One of the key ambitions of Neighbourhood Health is to bring health and care closer to communities, strengthening collaboration between NHS organisations, local authorities, the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector and the people who use services every day.
Over the past six months, we have been working with people with lived experience, VCSE organisations, health and care providers, commissioners and neighbourhood heath leaders to co-produce an Involvement Framework that aims to place people and communities at the heart of neighbourhood health planning, design and delivery.
How we developed the framework
Between December 2025 and January 2026, NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board brought together people from across the system for a series of 12 co-production sessions that focused on what good involvement within Neighbourhood Health means. The work formed part of a wider commitment to ensure patient, public and community voice is embedded throughout neighbourhood health development. A total of 91 participants took part, representing:
- people with lived experience
- VCSE organisations
- Healthwatch
- frontline practitioners
- commissioners and system leaders
- neighbourhood health teams from across all West Yorkshire places
Using the Results Accountability Framework, participants reflected on examples of good and poor involvement, identified common themes and collectively defined the outcomes, indicators, approaches and measures that should underpin meaningful involvement in neighbourhood health.
The Framework
The resulting Neighbourhood Team Involvement Framework provides a practical tool that neighbourhood teams can use to plan, review and improve involvement activity.
The framework focuses on four areas:
- Results - how has involvement informed the goals or results we are trying to achieve for people and communities?
- Indicators - how will involvement show we know if we are making a difference?
- Ways of working - how do we involve people, communities and partners effectively?
- Performance measures - how do we know our involvement activity is being delivered well?
The framework moves beyond simply demonstrating that involvement has taken place. Instead, it encourages teams to demonstrate how involvement influences decisions, shapes priorities and improves services. A key principle throughout the development was: evidence from involvement, rather than evidence of involvement, makes the difference.
Supporting continuous improvement
Alongside the framework, we have developed practical guidance and evaluation tools to help teams use the framework consistently and support ongoing learning.
The guidance emphasises that the framework is intended to be:
- developmental rather than punitive
- reflective rather than compliance-focused
- flexible enough to accommodate local approaches
- grounded in lived experience and community insight
We have also developed two complementary questionnaires:
- Team assessment - a collective self-assessment for neighbourhood teams and partners to review how involvement and co-production are being embedded
- Individual experience assessment - a questionnaire designed to understand whether people involved in neighbourhood health feel that involvement is meaningful and effective in practice, based on their experience
Together, these tools will help identify strengths, highlight opportunities for improvement and support learning across West Yorkshire.
Aligning with national priorities
The framework aligns closely with the National Neighbourhood Health Improvement Programme (NNHIP), particularly in relation to:
- population health management and community insight
- community-led solutions
These areas emphasise the importance of combining data, intelligence and lived experience to understand local need, tackle inequalities and support communities to shape solutions alongside statutory services.
The framework and assessment provide a practical way for neighbourhood teams to demonstrate progress against these ambitions while maintaining a strong focus on local priorities and community voice.
What happens next?
The framework is not intended to be a static document. It will continue to evolve through use, feedback and shared learning.
Neighbourhood teams will be supported through peer learning, collaboration and ongoing review to ensure the framework remains relevant and useful as neighbourhood health matures across West Yorkshire.
Our ambition is that involvement becomes a routine part of how neighbourhood health operates - not an additional activity, but an integral part of how priorities are identified, services are designed and decisions are made.
By working together across sectors and alongside people with lived experience, we can ensure Neighbourhood Health is shaped not only for communities, but with communities.