Neighbourhood health services coming to BwD

Blackburn with Darwen has been announced as one of 43 places across England to benefit from the support of national and regional teams to work with local leaders and communities to further develop neighbourhood health services.

Under the Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme, each place will draw together a range of professions and organisations to develop ‘neighbourhood health teams’ consisting of community nurses, hospital doctors, social care workers, pharmacists, dentists, optometrists, paramedics, social prescribers, local government organisations and the voluntary sector – giving people easier and more joined up access to the right care and support closer to their own homes.

They will initially focus on supporting people with long term conditions such as diabetes, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and those people who are frail with multiple and complex health and care needs. It will centre around areas with the highest levels of deprivation and inequalities. As the programme grows, it will expand to support other residents and priority cohorts.

Morecambe Bay is the other area in Lancashire and South Cumbria included in the new plans for neighbourhood health services.

Jane Scattergood, Chief Nurse at the Integrated Care Board, said:

Working in neighbourhoods alongside partners and communities is a really important part of the NHS’ 10-year health plan and a shift to supporting and improving health and wellbeing. 

It is great for Lancashire and South Cumbria to be part of this programme because it will support great work which is taking place in Morecambe Bay and Blackburn with Darwen, but also in neighbourhoods across the region where we are also seeing some great collaboration and neighbourhood initiatives which are improving the experiences of our residents. 

Our footprint covers a wide geographic area, including urban, coastal and rural communities across three counties – Lancashire, Cumbria and North Yorkshire. Despite this huge geography, partners have a strong history of working collaboratively to support the needs of our residents in different areas and design services that respond to local challenges and maximise local community assets. Being selected to participate in wave one of this programme is a fantastic reflection of our hard work to date and an exciting opportunity for us to do much more in our neighbourhoods to offer preventative, person-centred care.

Claire Richardson, director of health and care integration for Blackburn with Darwen, said: 

This is a wonderful opportunity for us to build on our current integrated working in our Blackburn with Darwen neighbourhoods and really start to transform the care we deliver to local residents.

Being recognised as a pioneer site is a testament to the strong bonds and amazing collaborative work we do together across health, local government and the voluntary sector in Blackburn with Darwen. All our local organisations are looking forward to working with the national team to continue creating better outcomes for our communities and ensuring we are doing all we can to keep people safe and well at home.

Neighbourhood health will benefit patients by providing end-to-end care and tailored support, looking beyond a single condition and instead supporting individuals and their families with their overall health and wellbeing, helping to avoid unnecessary trips to hospital, preventing unnecessary complications or exacerbations in managing their condition, and avoiding the frustration of being passed around the health and care system.

The wave one programme will begin in autumn 2025, and will support NHS ambitions to expand neighbourhood-based working over the coming year. For Blackburn with Darwen, this will mean learning from other sites across the country and sharing their learning with other places and neighbourhoods within the Lancashire and South Cumbria footprint.

Councillor Phil Riley, leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: 

I’m really pleased that Blackburn with Darwen has been chosen as one of the first areas that will benefit from local access healthcare.

We are always looking at ways that will make our residents’ lives easier and work closely with our partners to achieve this. Our neighbourhood health teams will be working with residents with long-term health conditions so they can soon benefit from these individualised new plans.

Arif Patel, Deputy Chief Integration Officer at East Lancashire Hospitals, said:

One of the reasons we have been successful in becoming one of just a handful of pilots from a huge list of areas that applied is because we already work together across Blackburn and Darwen to improve services for local people – and we’re doing some great things already. This includes ensuring people are able to access and receive the care they need in the place they need it, no matter which part of the wider system is providing it. We already have great community services supporting patients in their health centres, nursing and care homes, in their own homes, often through virtual wards. This is critical to helping people who don’t need to be in hospital to stay safe and well. This new neighbourhood programme is going to help us to do even more.

Dr Mohammed Umer, a Darwen GP and Clinical Director of Blackburn with Darwen Primary Care Networks/Local Primary Care Federation, said

This is well earned recognition of the efforts our GPs and our health, and care organisations put in to work collaboratively to serve our population.  It is a critical opportunity to strengthen our local partnerships, building on the excellent work already happening in our neighbourhoods.  Focussing on preventative care and shifting care to the community, we can ensure improvements are driven by local people and clinicians and is tailored to the needs of the community.

More details about the Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme can be found on the Neighbourhood Health website: https://neighbourhood-health.co.uk/