Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, published 3 July 2025, how the planned multi-neighbourhood providers covering large geographical areas will improve local continuity of healthcare.

The 10 Year Health Plan sets out our vision for a Neighbourhood Health Service that moves care closer to home. The Neighbourhood Health Service will embody our new preventative principle that care should happen as locally as it can, digitally by default, in a patient’s home if possible, in a neighbourhood health centre when needed, and only in a hospital if necessary.

We will bring together teams of professionals closer to people’s home, including nurses, doctors, social care workers, pharmacists, health visitors, and more, to work together to provide comprehensive care in the community and improve local continuity of healthcare. We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that meets the needs of local populations.

Multi-neighbourhood providers will facilitate the development of neighbourhood teams, improving access for local populations and supporting the continuity of care for patients in a Neighbourhood Health Service. These providers will cover populations of approximately 250,000 people, to unlock the advantages and efficiencies possible from greater scale, working across all general practices and small neighbourhood providers in their footprint. The introduction of the Single Patient Record will support this way of working, giving neighbourhood clinicians secure access to a patient’s medical records to ensure seamless care across services.