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The first 43 sites that will host neighbourhood health services have been announced by the government.
On 9 September 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that the services would initially target “working class areas with lowest life expectancy and longest waits”.
The locations of the neighbourhood health service sites include Rotherham, Portsmouth, East Kent, Sunderland and Stockport.
The government is investing £10m into the first wave of the programme, which was first announced in the government’s ten-year plan for the NHS in England.
Each local service will have a designated programme lead who will work with existing local services to create the neighbourhood health service.
Services will be centred around general practice and link with pharmacists, as well as other health and social care professionals, local government organisations and the voluntary sector.
The DHSC added that the neighbourhood health services will initially focus on long-term conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure and epilepsy.
Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “We call [for] these sites to begin by committing to genuine patient partnership by ensuring communities have meaningful roles in the design and delivery of services they are placed to serve, listening to local voices and shaping services around people’s real needs.
“Only by working hand in hand with patients can these centres start to reduce inequalities and deliver lasting improvements in care.”
Commenting on the announcement, Amandeep Doll, director for England at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said: “Neighbourhood health services have the potential to bring care closer to home and address long-standing health inequalities. Pharmacists will be essential to making these services work, supporting patients with long-term conditions, optimising medicines and improving health outcomes.
“With the right investment, workforce support and involvement in neighbourhood teams, pharmacists can deliver safe, effective and person-centred care at scale. Embedding pharmacy expertise locally will help ensure patients receive the right care, in the right place.”
According to the NHS ten-year plan, published on 2 July 2025, ultimately every community in England would have a neighbourhood health centre, which would be multidisciplinary “one stop shops”, open for 12 hours per day, 6 days per week.
It added that pharmacy would be “integral to the neighbourhood health service, offering more clinical services”.
