The NHS has published ‘The Neighbourhood Health Framework’ which creates a core structure for NHS organisations to progress plans on Neighbourhood Health. This is a brief easy to understand, quick read explanation of what is in the plans.
Table of Contents
Core goals of Neighbourhood Health:
– Improve people’s health and care outcomes, reduce health inequalities and help them stay well at home
– Organise services around the person with more convenient, personalised and joined-up care
– Reduce pressure on acute services – including hospitals and care homes
– Cut waste and duplication
– Deliver core NHS targets
Neighbourhood health will have clear national minimum objectives, complemented by locally agreed aims and outcomes, specific to communities.
National NHS goals for Neighbourhood Health:
Goal 1: improve health outcomes
Goal 2: improve access to general practice
Goal 3: improve experience of planned care
Goal 4: better urgent and emergency care performance
Goal 5: improve patient and staff satisfaction
Local goals, objectives and metrics
Through Health and Wellbeing Boards, ICBs and local authorities will:
agree how neighbourhood health can deliver further measurable benefits and how these will develop over time and address local priorities and health inequalities set out in the local joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA)
Delivering Neighbourhood Health
The NHS and local authorities must transform how they work together, with wider partners, including the VCSE sector, to improve planning and, in turn, health and care outcomes.
In order to improve:
– services for people who need routine healthcare.
– proactive care for people with complex needs
– deliver better alternatives to hospital care
The Providers of Neighbourhood health
Care will continue to be delivered by those who know their communities best including:
- GPs
- nurses
- therapists
- pharmacists
- community health service providers
- hospitals
- social care providers
- public health services
What will change is how services are commissioned and contracted, removing barriers that prevent the integration the NHS and councils focusing on outcomes.
Neighbourhoods Need to be Organised Around Populations.
The focus will be on outcomes, not organisational form. ICBs will be responsible for ensuring neighbourhood health is the default for NHS care provision in their population.
Neighbourhoods need to be organised around populations,
As part of developing the neighbourhood health plan, Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) will need to set the geography (‘a neighbourhood’) around which services should be delivered.
DHSC and NHS England will take an enabling, non‑prescriptive approach, allowing local systems to determine optimum models.
The Three New Types of Provider Contract
There will be contracts for 3 new types of contracted provider:
Single Neighbourhood Providers
Single neighbourhood providers (SNPs) will deliver new services through integrated neighbourhood teams within a defined single neighbourhood.
Multi Neighbourhood Providers
Multi-neighbourhood providers (MNPs) will co-ordinate the consistent delivery of services across multiple neighbourhoods.
Integrated Health Organisations
Integrated health organisation (IHO) contracts give providers a whole population health budget for a geographically defined population, underpinned by a contract.
Neighbourhood Health Centres
The Neighbourhood Health Centres (NHC) Are the buildings acting as focal points for neighbourhood health. These are the main facilities and buildings from which neighbourhood health work will be delivered and organised.
The NHS aims to deliver 120 by 2030 and 250 by 2035.
It is stated the Neighbourhood Health Centres
- bring together GP services with a mix of community, local authority and civil society sector services
- allow staff to join up care, which is better for people and communities
- make care easier to access and easier to deliver, while also reducing pressure on other parts of the system
The Neighbourhood Health Workforce
It is stated that this is mostly about reallocating existing staff. e.g. from hospitals into community settings.
In some cases, new services will need to be set up, and this will require new staff roles at local level.
Neighbourhood Health Finances
There are no new funds, to deliver neighbourhood health. This means that local ICBS and providers will have to fund the work out of existing local budgets. (This section is spectacularly vague on how!)
Implementation process:
Stage 1: immediate changes
Work with stakeholders to agree plans.
Stage 2: longer-term reform (April 2027 to March 2029)
Confirm plans and integrate into existing plans (literally that is all that is committed too!)
Quick Summary:
✔️ Strong on:
Intention
Collaborative working
Targets
Performance Management
❌ Weak On:
Implementation
Funding
Staffing
Where to Read The Full Plan
You can read the plan in full here or go to this link https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neighbourhood-health-framework/neighbourhood-health-framework#next-steps
Help and Support
We have established a community The Neighbourhood Health Academy by neighbourhood health professionals. Please join through this link. If you would like to learn more details are here:
If you want 121 support please book an appointment and get in touch.