Overview
Neighbourhood Health is about making it easier for people to get the right support, at the right time, as close to home as possible. It recognises that people’s needs are not always neatly separated into health, care, housing, mental health, transport, money or community support — and that local services need to work together around people and places, not just organisational boundaries.
One Northern Devon is developing a local approach to Neighbourhood Health that builds on the strengths of Northern Devon: our communities, our voluntary and community sector, our primary care and wider public services, and the relationships that already exist across partners.
Neighbourhood Health is being developed nationally in response to a health and care system that is under increasing pressure, too often fragmented…..
The problem we are addressing
Neighbourhood Health is being developed nationally in response to a health and care system that is under increasing pressure, too often fragmented, and not yet organised around people’s whole needs. NHS England guidance describes the need to move more care closer to home, improve access, experience and outcomes, reduce avoidable reliance on hospitals, and shift from reactive treatment towards prevention, proactive care and integrated multi-disciplinary working.
The national ambition is for local NHS, local authority, social care, public health, voluntary sector and wider partners to work together around defined neighbourhood populations. This means improving routine access to care, providing more proactive support for people with complex needs, and developing better alternatives to hospital care.
In Northern Devon, these national challenges are intensified by local factors including rurality, transport barriers, an ageing population, social isolation, housing and economic pressures, workforce constraints, and persistent inequalities in access, experience and outcomes. Local work has also highlighted fragmented pathways, unclear referral routes, duplication, system “churn”, and limited visibility of the full range of community and voluntary sector support available.
The challenge for One Northern Devon is therefore to translate the national Neighbourhood Health ambition into a locally meaningful model: one that connects existing services and community assets, helps people get the right support earlier, reduces avoidable escalation, supports primary care and partners to work more sustainably, and focuses attention on people and communities who are currently least well served.
The intended beneficiaries
Timescales & Funding
Who has been involved?
Project Meetings & Workshops
Workshops
OND Neighbourhood Health Workshop Agenda and Supporting Documentation – 28.04.26
North Devon Neighbourhood Health Steering Group workshop Agenda – 28.04.26
Supporting Documentation 26.04.26
Northern INT Workshop Slides 28.04.26
Government Guidance for Neighbourhoods
OND Neighbourhood Health Barriers and Opportunities
Neighbourhood Health Objectives Identified by North Devon Stakeholders
Design Principles of Neighbourhood Health Identified by North Devon Stakeholders
