Under the plans, health and care services will work more closely together and “burdensome bureaucracy” will be stripped back.
The shake-up will sweep away many of the reforms the NHS in England introduced under David Cameron in 2012.
In a statement on the future of health and social care, the Health Secretary told the Commons: “At its heart, this White Paper enables greater integration, reduces bureaucracy and supports the way that the NHS and social care work when they work at their best together.
“It strengthens accountability to this House and, crucially, it takes the lessons we have learnt in this pandemic of how the system can rise to meet huge challenges and frames a legislative basis to support that effort.”
The White Paper, which will be published later today, brings together the NHS, social care and local government to make decisions with the aim of providing integrated care.
Under the plans, a tendering rule will be scrapped that officials say has created unnecessary competition and made it difficult for councils and different parts of the NHS to set up joint teams and pool their budgets.
Councils and NHS services will be able to set up bodies that can make decisions about how to join up their services.
Mr Hancock added: “This landmark White Paper builds on what colleagues in health and care have told us and we will continue that engagement in the weeks ahead.
“It builds on more than that, it builds on this party’s commitment to the NHS from the very beginning.”
He said he believed the NHS is the finest health service in the world, adding: “Its extraordinary feats this past year are unsurpassed even in its own proud history.”
Labour questioned the timing of plans in the middle of a pandemic and described it as a “power grab” by the Government. Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Staff on the front line are exhausted, underpaid. The Royal College of Nurses says the NHS is on its knees.
“Primary care and CCG staff are vaccinating and will be doing so for months ahead, including possibly delivering booster jabs in the autumn. And today we learn that 224,000 people are waiting over 12 months for treatment.
“And this Secretary of State thinks this is the right moment for a structural reorganisation of the NHS.
“Now we will study the legislation carefully when published but the test of his reorganisation will be whether it brings waiting lists and times down, widens access, especially for mental health care, drives up cancer survival rates and improves population health.”
He added: “Fundamentally, how will this reorganisation and power grab improve patient care? He didn’t mention waiting times in his statement, it’s only mentioned once in the leaked White Paper.”
