Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of delivering weight management services as part of the neighbourhood health model.

Neighbourhood Health Services will bring together teams of professionals, including nurses, doctors, social care workers, pharmacists, health visitors, and more, closer to people’s homes, to work together to provide comprehensive care in the community.

We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations and so could include weight management services. While the focus on personalised, coordinated care will be consistent, this will mean services will look different, for example in rural communities, coastal towns, and deprived inner cities.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) and local authorities are responsible for commissioning weight management services. We would expect them to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines and the move to a Neighbourhood Health Service.

We are intending to publish a National Framework for Neighbourhood Health Plans in the autumn. This will set out how areas should design neighbourhood health services around local needs and different population cohorts.