The case for neighbourhood health and care

• Without a fundamental change in how health and care services in England engage with neighbourhoods and communities, we will not succeed in addressing growing demands on health and care services, improving health and wellbeing, reducing health inequalities, or delivering on our wider socio-economic priorities.

• What drives service demand and health inequalities sits outside of the power of our current health services to influence. 

• This report from the NHS Confederation, Local Trust and PPL, reflects the most recent research and evidence and confirms that any transformation of public services will not be successful unless it is accompanied by a more fundamental transformation of relationships between our statutory services and our communities, building on the best of what is happening on our neighbourhoods today. 

• Our work suggests that the support to change lives effectively exists in our neighbourhoods, but only if public sector resources and community assets can be brought together in the right way.

• A ‘neighbourhood health service’ and ‘shifting care into the community’ does not mean shifting a medical model into communities. It requires a new proactive model of care that works more effectively with communities and wider partners.

• A core part of the case for change is the need for a much stronger diagnosis of the impact of declining assets and infrastructure within communities, and of working with local statutory partners to reverse that decline.

• There is a huge opportunity to harness existing health and care resources to better coordinate across the population, from working with communities to give individuals and families a better start in life, to helping working-age adults back into sustainable employment.

• The case for alignment of statutory services and support to community-led initiatives, at a neighbourhood level, is stronger now than it has ever been. If we can build on the power of neighbourhoods and communities, there is a real potential to make a significant and lasting impact across England. 

Download the report.