Workshop explores models for neighbourhood-based support

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A workshop has taken place to explore a neighbourhood-based model for health and wellbeing in Lambeth.

Participants sitting around a table at a Local Care Networks workshop, Jan 2019
Participants at a Local Care Networks workshop, Jan 2019

The event at Lambeth Town Hall is part of work taking place to evolve Lambeth’s Local Care Networks into neighbourhood-based collectives joining-up services from statutory agencies, the community and voluntary sectors by place.

Local Care Networks (LCNs) in Lambeth are well-established locality-based partnerships focussed on improving local health and wellbeing by services and communities working together.

The vision is to further build upon their strengths and partnerships by creating a neighbourhood-based model of health and wellbeing which will better serve the holistic needs of people living within each community. It’s anticipated there will be between 9 and 12 individual neighbourhoods in the final structure.

A wide range of people and organisations, including Lambeth residents, NHS, Lambeth Council, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital and voluntary sector organisations, came together to start defining these neighbourhoods.

Organisations in Lambeth currently organise their work and services in different ways; like around council wards and town centres, and people living and working in Lambeth have differing views on what their neighbourhood is.

Several options were debated and appraised over the course of the workshop.

Whilst delegates had an overall preference for a neighbourhood model based upon community assets – in particular building it around communities created by Lambeth Forums – they also supported a blended model which would provide a structure needed by services to provide consistent care.

This event started the conversation around developing neighbourhoods and more people in Lambeth will have a chance to get involved.

Over the coming months, the evolving neighbourhoods will be supported to come together to develop new relationships, ways of working and test new ideas locally. The new neighbourhood model will begin operating in shadow format for one year in 2019/20, so ways of working and systems can be fine-tuned and improvements made.

By 2020/21, a Neighbourhood Based Care and Wellbeing Delivery Alliance will be created bringing health, care, and voluntary and community organisations together in a partnership with one budget of between £125 and £175 million per annum for adults in Lambeth.

This is one of the alliances being developed as part of Lambeth Together. Through Lambeth Together, organisations in all sectors are working as one to co-ordinate and deliver health and care services across the borough.

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