Brent's Health and Wellbeing Board has approved a new four-neighbourhood model for NHS services, a significant shift aimed at enhancing local healthcare delivery and aligning with the national NHS Neighbourhood Health Framework. The decision, made at a meeting on Thursday, September 17, 2026, consolidates the current five neighbourhood areas into four. The Kilburn and Willesden neighbourhoods will be merged, while Harlesden, Kingsbury and Kenton, and Wembley will remain as distinct areas.
This new model is designed to foster a more sustainable foundation for integrated neighbourhood working, ensuring sufficient scale for effective partnership collaboration and the optimal use of resources. The integration of primary care, community services, and mental health services will be at the core of these neighbourhoods, requiring stronger collaboration between NHS organisations, local authorities, place partnerships, and community organisations. This approach moves away from fragmented services towards a more coordinated, neighbourhood-based care model, in line with the West and North London 10-Year Strategy's focus on prevention and earlier intervention.
The implementation of this four-neighbourhood model will begin with mobilisation starting in October 2026, with neighbourhood health services intended to be the primary delivery vehicle. The ICP Executive will offer support to the newly merged Kilburn and Willesden area to establish effective collaborative leadership and representation. A further update on the implementation of neighbourhood health services is scheduled to be presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board in November 2026.
The merger of Kilburn and Willesden aims to provide greater scale for integrated service planning and multidisciplinary working, enhance leadership resilience and workforce flexibility, and enable more effective utilisation of resources, including estates, digital, and data infrastructure. It is also expected to reduce organisational and governance interfaces for borough-wide and specialist services.
The new model is intended to support the delivery of Brent's Borough Plan, particularly in its objectives to create a healthier Brent, provide the best start in life for children, and foster thriving communities. The West and North London 10-Year Strategy places equity at the centre of its approach, aiming to target action and resources where need is greatest. This will involve making care fairer by ensuring people with barriers access more help and directing additional support to these communities. The strategy acknowledges the risk of larger neighbourhood footprints containing distinct communities and patterns of need, which will be mitigated through detailed population health analysis, maintaining locality-level delivery where appropriate, and involving residents in developing action plans.
While the decision to adopt the four-neighbourhood model has no direct financial implications, initial implementation will be managed through existing partnership resources. This will primarily involve staff time for updating governance, aligning plans, and communicating changes. The move is expected to lead to more efficient use of existing resources by reducing duplicated efforts and strengthening workforce flexibility. Future investment or service changes will be subject to separate business cases.
Extensive work was undertaken to address views on neighbourhood geographies, including a workshop over 12 months prior, engagement with primary care partnership forums, and the LMC. A consultation was conducted, yielding numerous submissions and weighing various options. However, the report notes that there isn't a consensus
from these submissions. While feedback from primary care, NHS providers, and Brent Council is mentioned, direct consultation or specific feedback from residents is not detailed, though the broader strategy emphasizes co-production with residents.
For more details on the meeting and reports, refer to the Agenda frontsheet and the Public reports pack for the Health and Wellbeing Board meeting on Thursday, 17 September 2026.