Healthy places and communities: a 2020–25 strategic priority

The purpose of our work on healthier places and communities is to support effective place-based working that leads to improved health and wellbeing. Place-based working means working together to ensure local people benefit from approaches that draw on the full range of resources available in a place – including public services, voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector organisations, and the strengths and assets of communities themselves.

The programme will work to achieve change including:

• communities having more power to drive improvements in the health and care outcomes that matter most to them
• better partnership-working and alignment between local authorities, the NHS and the voluntary and community sector – allowing local needs to be met in a more co-ordinated way
• national policies, regulatory structures and funding flows designed in a way that reinforces effective place-based working.

In 2022, we will work to:

• support local leaders to develop effective place-based partnerships, integrated care systems and primary care networks
• enable successful implementation of the reforms introduced by the 2022 Health and Care Act, including promoting collaborative leadership
• ensure that local government, VCSE organisations and other partners are a core part of integrated care systems
• help health and care organisations become better equipped to work with communities and learn from community insights.