Six neighbourhood health trailblazers to “redesign” health and care services

As part of a neighbourhood health investment partnership with Macmillan, the projects aim to help more people receive joined-up support earlier, avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and remain independent for longer.

According to the Department for Health and Social Care, the six selected sites and their proposals are:

• Bristol NHS Foundation Trust: a 1,000 Days Neighbourhood Model that uses population health data and community networks to improve end-of-life care and support more people with frailty and multiple conditions outside hospital settings.
• Lewisham Health and Care Partnership and Healthier Greenwich Partnership: an integrated neighbourhood model covering long-term conditions, frailty, cancer and end-of-life care, building on existing Integrated Neighbourhood Teams while making cancer a more explicit focus.
• Navigo Health and Social Care CIC on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Health and Care Partnership: a Neighbourhood Care and Coordination Service that brings together primary care, community services, mental health and social care to support people with complex needs before they reach crisis point.
• RM Partners and NCL NHS Cancer Alliance: a large-scale neighbourhood cancer prehabilitation and rehabilitation support offer, across 19 London boroughs, which improves autonomy, care coordination, equity of access and local care provision supported by digital navigation.
• North Nottinghamshire Partnership led by Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: a scaled neighbourhood model that takes a proactive approach to caring for people with severe frailty, cancer and multiple long-term conditions, with a particular focus on the wider building blocks of health.
• York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: an expansion of a neighbourhood-based frailty model, using proactive identification, geriatric assessment and multidisciplinary teams to help older people remain at home, with a focus on spreading successful approaches from York into rural and coastal areas like Scarborough and Bridlington.

The Government noted that the six sites will “pave the way for the future” so more areas can benefit from the innovative partnership model.

Backed by £1.5 million from the Office for the Impact Economy, working with Macmillan Cancer Support and Social Finance, the Government added that the funding will help sites develop and test new neighbourhood health models, “creating the foundations for larger-scale investment and wider adoption across the NHS in future”.

Dame Diana Johnson Minister of State for Health said: “Neighbourhood health is about bringing services together within our local communities, helping people get the right care, at the right time, closer to home. 

“These six trailblazer pilots will help lead the way in showing how locally-led services can work together in the areas of greatest need, and support people to live healthier, more independent lives.

“The programme is a key part of our 10-Year Health Plan, helping us shift from treating sickness to preventing it in the first place, and giving people the help they need in the heart of their own communities.”

Lottie Winson