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Proposed contracts for neighbourhood health services are too centred on general practice and NHS providers, and others — including community pharmacy — should be “equal partners in design, governance and delivery”, the Royal College of Pharmacy (RCPharm) has said.
Pharmacy should have a “key role in strategic commissioning”, the College added in its response to an NHS England consultation on how neighbourhood health service contracts should work, published in July 2026.
The government has said the first 27 neighbourhood health centres, set out in the NHS 10-year plan, will open by 2027 in areas of England most affected by deprivation, with plans to create 250 neighbourhood health centres by 2035.
The consultation, which closed on 10 September 2026, asked for views on two proposed models for the contracts: a multi-neighbourhood provider (MNP) contract and a single neighbourhood provider (SNP) contract.
RCPharm said that neighbourhood arrangements “must complement, not replace or destabilise, existing national contracts for community pharmacy and other primary care professions”. It added: “National contracts for all primary care providers should be reviewed so they complement each other as clinical services delivered in primary care expand and as professionals take on evolving roles.”
Under the proposals, MNPs would cover several neighbourhoods, planning and organising NHS primary medical and non-primary care, and would work with local providers including SNPs, GP practices and pharmacies.
SNPs would plan and organise NHS services for local people in one neighbourhood, and would be built on the current Primary Care Networks (PCNs) model, but more focused on local needs and broader than just general practice, the documentation says.
NHS England say the new contracts aim to make services simpler and more joined up, more organised around local population needs, and to make it clearer who is responsible for delivering a service or pathway.
Describing community pharmacy as an “extraordinary neighbourhood asset”, the College said in its response that neighbourhood health “cannot achieve its stated objectives of prevention, access, demand reduction and tackling inequalities without fully utilising community pharmacy as an equal primary care partner and, where appropriate, a contract holder”.
“The frameworks should explicitly recognise community pharmacy as part of the neighbourhood delivery model,” it added.
It also said that there should be a formal mechanism for community pharmacy clinical and contractor representation in neighbourhood decision-making, and that commissioning should allow pharmacies to be paid for clinical outcomes, not just individual interventions.
NHS England said that feedback received on the proposed contracting models will be reviewed and consideration given to whether any changes should be made to the proposals.
There will then be further consultation periods on the proposed final detail of both MNP and SNP contracts later in 2026.
Read more: Everything you need to know about neighbourhood health
