Neighbourhood Health Centres: A New Era for Community Care

The recent government announcement of 250 new Neighbourhood Health Centres marks a significant step in reshaping how care is delivered across England. These centres will form part of a new Neighbourhood Health Service, bringing GPs, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and a wider range of community-based services together under one roof. The programme will initially focus on areas with the greatest health inequalities, improving access and creating more equitable local provision.

A vision for community-based care

Neighbourhood Health Centres are conceived as “one-stop shops” for coordinated, multidisciplinary support. They form part of a wider strategy to ease pressure on hospitals by shifting more outpatient and community activity closer to where people live. There is also a clear ambition to reduce siloed working across primary care, community health, mental health and social care—improving continuity, reducing duplication and enabling a more preventative approach to health.

NHS England has outlined the core components of the new model in its Neighbourhood Health Guidelines (2025–26) and, for London, A Neighbourhood Health Service for London, both of which set out expectations for service integration, population health focus and community engagement.

Next steps

This autumn marks the start of implementation, with 43 early-launch areas piloting the first wave of neighbourhood services. These sites will help shape national best practice, testing the operational, clinical and digital models that will underpin wider rollout. Over the coming years, the programme will scale to hundreds of locations, delivered through a mix of new build, refurbishment of existing estate, and strategic partnerships between NHS organisations, local authorities and community providers. Local Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) will play a central role in identifying sites, coordinating services and ensuring that emerging centres reflect local population needs.

“The Neighbourhood Health Centres initiative is a fantastic opportunity to rethink what a truly community-centred health service means drawing from the best examples whilst incorporating new technologies and leveraging digital services to improve access. Bringing together a wide range of services, not only those with a narrow medical focus, will also improve the integration of preventative healthcare in people’s lives.” Director Adrian Miles

Avanti Architects: models for community-based care

We have long experience in designing integrated community health environments that reflect many of the principles now embedded in the national programme.

• Barrhead Health & Care Centre and Banbridge Health & Care Centre demonstrate how GP services, diagnostics, therapy provision and community wellbeing spaces can be co-located to create accessible and user-friendly health hubs.
• Portadown Health & Care Centre and Bandon Primary Care Centre show how integrated health facilities can be sensitively embedded within existing town-centre contexts, illustrating the diverse settings anticipated for the new national programme.
• Grove Wellbeing Centre expands the model further by combining preventative health services with wider community amenities such as library and leisure functions, improving early access and supporting broader public-health goals.
• At the Grade I-listed Finsbury Health Centre our ongoing conservation-led renewal demonstrates how historic assets can be re-imagined as modern health hubs—particularly relevant as many neighbourhood centres will emerge through refurbishment rather than new build.

Looking Ahead

As the national programme moves into delivery, success will depend on creating centres that are flexible, sustainable and genuinely rooted in their communities. This will require design teams who understand clinical functionality, public-sector estate constraints, and the importance of civic identity in community-based care.

Neighbourhood Health Centres represent a long-term shift in how the NHS organises care: local, preventative and multidisciplinary. Our experience across integrated community facilities, town-centre developments and heritage refurbishments positions us to support this transition and help shape the next generation of neighbourhood-scale health infrastructure.