"The most valuable insight we heard wasn't about systems – it was about people"
15th July 2026
Joint blog by Amerjit Chohan, CEO of Helpforce, and Claire Kennedy, Joint CEO of PPL
The most valuable insight we heard at our joint Helpforce and PPL roundtable in London this month was that people are the key force that will shape neighbourhood health.
Every conversation centred around this theme. The strongest insight from our joint Helpforce and PPL roundtable on neighbourhood health was not about structures, funding or organisational models. It was about people.
Every conversation centred around this theme, as senior leaders from across the NHS, the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector, think tanks and social investment organisations came together in London to discuss one of the biggest questions facing health and care today: how do we create sustainable investment in neighbourhood health?
What struck us wasn't just the diversity of organisations represented around the table. It was how closely aligned everyone was in their purpose. Whatever our role, we shared the same goal: helping people live healthier, more independent lives by delivering care that is closer to home, more preventative, and built around what matters to individuals rather than organisational boundaries.
While there was broad support for the ambitions set out in the NHS 10-Year Health Plan, the discussion quickly moved beyond policy and into implementation. There was a strong sense that the appetite for change already exists. Organisations across health, care and the VCSE sector share a common purpose, policy is increasingly aligned, and we have better data than ever before to understand what people and communities need.
These are not criticisms of the neighbourhood health vision, but practical questions about how we translate the vision into implementation.
The opportunity is here. The challenge now is creating the conditions that allow neighbourhood health to succeed.
Two themes surfaced repeatedly throughout the day: firstly, neighbourhood health must be built with communities, not around them. And secondly, that we ned to develop a shared language around investment, ambition and outcomes to enable us to build trust.
That resonated deeply with both of us.
Through our work at Helpforce and PPL, we regularly see the extraordinary contribution made by local voluntary groups, particularly for people who are least likely to engage with traditional services, and we recognise the power of what happens when organisations, communities and professions connect in new and exciting ways.
During the roundtable, we shared the stories of two women from Cornwall whose experiences brought that contribution to life.
Madeleine, aged 72, found herself isolated after years of caring for her partner and coping with his death. A local community hub gave her friendship, practical support and a renewed sense of routine. She describes it as a lifeline that protected her mental wellbeing and helped her avoid needing NHS intervention.
We also heard from Tess, also 72 and a former nurse, who faced bereavement, financial abuse and years of isolation. Through the same community hub, she found practical support, help navigating benefits and, perhaps most importantly, familiar faces who gave her something to look forward to every week. She believes that support prevented her from reaching crisis on more than one occasion.
Stories like Madeleine's and Tess's remind us about the importance of investing in the infrastructure that allows that value to flourish.
Community infrastructure is the connective tissue that links people, organisations and local assets together. It builds trusted relationships, coordinates volunteers, enables collaboration, strengthens partnerships and helps people find the right support at the right time.
Without it, neighbourhood health will not be able to achieve a genuine transformation in how people experience care.
Encouragingly, we also discussed growing evidence that this approach delivers measurable results.
Helpforce's recent evaluation of Cornwall's Community Gateway and Hub Network shows what is possible when community infrastructure is designed into the health and care system, rather than added as an afterthought. In one year, almost 340,000 attendances reflected the scale of local demand for support that helps people tackle loneliness, manage long-term conditions, navigate services and access practical help close to home. The evaluation estimated annual NHS cost avoidance of £11.6 million by supporting people earlier and reducing unnecessary demand on statutory services.
Distinguished guests at our roundtable event.
Trust is the foundation of effective investment.
Five themes from the roundtable stood out as critical to moving neighbourhood health from ambition to reality.
First, the appetite and opportunity for change already exist. The challenge is not convincing organisations of the direction of travel, but maintaining momentum while policy, evidence and local ambition are aligned.
Second, trust is the foundation. Trust between NHS organisations, local authorities, VCSE partners and communities cannot be commissioned overnight. It grows through time, shared purpose and genuine partnership. If neighbourhood health is to succeed, we must invest in building trust through working together and sharing experiences and insights before expecting transformational outcomes where systems don't have years to build those relationships naturally, they need transparent ways of working, clear expectations and consistent behaviours that create the conditions for trust to grow.
We've seen first-hand what happens when community infrastructure is treated as an essential part of the health and care system rather than an optional extra. People receive support earlier, volunteers become a powerful force for prevention and community organisations help people stay well and independent. Meanwhile, NHS services can focus their expertise where it is needed most.
The evidence is growing, the policy direction is clear and the appetite for change is real. The question now is how we find ways to invest in the relationships, partnerships and community infrastructure that make neighbourhood health possible.
Third, we need to think differently about investment. Investment isn't only financial. It also means investing time in relationships, leadership and partnership working. And if neighbourhood health is genuinely about transforming outcomes, we need to think beyond short funding cycles and recognise that lasting change often takes five to ten years rather than three.
Fourth, shared power requires shared responsibility. Communities and VCSE organisations need to help shape priorities from the outset, not simply deliver services once decisions have already been made. Genuine partnership means sharing both influence and accountability.
Finally, we need to build on what already exists. Avoiding duplication, strengthening coordination across the VCSE sector, sharing learning openly and aligning priorities across organisations will create stronger foundations for sustainable investment than starting from scratch.
The discussion demonstrated a strong consensus that the ambition for neighbourhood health is shared across statutory and VCSE partners. The challenge is no longer establishing whether change is needed, but creating the conditions that allow it to happen.
Because neighbourhood health will not be built through organisational charts alone. It will depend on trust, shared purpose and communities empowered to shape solutions alongside the NHS.
Ultimately, success will be measured by whether more people like Madeleine and Tess are able to live healthier, more connected and more independent lives because the right support was there when they needed it, closer to home.