Posted on: 9 September 2025
In July, The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England (NHSE) invited colleagues across the health and care systems in England to participate in the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP).
141 proposals were received from teams bidding to join Wave 1 of the programme, which included three from West Yorkshire. We are pleased to confirm that all three of our bids have been approved which is great news for our health and care system. For the North East and Yorkshire (NEY) region, there were eight successful bids. While these are three successful pilots, in the coming months, these teams will work at pace and scale to inform and influence best practice in relation to Integrated Neighbourhood Health across the whole of West Yorkshire and beyond.
The three West Yorkshire pilots will be taking place in Bradford District and Craven, Leeds and Wakefield. This work is an opportunity for multi-disciplinary teams, partner organisations, the VCSE sector, patients and local communities to help shape and influence the future direction of integrated neighbourhood health nationally, by sharing best practice. In short, professionals, local communities, patients, advocates and ambassadors will be working together to make sure that health and social care services are right for people in their local communities.
In Bradford District and Craven, among key elements of the pilot are ‘Born in Bradford’ (BiB), an internationally recognised research programme, designed to understand the causes of illness and health inequalities by tracking the lives of thousands of people; the Reducing Inequalities in Communities (RIC) programme, and the VCSE Alliance which is unique in the country in co-ordinating VCSE effort (financial investment, voice and managing risk) in delivering shared ambitions.
In Leeds - where 26% of the population lives in the UK’s most deprived neighbourhoods – the pilot offers valuable learning for other places facing similar challenges. The Leeds health and care system collaborates with the DHSC through the Leeds Health and Social Care Hub, designated as the national ‘health and social care campus’, and includes academia and the Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber. Leeds Academic Health Partnership is developing a community of practice for neighbourhood health involving academics from three universities.
Wakefield is distinct in having a mature Linked Data Model that underpins its data-driven population health management (PHM) approach, from live cohort selection to advanced risk stratification. These scalable, tested methods provide valuable insights for other places developing Neighbourhood Health, and can contribute to the development of similar methods nationally. In December 2024, Wakefield became the first ICB approved by NHSE to flow pseudonymised non-NHS data into a linked model. From April 2025, this has expanded to include data from Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), early years, homelessness services, housing, education, and the VCSE sector, strengthening Wakefield’s PHM capabilities.
Further information and regular updates about our approach across West Yorkshire can be found on our newly published Integrated Neighbourhood Health pages.