this strategy.
Right now, you have the opportunity to help bring forward a future where people affected by cancer in England have truly world leading cancer outcomes and experience. If the 10-Year Cancer Plan can meet these tests, we believe you will have taken the first great stride towards this. But the plan must meet these tests if it is to have the full support, belief and backing of the wider cancer community. Our collective response will be led by whether or not these tests are met.
Yours sincerely,
Jeannie Rigby
Director
Action Bladder Cancer UK
Rose Woodward
Founder
Action Kidney Cancer
Henny Braund
Chief Executive
Anthony Nolan
Gemma Peters
Chief Executive
Blood Cancer UK
Genevieve Edwards
Chief Executive
Bowel Cancer UK
Will Jones
Chief Executive
Brainstrust
Sue Farrington Smith MBE
Chief Executive
Brain Tumour Research
Baroness Delyth Morgan
Chief Executive
Breast Cancer Now
Pamela Healy OBE
Chief Executive
British Liver Trust
Jane Lyons
Chief Executive
Cancer52
Professor Frank Chinegwundoh MBE
Chairperson
Cancer Black Care
Robin Pritchard
Co-Director
Cancer Care Map
John Symons
Director
Cancer of Unknown Primary Foundation - Jo's friends
Michelle Mitchell OBE
Chief Executive
Cancer Research UK
Ashley Gamble
Chief Executive
Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group
Marc Auckland
CLLSA Chair of Trustees
CLL Support Association
Natalie Haskell
CEO
CoppaFeel!
Dr Jen Kelly
CEO
Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust
Tina Seymour
Chief Executive
Hope for Tomorrow
Samantha Dixon
Chief Executive
Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust
Nick Turkentine
Chief Operating Officer
Kidney Cancer UK
Anna Jewell
Chair
Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce
Zack Pemberton-Whiteley
Chief Executive
Leukaemia Care
Fiona Hazel
Chief Executive
Leukaemia UK
Stewart O'Callaghan
Founder & Chief Exe
Live Through This
Ropinder Gill
Chief Executive
Lymphoma Action
Lynda Thomas CBE
Chief Executive
Macmillan Cancer Support
Gillian Nuttall
Chief Executive
Melanoma UK
Liz Darlison MBE
Chief Executive Officer
Mesothelioma UK
Sophie Castell
CEO
Myeloma UK
Dr Anna Webb
Director
Myrovlytis Trust
Tony Hebdon
Chair
Neuroblastoma
Alastair Richards
CEO
North West Cancer Research
Victoria Clare
CEO
Ovacome
Cary Wakefield
Chief Executive Officer
Ovarian Cancer Action
Ali Stunt
CEO
Pancreatic Cancer Action
Diana Jupp
Chief Executive
Pancreatic Cancer UK
Julie Worrall
CEO
Penny Brohn UK
Laura Kerby
Chief Executive
Prostate Cancer UK
Sarah Quinlan MBE
Charity Director
Radiotherapy UK
Mike Grundy
Deputy Chief Executive
Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation
Richard Davidson
Chief Executive
Sarcoma UK
Gail Jackson
Chief Executive
Solving Children’s Cancer
Roshani Perera
Trustee
Tackle Prostate Cancer
Annwen Jones OBE
Chief Executive
Target Ovarian Cancer
Kate Collins
Chief Executive
Teenage Cancer Trust
Alex Lochrane
Chief Executive
The Brain Tumour Charity
Athena Lamnisos
Chief Executive
The Eve Appeal
Ian Boyd
Executive Director
Trekstock
Janet Lindsay
CEO
Wellbeing of Women
Rachael Gormley
CEO
World Cancer Research Fund
Kathryn Scott
Chief Executive
Yorkshire Cancer Research
Rachel Kirby-Rider
Chief Executive
Young Lives Vs Cancer
