Commenting about the policies and practices of a new government can be a perilous business. Significant new announcements are made daily, and the methodology of ministers is emerging. However, we are still waiting to see how a dichotomy I have previously described in these pages will be resolved.

This is between the traditional centralised, target driven, activity and acute-focused ‘industrial' model of health policy and a more ‘social' approach which favours devolution, is more systemic in perspective and aimed at improving health outcomes. The creation in law of Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) in 2022 seemed to mark a decisive shift in the latter direction, but as former health secretary and current ICS chair Patricia Hewitt pointed out in her review, despite establishing ICSs, the Conservative government did not create the conditions in which they could thrive.