Phase One: Research

Despite the strong support across health and community sectors for a transition to neighbourhood and place-based, preventative health, we are aware that good examples of real-life practice are rare and often not new examples.  

Up and down the country, community-led approaches are being delivered which can support people with better management of chronic conditions, reduce hospital admissions and improve overall health and wellbeing. But because of the infancy of the work and/or lack of national profile (as a result of its scale) there is a lack of awareness, particularly of emerging approaches.

To add to this, messaging and support with approaches to community-centred or led health and wellbeing, including the emerging work within the NHS, with particular regard to the part which Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) and Integrated Neighbourhood Teams play, is inconsistent and in some cases poorly understood and/or mapped.  

Learning from one another is key to progress. As part of our foundational research phase, in collaboration with PPL, we will find and share new evidence on successful d approaches which are at a neighbourhood-level, community-led and involve integration with statutory services. 

The research will include two key components: 

a)    existing practices across ICSs 
b)    a case for change