by David Smith, Trustee, Cross Gates Good Neighbours, Leeds

As a trustee at an established older people’s charity, you’d have to forgive me if my eyes rolled a little last year when the NHS came out with Neighbourhood Health in the Ten Year Plan. That’s because charities like Cross Gates Good Neighbours, dedicated to older people’s wellbeing, have been delivering neighbourhood health for decades. We’ve long understood the importance of personalised care and the wider determinants of health as recognised by Prof. Marmot. In Leeds, local charities run by local older people for local older people have been nurtured and supported by the City Council for 30 years. They’re known as Neighbourhood Network Schemes, so the clue is in the name.

Charities are perennially optimistic and in my years as a trustee I’ve been encouraged by the emergence of “integrated care”, with the third sector invited to work with the statutory health and care providers. Going back 5 years or more, many GPs in Leeds were unaware of the third sector’s offers and potential, but integrated care and associated concepts like proactive care and social prescribing have changed that. The prospects are now ripe for the NHS’s Neighbourhood Health rollout and, given the right opportunities, I look forward to contributing our experience and expertise.

When I learned about the Coalition for Personalised Care, I joined at once because its time is now. It’s fundamental to the new health and care initiatives (NHS: “from treatment to prevention”). At Cross Gates Good Neighbours, we enjoy the trust and affection of our local population – something that’s sadly often beyond the reach of the statutory services. For example, our membership includes more than half of all those aged 85 or over in our part of East Leeds.

Charity workers and trustees will be familiar with the constant need to raise funds and demonstrate social impact or return on investment. We always search for new ideas and opportunities, and for ways to both celebrate and quantify the value of our activities. This is where C4PC’s recently launched Promising Practice Library can help. Give it a try, it’s pleasant, smooth and quick to use, and it’s already populated with many good things.

Under Personalised Care Stories, the PPL has films showing what happens when care is shaped around what matters to individuals. And under Campaigns I found the excellent paper Stronger Communities for Better Care, produced by the Health Creation Alliance for C4PC in 2024, which encompasses many of my points and thoughts from above, and is forceful about what should happen next. There’s a link to measuring social capital that I’ll follow up. I’m also looking forward to the PPL’s Research Opportunities section, as I’m due to become an inaugural PPIE Group member (Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement) for Leeds University’s upcoming EPIC trial (Evaluating Person-centred Integrated Care at Home).

Leeds is always a vanguard for NHS innovations and will take part in the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme, including establishing Neighbourhood Health Hubs in our deprived areas. I’m looking forward to collaborating with many dedicated colleagues and contacts in the third sector, the NHS, the City Council and academia, with personalised care at the heart of it.