Sir Bruce Keogh will today present an update on NHS England’s 7-Day Service programme.

Speaking at an NHS Improving Quality Event, “Delivering Services, Seven Days A Week”, NHS England’s national clinical director will tell delegates: “These are early days but we are stepping up to the challenge.

“We want you to be local champions, explaining to the rest of the health and social care system how to set about this transformation, and supporting communities to change.”

Sir Bruce will highlight how important the 7-Day Services programme is, describing it as being a priority and “treated with the utmost seriousness by NHS England.”

It comes after Sir Bruce vowed in an interview with the Sunday Times that by March 2017 patients will get the same level of treatment at weekends a s they receive during the week.

He told the newspaper that successfully campaigned in favour of 7-Day Services at the end of last year: “The NHS is owned by the people of this country. It needs to respond to society’s demands and it is quite clear that the people of this country want us to give considerable thought to how we can improve the services at the weekends. My sense is that most clinicians get it.”

Representatives of the 13 Early Adopter communities set up as part of the 7-Day Service Improvement Programme will share how they are improving access to high quality services on every day of the week.

Delegates will get an insight into their work and be able to share and learn from improvements that have been effective in organisations.

• We will be tweeting from the event. You can follow @NHSEnglandMedia