Merton launches pilot for integrated health and care teams in Morden

Merton launches pilot for integrated health and care teams in Morden

Merton Council has launched a pilot programme to integrate health and care services across its neighbourhoods, aiming to provide a more consistent and person-centred approach to resident care.

The pilot, which has already begun in the Morden Primary Care Network, brings together health, social care, and community professionals into single teams aligned with local neighbourhoods. This initiative is part of a broader effort to shift from fragmented service delivery to a more coordinated model, identifying risks earlier and responding more quickly to changing needs.

The Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) are being developed to include GPs, community healthcare, adult social care, children and family services. Future iterations will also incorporate the voluntary sector, mental health services, acute care, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, social prescribing, and pharmacy. The INT model is designed to foster collaboration through shared multi-disciplinary team working combining professional judgment local knowledge of the population to identify risk earlier and to respond quickly when needs change. Rob Guile, Director of Operations for Southwest London for Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, highlighted that with everybody working within one team there'll be a much higher instance of that team accepting the referral and for system outcomes there'll be fewer acute attendances and admissions.

The INTs will work collaboratively day-to-day, combining professional judgment and local knowledge to support residents, particularly older adults with frailty or those nearing the end of their life. The model also aims to build on the strengths of Merton's community and voluntary sector.

During a Health and Wellbeing Board meeting on October 1, 2026, Rob Guile presented the development of the INTs. He highlighted that the pilot in Morden had already received 10 referrals on its first day. Mark Creelman, Place Executive for Merton Place, and Terry Clark, Executive Director for Adult Social Care, Integrated Care and Public Health, both expressed enthusiasm for the transformational potential of this development.

The success of the pilot will be measured by a suite of outcomes. Councillor Tony Reiss inquired about the measurement and learning from the pilot, with confirmation that a suite of outcomes is being measured, with further details to be shared. Mark Creelman also mentioned that a whole suite of outcomes that we've been measuring. Length of stay, repeat, attendance. Yeah, a whole, a whole raft. Additionally, the Better Care Fund metrics include emergency admissions, average length of discharge delay, and admissions to residential care homes.

While the exact timeline for evaluation is not explicitly stated, there is a clear intention to expand the model. Mark Creelman stated, on the back of the pilot, the hope is that we then roll that out relatively quickly to the rest of the boat. Terry Clark mentioned that the next Health and Wellbeing Board meeting on November 10th would be too soon to bring back data, suggesting a potential discussion of data and iterations in the January meeting, implying an evaluation period of at least a few months.

The meeting acknowledges that communication with residents is a concern. Mark Creelman stated, I do think we've probably we have been bringing kind of information about neighborhood developments certainly here to the health and wellbeing board and recently we went to the osc i think there is a need for us to think about the communication and the wider stakeholder engagement absolutely and that is in part of the plan and part of the work program for neighborhoods. Bev Hendricks also mentioned that the overarching principle is to intervene at the earliest opportunity, with an emphasis on prevention and responding to need without waiting for a diagnosis, which implies a proactive approach to informing residents.

More information on the Health and Wellbeing Board meeting can be found in the Public reports pack and the Agenda frontsheet.