The 10-Year Plan and the Future of Neighbourhood Health: Shifting from Hospitals to Communities

The 10-Year Plan reinforces a strategic shift that the NHS will move from hospital-centric delivery models to community-led, prevention-focused care. For senior leaders navigating today’s complex operational and financial pressures, this could signal more than a change in geography, it could represent a fundamental reframing of the purpose and structure of care. 

An upcoming keynote panel at HETT 2025, kicking off the Integrated Care Forum on Day 2 of the show, will convene senior voices from across the system to cover themes in the 10 year plan, by exploring how this shift can drive meaningful progress toward better patient outcomes.  

The discussion will interrogate what redefining care delivery really entails. This includes not only relocating services but rebalancing strategic priorities, funding flows, and workforce models. A key focus will be the role of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) as system leaders. Their ability to influence investment decisions, workforce planning, and digital transformation will be critical to ensuring this shift delivers the intended outcomes.  

One area of growing interest is the emergence of Neighbourhood Health Services. These platforms designed to integrate health, social care, and VCSE services, offer a vision of joined-up, localised support that is both data-driven and person-centred. Realising their potential, however, depends on system-wide progress in interoperability, commissioning reform, and the redesign of digital infrastructure. 

The panel will also examine the enablers of a sustainable transition to a community-first model, including the long-term alignment of funding mechanisms and the modernisation of procurement to support innovation and flexibility. Without these shifts, community care risks becoming a policy aspiration rather than a practical reality. 

General Practice, long the entry point to the NHS, will play a critical role in the evolving model. The discussion will explore how prevention can be embedded more deeply in primary care without undermining access, continuity, or clinical capacity. 

This dialogue is timely. National strategy now supports the move toward community-focused care, but delivery remains the challenge. Success will depend on aligning leadership, policy, digital infrastructure, and financial incentives across systems. 

For senior NHS leaders, the panel will engage with the practical levers of change, bringing expert perspectives to the complex decisions that lie ahead and contributing to a shared understanding of what the next decade of care should look like. 

Join the conversation at HETT Show 2025

If you're working to shape the future of integrated, community-first care, this is a session not to miss.

Secure your free pass to HETT Show on 7–8th October 2025 at ExCeL London, and be part of the national dialogue on what it will take to turn strategy into delivery.