A new Neighbourhood Health model is being launched in Barnet by a partnership of council and health services aimed at integrating health, social care, primary care, and voluntary services to enhance resident well-being and promote healthier living at home.
The new model, which has transitioned to a five-neighbourhood structure, seeks to provide more proactive and coordinated support for residents with complex needs. This initiative builds upon existing services and has secured recurrent funding from the West and North London ICB for its development.
The Adults and Health Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee received an update on the progress of this model, hearing that the focus is on developing Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) to offer a more holistic approach to care. A central feature of this approach is moving beyond organisational activity measures towards understanding whether integrated working is improving outcomes, experience and equity for residents. The Borough Partnership Decision-Making Framework specifically requires consideration of resident/community benefit and benefits realisation, though specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are yet to be detailed.
Key elements of the model include support for residents to live well
through social prescribing, coordinated case management for those with complex needs, proactive future and advanced care planning, and enhanced professional advice and guidance across integrated teams.
A speaker at the meeting highlighted the importance of this integrated approach, noting its relevance to the council's wider ambition to enable people to live as independently as possible for as long as possible.
The initiative aims to move beyond organisational activity measures to focus on tangible improvements in resident outcomes, experience, and equity. The programme is working to ensure that it can demonstrate not only the impact of the new ways of working, but any potential and unanticipated costs of changing the way services are delivered. It is also working to ensure that nothing it does enhances or exacerbates any inequalities, and this is feeding into how outcomes are measured, recognising both short-term and longer-term year-on-year outcomes of providing a more proactive service. The specific metrics for measuring these improvements are not yet detailed.
Significant investment has been confirmed, with the West and North London ICB allocating funding for the Integrator Function, neighbourhood analytics, and the development of Integrated Neighbourhood Teams. This investment is intended to enhance existing services and enable a more effective and coordinated delivery of care.
Integration of Voluntary Services and Community Insight
Voluntary services are set to play a crucial role in the new model. The Barnet Healthier Neighbourhood Network has been invested in to ensure that voluntary sector community partners, particularly smaller organisations needing additional capacity, can fully engage in this work. The intention is to improve the flow of information and referrals both from these partners into health and social care, and vice versa, leveraging their expertise. Discussions are also underway regarding how to collaborate more effectively with these organisations in the future, a process that requires dedicated time and capacity, which the council is working to provide.
Furthermore, the Barnet Healthier Neighbourhood Network serves as a VCSE-led forum connecting voluntary and community organisations with statutory partners. This network is intended to bring community insight and lived experience into neighbourhood and borough-wide decision-making, with Healthwatch Barnet acting as a key partner. This ensures that residents' perspectives are integrated into the ongoing development and refinement of the neighbourhood health model, alongside the insights from community partners.
Committee members provided comments on the developing approach, emphasising the need to demonstrate clear improvements in resident outcomes, address health inequalities, and ensure meaningful community involvement in the model's implementation. The provided information details several actions to address health inequalities, including initiatives to narrow gaps in non-attendance, strengthen health literacy governance, and pilot high blood pressure screenings.
Read more about the committee's discussions in the Public reports pack.