Neighbourhood Health Services

Baroness Maclean of Redditch Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Maclean of Redditch]

To ask His Majesty’s Government how they intend to measure the success of neighbourhood health services in reducing demand for hospital care and improving access to primary care.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)]

My Lords, success will be measured against five minimum national goals in the neighbourhood health framework, which was published in March 2026. That will include improved access to general practice and better urgent and emergency care performance. Integrated care boards and local authorities will establish locally owned neighbourhood plans with metrics that reflect population needs. An independent national evaluation, which will be commissioned through the NIHR, started this April to support national policy and delivery of neighbourhood health and evaluate its adoption and uptake.

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[Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. She set out the government policy, which states that local health and well-being boards will work with communities, health and care organisations and wider partners to establish outcome measures that cover the whole life course of the individual and reflect both health and social care needs. Can the Minister say how, bearing in mind the wider devolution agenda, the Government will measure neighbourhood health outcomes to allow for effective comparison between regions?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Baroness set out exactly what the plan is, and I am grateful to her for doing so, but I emphasise that the whole point of the independent national evaluation is that it will evaluate the whole breadth of neighbourhood health. It started in April and will run for three years. I further emphasise that it is about continual engagement and developing different ways that neighbourhood health can be successful. It will also model what the long-term outcomes and improvements can be, depending on how you do it. All that will mean working with the local ICBs to see about their progress, but they are well aware of the expectations upon them, and they will set their own ways forward.