Neighbourhood Health: ambition, opportunity and delivery challenges for the system

The Government has set out its vision for transforming care through its Neighbourhood Health Framework, supported by NHS England’s latest guidance to Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) on developing Neighbourhood Health Centres (NHCs).

Together, these publications represent the clearest articulation yet of how care will increasingly be delivered closer to home - integrated across primary care, community services, local government and the voluntary sector.

At its core, neighbourhood health is not simply about new infrastructure. As NHS England emphasises, it is fundamentally an operating model, one that brings together multidisciplinary teams and services around populations of around 50,000, with general practice at its heart. The Government has committed to rolling out 250 neighbourhood health centres by 2035, with 120 expected by 2030, acting as “anchor institutions” that support both health outcomes and wider community development.

For industry, this represents a significant shift in how health and care services will be designed, delivered and supported—placing greater emphasis on integration, digital enablement and population-level outcomes.

A clear direction of travel…

There is broad consensus across the health policy community that the direction of travel is the right one. The Neighbourhood Health Framework reinforces a long-standing ambition to move care closer to home, reduce avoidable hospital use, and deliver more proactive and coordinated services.

Analysis from the Nuffield Trust highlights that the framework provides a stronger rationale for neighbourhood delivery and signals a welcome commitment to greater local flexibility in how systems design services. It also sets out a more expansive vision of the benefits of neighbourhood health, including improved patient outcomes, better integration and a stronger focus on population health.

Similarly, the King’s Fund notes that the framework avoids being overly NHS-centric and appropriately recognises the role of local authorities, social care and wider partners, with Health and Wellbeing Boards playing a central coordinating role. This broader, system-wide perspective is critical if neighbourhood health is to deliver meaningful improvements in outcomes and inequalities.

The supporting NHS England guidance also provides practical clarity - setting expectations for ICBs to develop estate pipelines, identify priority schemes and plan digitally-enabled facilities, all aligned to the wider neighbourhood health architecture.

…but significant delivery challenges remain

While the vision is widely supported, there is equally strong consensus that delivery will be challenging.

The Nuffield Trust correctly highlights that the framework lands at a time of significant system disruption, constrained finances and limited capacity, raising questions about whether the scale and pace of reform is realistic. The framework sets out 17 objectives across three reform agendas, but with limited prioritisation - risking dilution of focus at a time when local leaders are already stretched.

A key concern is the lack of clarity on delivery mechanisms, particularly around funding flows. While the framework signals a shift of resources from acute to community settings, there is limited detail on how this will be achieved in practice - or how systems will be held accountable for doing so.

Workforce constraints also loom large. Both the Nuffield Trust and the King’s Fund emphasise the practical challenges of redeploying staff into neighbourhood models, alongside broader shortages in commissioning, analytical and change management skills. Delivering multidisciplinary, cross-organisational care will also require a significant cultural shift in how risk is managed, moving from hospital-based models of control to more distributed, community-based approaches.

The King’s Fund further highlights concern about capacity and leadership within ICBs, particularly in primary care, and warns that national targets - such as reductions in non-elective admissions - risk shifting pressure onto general practice without sufficient resource or support.

Questions also remain about accountability and performance measurement, with ambiguity around who is responsible for delivering neighbourhood-level outcomes and how success will be assessed.

From vision to implementation: what will matter

Translating this vision into reality will depend on addressing a number of critical enablers:

Digital infrastructure and data sharing: Neighbourhood health will rely on seamless data flows across organisations to support proactive care, risk stratification and service coordination. NHS England guidance is clear that NHCs must be digitally enabled from the outset.
Integration across sectors: Effective neighbourhood models will require collaboration between NHS providers, local authorities, social care, and the voluntary sector. Insights from PPL’s work on model neighbourhoods underline the importance of defining a core service offer, complemented by locally tailored provision and supported by strong partnership working.
Estates and infrastructure: The planned rollout of NHCs provides a tangible focus for integration, but also introduces challenges around capital investment, prioritisation and alignment with wider system strategies.
Workforce and capability: Building multidisciplinary teams and new delivery models will require sustained investment in workforce development, leadership and system capacity.
Clear incentives and accountability: Without alignment between national policy, funding mechanisms and local delivery, there is a risk that ambition outpaces implementation.

The role of industry

For the technology and life sciences sector, neighbourhood health presents a significant opportunity to support transformation across multiple fronts - from digital platforms and interoperability solutions to data analytics, remote monitoring, and infrastructure design. Industry has a critical role to play in enabling integrated, proactive care, helping systems to move from reactive, hospital-centric models towards more preventative, community-based approaches.

However, realising this opportunity will require early and ongoing engagement between industry, policymakers and local systems, ensuring that solutions are aligned to the needs of neighbourhood delivery models and embedded into system design from the outset.

techUK’s next steps

To support this agenda, techUK will be launching a dedicated Neighbourhood Health workstream, bringing together members, policymakers and system leaders to:

Explore how technology can enable neighbourhood health models
Share best practice and emerging examples
Identify and address key barriers to implementation
Shape policy development as the model evolves

We welcome engagement from members across the ecosystem who are interested in contributing to this work. If you would like to get involved, please get in touch with [email protected]

Robert Walker

Head of Health & Social Care, techUK

Rachel Kennedy

Programme Manager Health and Social Care, techUK

Lewis Stewart

Programme Manager ‑ Health and Social Care, techUK

Viola Pastorino

Junior Programme Manager, Health and Care Team, techUK

Health and Social Care Programme activities

techUK is helping its members navigate the complex space of digital health in the UK to ensure our NHS and social care sector is prepared for the challenges of the future. We help validate new ideas and build impactful strategies, ultimately ensuring that members are market-ready. Visit the programme page here.