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Mobilising the neighbourhood model of care for Northern Ireland: NICON webinar report
Report 5 minute read

Mobilising the neighbourhood model of care for Northern Ireland: NICON webinar report

2 March 2026

Summary of NICON's recent webinar on moving toward a neighbourhood model of care in Northern Ireland.

  • Neighbourhood health

Read the summary $NICON Webinar Report Mobilising The Neighbourhood Model 3.0 MB
London neighbourhood with 2 storey houses on a long street with cars lining each side of the road.

Background 

A core element of the Health and Social Care Reset Plan for Northern Ireland is the proposal to move to a neighbourhood model of care. The purpose behind this model is to help providers work together to effectively manage rising demand and offer more advanced and specialist services closer to communities. Following a widespread engagement process led by the Department of Health (DoH), the next phase will see the model start to be built. 

On 11 February 2026, NICON held a webinar to look at 'Mobilising the neighbourhood model of care for Northern Ireland'. In this webinar, we set out the policy ambition and design principles of the neighbourhood model and explored next steps. To support our focus on mobilisation, we invited a range of system leaders to set out what they believe are the key opportunities arising from this new model. We heard from Prof Cathy Harrison, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, DoH; Dr Siobhán McEntee, NICON Primary Care Lead; Prof Michelle Tennyson, Chief Allied Health Professions Officer, DoH; and Gillian Lewis, Head of the NI Health Collective.

This webinar was held as part of NICON’s 'Reset' discussion series, which will run throughout 2026.

Key points

  • The ‘Health and Social Care Reset Plan’, published in July 2025, proposed a new ‘Northern Ireland Neighbourhood Model of Care’ for Northern Ireland. This model is intended to bring care as close as possible to those who need it and deliver greater levels of care for people in their communities.

  • This model will involve community pharmacy, GPs, voluntary and community organisations, HSC Trusts, independent providers, other statutory bodies, and local government working closely together in formal partnership to provide integrated care.

  • A phased approach has been taken to the development of the neighbourhood model, with the implementation phase beginning in April 2026.

  • The proposed model will see the establishment of Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) – a type of collaborative provider alliance.

  • The neighbourhood model offers an opportunity to create stable conditions for partnership. It is also about ‘scalability’ and maximising the infrastructure already in place at neighbourhood level.

  • One of the central goals of the new neighbourhood model will be to make care more joined up and ‘human’.

  • Some of the expected benefits of the new model include improved health outcomes; more efficient and sustainable use of resources; greater patient and carer satisfaction; and stronger community resilience.

  • There is broad support for the neighbourhood model across NICON’s membership – we must all come together at this key juncture to help ensure that the model is implemented effectively.