Bringing together information and resources on neighbourhood health for councils and their partners.
Neighbourhood health is central to the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan, aiming to shift care closer to home, strengthen prevention, and improve how services are organised around people and communities.
The Neighbourhood Health Framework, published by the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England on 17 March 2026 following the 10 Year Health Plan for England (July 2025), alongside further guidance on neighbourhood health centres and the Health Bill currently before Parliament, marks a significant step change for the wider system. Together, these reforms place neighbourhoods at the centre of health and care delivery and set new expectations for how partners work together.
Neighbourhood working offers a clear opportunity to bring services closer to people, support earlier intervention, and better reflect the realities of how people experience health and care.
Councils must be central to this, given their role in delivering adult and children’s social care and public health; their influence over the wider determinants of health - including housing, employment, education, and the local environment; and the relationships they hold to convene partners around shared goals and outcomes.
Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) also have a critical role in this agenda. The Neighbourhood Health Framework sets out a clear expectation that local government and the NHS, working through HWBs, will lead the development of neighbourhood health plans, using local evidence to shape priorities and delivery. HWBs are therefore central to ensuring neighbourhood health is genuinely place-based, aligning partners, embedding local insight, and driving coordinated action to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities.
Councils and their partners have long worked in this way, and across the country, many places are already taking joined-up approaches, with examples to learn from in our case studies.
What’s next
Over the coming months, the LGA will work with councils and partners to develop a local government vision for neighbourhood health, share further learning and practical tools.
For more information contact: [email protected]
Highlighted pages
Neighbourhood health in practice: case studies
Examples of councils taking a joined-up preventive approach to health and wellbeing in their communities.
Neighbourhood health: Tools, resources and support
The LGA’s support, publications, briefings and blogs on neighbourhood health.
