Nurse leaders first port of call for new health secretary

Yvette Cooper chose to address the country’s nurse leaders in her first official engagement since becoming health and social care secretary earlier this week.

“I am looking forward hugely to working with all of you in what we do right across our NHS to make it as brilliant as we possibly can”

Yvette Cooper

Speaking at a Chief Nursing Officer for England’s Nurse Leaders event in London on Thursday, Ms Cooper gave a short address touching on the NHS, social care and maternity services.

In the audience were senior nurses from trusts, integrated care boards and NHS England, as well as nurse leaders from social care, the independent sector, voluntary sector and the military.

An NHS England spokesperson said the event, which was closed to the media, provided an “opportunity for colleagues to come together as a professional leadership community”.

Ms Cooper said told nurse leaders she was “determined” to work with them and unions, including the Royal College of Nursing, to “ensure that nurses across the country have the careers, the reward, the recognition, the support that they need to be able to do the job that the country needs”.

She mentioned the government’s 10 Year Health Plan, which was published this time last year by one of her predecessors, Wes Streeting. She described the plan as “hugely important”.

However, Ms Cooper discussed at greater length the likelihood of future government policy on social care, public health and maternity care.

“The new prime minster [Andy Burnham] has said how important social care reform now needs to be. We have to face that,” the new health and social care secretary said.

“Repeated governments have tried and then not quite actually delivered the changes that we desperately need for families being let down by social care,” she said.

“And I’ll just say personally, I feel still strongly that maternity services are often underestimated and undervalued in terms of the impact that it has on families across the country.

“So, I’m determined to work with you on how we respond to the real challenges in maternity services.” Ms Cooper said, referring to a series of national inquiries and local reviews in the area.

In addition, she highlighted Sure Start, now known as Best Start, which was announced in 1998 while Ms Cooper was a member of Gordon Brown’s government.

It introduced a network of children’s centres and other services to support local families with children under five to try and address inequalities across health, education and other sectors.

Sure Start was rebranded in 2025 as Best Start and relaunched by Sir Keir Starmer, who announced an expansion of family hubs to cover every local authority in England backed by £500m.

Ms Cooper said: “The other thing that I was responsible for ‘back in the day’ was the rollout of Sure Start. Being able to work across professions, across departments, across services in a way that puts families at the very heart of what we do, and especially the very start and the very early years of life, I think we can do all of that again.

“So, I am looking forward hugely to working with all of you in what we do right across our NHS to make it as brilliant as we possibly can, but also on those other issues from the very start of life to the very end of life, because it’s your expertise that makes that possible,” she said.

She added: “It’s the work you do and all of the people that you lead that makes that possible. But I want to support you every step of the way.”

Ms Cooper’s appointment on Monday by Mr Burnham as the new health and social care secretary, marked a return to the Department of Health and Social Care after more than 20 years.

The former foreign secretary and MP for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley replaced James Murray, who has only been in post since 14 May, following the sudden departure of Wes Streeting.

Ms Cooper previously served as a junior health minister in the Blair government, from 1999 until 2002, during which time she held the portfolio for public health.

While public health minister, as well as helping implement the Sure Start programme, Ms Cooper became the first British government minister in history to take maternity leave.

Meanwhile, the new prime minister has this week refreshed ministerial teams across the government, including at the Department of Health and Social Care.

Four new ministers have been appointed to the department, who will report to Ms Cooper, with two also retained from the previous team.