A programme-wide analysis of where neighbourhood health stands nationally, what's working in comparable sites, and what the evidence says about Thanet's position — prepared for clinical and system leaders.
43 sites selected from 141 applications. £10m nationally. No additional local funding. The programme is a coaching and learning infrastructure — the delivery challenge sits with local systems.
The strongest early results come from sites that had existing integrated working before NNHIP selection. Folkestone & Hythe (East Kent's own pioneer site) cut A&E visits for at-risk patients from 223 to 33 in six months — an 85% reduction — with unplanned GP appointments falling from 671 to 126. East Birmingham's Integrated Neighbourhood Team at Washwood Heath reduced A&E admissions by 7% and hospital admissions by 10% in year one through co-located urgent treatment and care coordination.
The pattern: success correlates with pre-existing multi-agency relationships, proactive patient identification, and care coordinator roles embedded in primary care — not with additional funding or new technology.
Five months in, the most frequently cited barriers across the programme are governance complexity (who leads the neighbourhood team when nobody "owns" it?), data sharing between organisations, workforce capacity (particularly in community nursing and social prescribing), and the absence of shared outcome metrics. Sites without a clear evidence framework struggle to demonstrate progress to their ICB boards — and without evidence, continued investment is difficult to justify.
The gap: NNHIP provides coaching and peer learning. It does not provide governance templates, evidence frameworks, or stakeholder alignment methodology. Sites that bring these themselves are progressing faster.
Two distinct programmes running in parallel across the South East — the national NNHIP and the regional SE-NHAcc Accelerator. Kent and Medway has a footprint in both.
| Programme / Site | Status | Focus | Lead Organisation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Folkestone & Hythe | NNHIP Pioneer | Fully integrated neighbourhood team, co-designed with residents. Proactive care for at-risk patients | Kent Community Health NHS FT + Folkestone Hythe & Rural PCN |
| Central Chatham | SE-NHAcc | Lowest life expectancy in SE region. Younger demographic with complex health challenges | Kent & Medway ICB + NHS Confederation |
| Thanet | No Programme | 21% population in bottom 10% deprivation. Lowest GP ratio in Kent. 6-7% yearly increase in emergency demand | — |
| Hastings & Rother | NNHIP Pioneer | Coastal deprivation. Strong local partnership foundations | Sussex Community NHS FT |
| Surrey Downs | NNHIP Pioneer | Elderly residents and carer support | Surrey Heartlands ICB |
NHS Kent and Medway ICB manages a £4.7bn annual budget serving 2 million people. The system is organised into four Health and Care Partnerships (HCPs), with East Kent HCP covering the Thanet footprint. CEO Paul Bentley has publicly stated that neighbourhood team development should come "from the front line" rather than top-down from the ICB.
Dr Mayur Vibhuti, Chief Clinical Information Officer at the ICB, sits on the SE-NHAcc programme faculty alongside Helen Gillivan from Kent County Council — making him the senior clinical bridge between ICB strategy and neighbourhood delivery across the whole Kent and Medway footprint.
One of the most deprived areas in Southern England, served by a hospital trust under acute pressure, with no current neighbourhood health programme coverage. The deprivation data makes a compelling Wave 2 case.
Key decision-makers, influencers, and delivery partners for neighbourhood health in Thanet.
The nearest NNHIP pioneer site offers both a model to learn from and evidence to support Thanet's case for programme inclusion.
The opportunity: Thanet has the deprivation case, the provider infrastructure (KCHFT), and an adjacent pioneer site generating transferable methodology. What's missing is the programme architecture — the governance, evidence framework, and stakeholder alignment that turns intent into delivery. That's the gap where external support creates disproportionate value.
RiDraw works with NHS and public service systems on transformation challenges where multiple organisations must align around shared outcomes without shared governance. Our methodology is built from the disciplines we've applied across healthcare, infrastructure, and built environment programmes.
Every neighbourhood health programme needs an evidence chain that satisfies ICB boards, NHSE regional teams, and the NNHIP taskforce. Our TIP framework structures work into clear tasks with defined initiatives and auditable proof — so you can demonstrate what's working, when, and at what cost.
Evidence disciplineNeighbourhood teams bring together hospital doctors, GPs, community nurses, social care, pharmacy, VCSE, and councils — without a single point of authority. We map influence, identify blockers, and design governance that works across organisational boundaries.
Governance & relationshipsPurpose, Place, Habitat, Environment, Organisation — our framework for understanding how neighbourhood health sits within the physical and institutional landscape. Directly relevant to the NNHIP estates enabler group and the wider determinants agenda.
Place-based designMost advisory firms in NHS transformation are either pure management consultancies (strong on strategy, weak on delivery mechanics) or specialist healthcare consultancies (deep clinical knowledge, narrow methodology). RiDraw brings cross-sector operational methodology — the disciplines we've applied in airport operations, defence infrastructure, and complex built environment programmes — into health and care transformation.
This matters because neighbourhood health is fundamentally an operations integration challenge, not a clinical redesign challenge. The clinical models exist. What's missing is the programme architecture to make them work across organisational boundaries — and that's exactly what operational transformation methodology is built for.
A 30-minute conversation to share what we're learning across NNHIP sites and explore how it applies to your local context.
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