WIREDGOV

• Six projects will redesign health and care services benefitting thousands, as part of an innovative neighbourhood health investment partnership with Macmillan
• Models will bring together NHS services, councils, community organisation to tackle health inequalities
• Delivers on government’s mission to move power out of Whitehall, placing more power in communities
• Backed by £1.5 million from the Office for the Impact Economy, working with Macmillan Cancer Support and Social Finance, the programme will help develop and test approaches that could be expanded more widely across local areas and services.

Communities across England are set to benefit from redesigned health and care services, backed by £1.5 million funding from the Office for the Impact Economy. The projects will help more people receive joined-up support earlier, avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and remain independent for longer.

The six sites will develop and test new neighbourhood health models that bring together NHS services, councils, community organisations and local people to improve outcomes, tackle inequalities.

They will pave the way for the future so more areas can benefit from the innovative partnership model. 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.

The government has partnered with Social Finance, Macmillan Cancer Support and West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. This will bring together expertise in cancer care, system transformation, innovative finance and neighbourhood health. Integrated Care Boards and local government partners across England were invited to apply.

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 Proactive 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 programme builds on pioneering work developed by West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Macmillan Cancer Support and Social Finance, where a proactive care service is already helping provide earlier support and keep people independent.

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.

Minister of State Stephanie Peacock said: 

 > These six trailblazers show how government, local services, communities and impact investors, working together, can rewire the state to build a healthier nation and stronger local economies. >

The changes will not only improve health and care but also boost efficiency and productivity while mobilising social investment alongside public funding, working hand-in-hand with impact investors.

The programme will show that partnership working and investment can help local systems to redesign care around their communities; improving outcomes, supporting prevention and helping more people receive joined-up care closer to home. It will demonstrate how social investment can complement public funding to support and sustain that change.

This forms part of the government’s mission to devolve more power into local communities, harness the impact economy and rewire the state, while shifting focus from sickness to prevention, and more care out of hospital and into the community as part of the 10 Year Health Plan.

Macmillan has committed to invest £250 million in neighbourhood health across the UK over the next three to five years and intends to act as a cornerstone investor in the Trailblazer sites, helping to attract other partners and investors and increase the funding available to transform care closer to home.

Social Finance will provide specialist expertise in innovative finance and investment models, helping sites develop approaches capable of mobilising impact investment.

Gemma Peters, Chief Executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said:

These 6 Trailblazer sites are doing something special, and I cannot wait to see them become the start of something much bigger.

Neighbourhood health is about redesigning care around people’s lives: bringing health services, local organisations and communities together to create support that is more connected, more personal and closer to home. These sites will lead the way in showing what is possible.

Macmillan is proud to be a cornerstone investor, helping to unlock investment from others and to bring our expertise in reshaping healthcare. But this is the start of a journey. We want to see more investors backing neighbourhood health, with government investors and local partners working together to create the conditions for new approaches to grow and spread, so more people can benefit from connected, personalised care closer to home.

Caroline Gadd, Chief Executive of Social Finance, said:

Delivering neighbourhood health is crucial to improving health and care for communities, as well as helping the NHS become financially sustainable.

At Social Finance, we work in partnership to deploy impact capital to drive change across the whole system, and I am delighted to see this government commitment to enabling social investment to back outcomes in health.

What is most exciting is not just the first wave of 6 sites, but what comes next and the potential to transform how we invest in health in the future.