Niall Dickson, chief executive of the healthcare watchdog the King's Fund, explains why the move is to be given a cautious welcome.

"I am pleased that the government has at last recognised that it needs to reform the whole performance rating system as well rationalise the targets and priorities into a unified system that reflects local circumstances.

"It now seems that the government is likely to abandon the unpopular star rating system.

"However, this will have implications for how ratings are calculated in the future, and until we see how the new Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (CHAI) will undertake this, it is unclear how the new system will work as a whole.

In the longer term few in the health service will mourn the passing of an excessive number of targets.

"The star ratings were a useful first move towards producing performance management information for the NHS, but they held very little that was of any use either to the public or NHS staff and we believe that they have had their day.

"They are an extraordinarily crude measure for evaluating complex institutions such as hospitals and primary care organisations.

"They have led to absurd situations where a high performing department could appear to be offering a poor service because the hospital as a whole achieved a poor rating score overall.

"In some cases they have also had the effect of lowering staff morale at a time when there is still a staffing crisis.

More details needed

"While the King's Fund welcomes the proposed core and development standards as an important step towards putting patients first, we have concerns that they may be too vague.

"The role here of CHAI in putting in harder performance measures will be crucial.

"At this point the core standards will need greater definition before they can help both patients and professionals.

"The plan to set out clear aspirations for what the NHS should deliver to patients is vital.

"However, there still needs to be more clarity as to how they will be made effective in practice.

"The government insists that its current targets will remain and that is understandable, but in the longer term few in the health service will mourn the passing of an excessive number of targets and such crude measures as the star ratings."