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Working together to make neighbourhood health a reality – reflections from our latest Neighbourhood Health Delivery Hub session

By Mike Burnett

Director, Newton

Blog

26th March 2026

Across the country, health and care teams are working hard to support people earlier, closer to home, and in more joined up ways; a concept which is central to the government’s 10-year Health Plan published last year. This shift towards neighbourhood‑led health and care is ambitious, but it remains one of the most promising routes to helping people stay well, improving outcomes and reducing pressure on services.

Helping health and care systems to realise this ambition locally is the purpose of the Neighbourhoods Delivery Hub, a community of practice delivered by NHS Providers and Partners in Care in Health, supported by Newton. Together, we’re helping 22 Places from across the country to develop and accelerate practical models of Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs), grounded in co‑design, shared learning and real‑world delivery.

Our latest session brought together local leaders from health, care and voluntary sectors organisations, across England who are navigating similar pressures but share the same ambition: to build neighbourhood‑based approaches that make a meaningful difference for residents, staff and local systems.

Why this work matters

Neighbourhood models aren’t simply a new way of organising services; they represent a shift in how we think about health, care and community. Local teams understand their populations, know where the gaps are, and are responsible for the interventions that can prevent crisis and improve quality of life.

At the same time, systems everywhere are facing rising demand, stretched capacity and growing complexity. ‘Neighbourhoods’ provide a way to join things up, act earlier and design support around what genuinely matters to people.

But delivering this in practice isn’t straightforward. It requires new relationships, new ways of working and, in many cases, a cultural shift that takes time, collaboration and persistence.

That’s why the Community of Practice exists: to bring people together to learn from one another, share what works, and move faster as a collective than any Place could alone.

What we’re hearing from Places

Throughout the session, we heard from Birmingham, Lincolnshire, Leeds, Northamptonshire, Greenwich and Bexley about what’s helping neighbourhood working take shape on the ground in their local areas. Their reflections, alongside the wider conversations amongst participants, highlighted a set of shared themes that feel increasingly central to making progress. A few to pull out are:

Starting with mindset and behaviours, not just models

A recurring message was that neighbourhood working succeeds when people feel empowered to act. Places talked about the need to move past risk averse habits, focus on learning over perfection, and invest in the behaviours and relationships that enable teams to make small, practical changes. Culture change and organisational development are becoming core enablers of this work, not add-ons. We must remember that remaining with the status quo can be riskier than moving to new models.

Using data in ways that are genuinely helpful to teams and residents

Data sharing remains a challenge, but it is also one of the biggest levers for improvement. Conversations highlighted the growing value of person level, detailed data to target support, better understand need and plan for impact from the outset. Places also emphasised the importance of helping residents understand the benefits of more data informed, preventative approaches; and ensuring the tools and processes feel trustworthy and usable for frontline teams.

Focusing effort where it will make the biggest difference

Across the discussions, there was a strong sense of pragmatism. Places talked about going where the willing is; working with teams and communities who are ready to try something different and using those early insights to shape wider system change. There were also reflections on whether to start upstream (e.g., long term conditions), downstream (e.g., frailty) or both. The takeaway was clear: acting somewhere is almost always better than waiting for the “ideal” place to start.

While the day included examples of best practice and practical sessions, the real value came from the conversations happening across the room; participants recognising they share the same challenges, and that solutions are often found in the collective experience, not the individual example.

What comes next?

As the Neighbourhoods Delivery Hub continues to grow, our focus, alongside NHS Providers and Partners in Care and Health, is on helping participating Places move forward with pace and confidence. By bringing national partners together with local systems, we are:

connecting Places who are tackling similar challenges
sharing learning that helps avoid common pitfalls
shining a spotlight on Places that are making great progress in certain areas, amplifying what is working well
and creating a community where collaboration, openness and co‑design sit at the heart of progress

The Neighbourhoods Delivery Hub is already creating a sense of collective momentum. Members at the latest session spoke about the value of being part of something national; a community where challenges feel shared, ideas can be tested quickly, and learning travels faster than it would through individual effort.

We know this work isn’t straightforward, but the conversations across the Neighbourhoods Delivery Hub show real progress is being made. By learning from one another and staying focused on what works locally, we’re starting to build neighbourhood approaches that are more joined‑up, more preventative and more responsive to what people need.

I’d love to hear from anyone who is passionate about being a part of the journey towards neighbourhood health and care, please reach out to me: [email protected].