The newly published NHS 10-Year Health Plan, launched earlier this month, signals a fundamental realignment of the health service’s mission – pivoting away from reactive, hospital‑based care towards a future rooted in neighbourhood health, digital empowerment, and prevention-first models. Central to the plan are three radical shifts – from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention – alongside a commitment to neighbourhood health services that deliver care close to home and support more equitable, community-rooted wellbeing. 

At Best Practice Birmingham 2024, Craig Lister, Associate Director for Primary Care Prevention at BLMK Integrated Care Board, delivered an insightful and practical presentation exploring the challenges, failures, and successes of delivering a neighbourhood-level prevention agenda rooted in primary care. Drawing on decades of experience as an exercise physiologist and voluntary sector leader, Lister showcased how BLMK has built place-based governance – from ICB through PCNs to neighbourhood forums – into which voluntary sector partners like Sport England’s Active Partnerships are seamlessly integrated. 

In the seminar entitled Integrated Neighbourhood Working – An ambitious and joined up approach to prevention, Lister set out how the BLMK ICB has mobilised multi-million‑pound physical-activity programmes delivered directly in local communities. Through this model, they aim to improve access to prevention, reduce pressure on primary care, and address health inequalities by co-designing interventions with neighbourhood groups and embedding them within everyday life, reflecting the neighbourhood health aspirations of the national plan. 

You can watch to the full recording from last year’s show here: