Minister for Care (): Today, I would like to
inform the House about the publication of the Neighbourhood
Health Framework, which outlines the next steps that we are
asking the NHS and local government to take—working with civil
society—to deliver neighbourhood health.
Neighbourhood health is at the heart of the 10 Year Health Plan
and our mission to build an NHS fit for the future. It is
underpinned by three shifts - hospital to community, treatment to
prevention, analogue to digital - and neighbourhood health is
pivotal to all three.
The shift to a Neighbourhood Health Service will ensure services
are easier for people to access and professionals to deliver,
with multi-disciplinary teams that work together to reach people
earlier, support them to stay well and live independently, and
prevent needs escalating. This joined-up approach will deliver
more preventative, personalised, and digitally enabled care.
The Framework builds on our previous publications, such as the
NHS Medium Term Planning Framework for 2026/2027 to 2028/2029,
the Strategic Commissioning Framework for ICBs, and the Better
Care Fund Framework for 2026/2027. We know there are already
strong examples of neighbourhood working across the country. The
Neighbourhood Health Framework aims to provide clarity and
consistency for local leaders to develop and scale their
neighbourhood health services and plans.
The Neighbourhood Health Framework outlines a minimum set of
interventions that all ICBs should deliver over the next three
years. While reforms will be led locally, we have heard from
systems that there are many common-sense actions that work well
everywhere—these actions are the building blocks of successful,
joined-up neighbourhood health services. Importantly, this set of
interventions is not the ceiling of neighbourhood health, but the
foundation on which local priorities will be built. The Framework
is designed to create the conditions for local leaders to
succeed, giving them the flexibility to design services that best
meet the needs of their local communities.
The Framework outlines ten core steps that we are asking local
government and ICBs to take in 2026/2027, including agreeing
neighbourhood footprints and confirming intentions to use pooled
funding under the Better Care fund. Progress made in 2026/2027
will form the basis for action in 2027/2028, when, working
through Health and Wellbeing Boards, ICBs and local government
are expected to develop local Neighbourhood Health Plans.
Central to our plans are Neighbourhood Health Centres, which will
bring care closer to where people live. Our ambition is for there
to be a Neighbourhood Health Centre in every community. To
kickstart delivery, in the 2025 Autumn budget, we announced our
commitment to deliver 120 Neighbourhood Health Centres by 2030
and 250 by 2035, funded through a mix of public-private
partnership and public capital, and starting in the areas of
greatest need.
At the heart of our work to deliver neighbourhood health are
people, particularly those working hard across health and care,
wider local government, and with our civil society partners.
Through their efforts, we will see increased and improved join-up
between public services, as multi-disciplinary, cross-sector
teams work in a system that focuses on keeping people well, using
workforce, funding, and local assets to their best effect. We
recognise that the current system is too siloed, and we are
committed to supporting the culture change that is a
pre-requisite for building the seamless, integrated,
person-centred care that patients and workforce are crying out
for.
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will set out aggregate assumptions and
scenarios to inform local NHS workforce plans when published
later this year.
We will support local systems to deliver through the National
Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme, which will build
capability and identify success criteria for the scaling of new
neighbourhood health models. So far, we have launched the
National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP)
across 43 places in England.
We will also support ICBs to commission new outcomes-based
neighbourhood health services through the development of
contractual levers, including Single Neighbourhood Provider (SNP)
and Multi-Neighbourhood Provider contracts (MNP). We will also
support the goals of neighbourhood health in national reform
agendas such as Best Start Family Hubs, Pride in Place
initiatives, Local Get Britain Working plans, and WorkWell.
I am proud to be the Minister driving Neighbourhood Health. I
have seen that every day across health, care, and wider local
government, people work tirelessly to improve our services and
make them better for communities. Neighbourhood Health is the
beginning of an exciting new chapter in how we build an NHS, and
wider health and care system, fit for the future.
