Ready Now: How Akumen’s Narrative Analytics Fills the Gaps in the NHS 10-Year Plan

As the NHS rolls out its ambitious 10-Year Plan, leaders are being asked to deliver more—with no promise of more people. The pressure is real: improve outcomes, increase transparency, and build a healthier culture, all while navigating complex reforms and rising demand.

At Akumen, we have built tools to assist in meeting that challenge that are ready today—tools that help NHS leaders make evidence-based decisions, grounded in the real voices of patients and staff, or indeed any other stakeholder voice. Our narrative analytics platform doesn’t just surface problems; it delivers actionable metrics and insights with a clear audit trail, connecting the board to the ward.

Your people will go through all sorts of emotional challenges in the coming years because of the unfolding crisis. Understanding them and navigating these intangible feelings and thoughts that drive behaviours is key to managing the whole transition process. The transition aim is to mitigate the depth of the disaster and increase the speed of recovery.

Narrative 360 will is designed to do just that and much more.

Crisis Transition Hype Cycle

Psychological Safety: The Foundation for Change

The Plan doesn’t use the term “psychological safety” directly, but it’s woven throughout. From the upcoming National Staff Standards Charter to the embedding of Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU) expectations into regulation, the message is clear: a culture of openness, learning, and respect is no longer optional.

Initiatives like the Staff Treatment Hubs, anti-harassment standards, and transparent quality dashboards are not just HR policies—they’re enablers of better care. When staff feel safe, supported, and listened to, they’re more likely to innovate, report concerns early, and stay in the workforce.

Narrative Analytics: Turning Voices into Action

The Plan also places a bold bet on narrative data—free-text feedback from patients and staff—as a core input for decision-making. Whether it’s league tables in the NHS App, AI-scribed clinical notes, or real-time sentiment analysis, the NHS is moving towards a system where unstructured data drives structured change.

This is where Akumen comes in. Our platform triangulates three key sources of insight:

- Patient experience - Staff voice - The CQC’s five quality domains: Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, and Well-led

To this, we’ve added a sixth domain: Culture. We believe culture is not just a background factor—it’s a leading indicator of performance, safety, and sustainability. Without a healthy culture, even the best systems and processes will struggle to deliver.

By comparing what patients are saying, how staff are feeling, and how these align (or don’t) with the six domains, we help NHS leaders surface early warnings, spot blind spots (think Johari window), and make more confident decisions based on frontline experiences.

Evidence-Based Decision Making, Powered by People

Akumen has a 10-year track record as a trusted supplier to over 50 NHS Trusts. Every day, we analyse thousands of patient experience comments in real time—delivering insights that connect the board to the ward.

Our platform enables evidence-based decision making by providing:

1. Actionable metrics aligned to the six domains.

2. A clear audit trail back to the original words of patients and staff.

3. Tools that help leaders move from anecdote to insight, and from insight to action.

This means NHS leaders can make decisions with confidence—knowing they are grounded in real experiences, not just abstract indicators.

What You Can Do Now

• Map your current position: Compare your FTSU, bullying, and sickness absence data against the Plan’s new standards.

• Pilot narrative analytics: Start with a high-priority area—like maternity or urgent care—and see what insights emerge delivered by Akumen.

• Prepare for procurement: Align your digital strategy with upcoming opportunities in the NHS App, CQC risk stratification, and HDRS.

Akumen and the Health Data Research Service (HDRS) : Ready to Accelerate Research-Grade Insights

The NHS’s £600 million Health Data Research Service (HDRS) aims to unify structured and narrative data for population-health research and AI development. Akumen is uniquely positioned to contribute to this vision. Our platform already delivers research-grade narrative analytics—linking patient and staff experience to structured quality domains, including our added sixth domain: Culture.

We provide:

• Pre-labelled corpora aligned to CQC domains, ready for integration into AI pipelines - Secure, NHS-compliant infrastructure suitable for HDRS environments.

• Proven scalability, analysing thousands of comments daily across 50+ NHS Trusts.

• A clear audit trail from insight back to verbatim, supporting transparency and reproducibility.

By partnering with Akumen, HDRS stakeholders can accelerate the development of fair, explainable, and actionable AI models—grounded in the real voices of patients and staff.

Interested in finding out more or seeing a demonstration? Contact Eross@akumen.co.uk.