The £1.5m initiative could help turbo-charge the government’s plans for a neighbourhood health service with care shifting from hospitals into local communities. As well as tackling health inequalities, the programme would also support wider regeneration and community resilience efforts. The programme will place a particular focus on improving support for communities facing the greatest barriers to accessing care and the poorest health outcomes.
Applications to join the Trailblazer programme will be open to the 43 sites which were announced last year under the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme, as part of government roll out of new neighbourhood health services.
Neighbourhoods can apply from 29 June to 17 July at: www.socialfinance.org.uk/impact/trailblazer
Identifying the opportunity
Current funding models can leave people stuck in a cycle of reactive, hospital-based treatment, particularly those living with cancer and other long-term conditions who often need support that goes beyond clinical care alone.
In contrast, this new approach focuses on long-term, preventative and community-based support, helping create more joined-up care that is designed around people’s lives and delivered closer to home.
Last year, West Herts in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support and Social Finance launched a pioneering collaboration that leverages around £10 million of social investment to help redesign care. Social investment is a mechanism used to fund preventative, community-based healthcare services using upfront capital from social investors, which the NHS only repays if the service successfully achieves specific, pre-agreed health outcomes.
By focusing on communities facing the poorest outcomes and greatest barriers to care, the Trailblazer Programme also aims to help tackle health inequalities and build more sustainable models of neighbourhood health and a scalable model for neighbourhood health that could be replicated nationally.
The Trailblazer programme
The Trailblazer programme will effectively replicate structural features of this model and prepare the selected sites to be ready for social investment. That means ensuring they have built new ways of working, governance and delivery mechanisms to deliver these localised services, focussed on their place context.
West Herts will act as a ‘mentor’ to the Trailblazer sites, offering support and practical advice. Macmillan Cancer Support and Social Finance will provide expert financial and technical support to help local health and care systems build the skills, confidence and culture needed to attract and use finance and impact investment to improve community-based care.
As part of its wider commitment to invest £250 million in neighbourhood health across the UK over the next three to five years, Macmillan intends to be the first to invest in several of the Trailblazer sites at the end of the nine-month programme.
A key part of model development and selection will be market engagement with potential social investors. The expectation is that the sites will receive impact investment from April 2027.
Learning from the programme will be used to produce playbooks and frameworks for a future wider national rollout, helping inform the future development of neighbourhood health services, as well as wider applicability for how public services can effectively partner with impact capital.
Satvir Kaur MP, Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office, said: “To achieve real national renewal, we have to do government differently. By leveraging our newly launched Office for the Impact Economy, this Trailblazer programme will empower local communities to build innovative partnerships and deliver on the priorities that matter most to them."
“Through this model, we are ensuring that every pound of public funding goes further, enabling local people to work hand-in-hand with impact capital to create long-term, preventative healthcare built fundamentally around people's lives.”
Minister of State for Care Stephen Kinnock said: “Through neighbourhood health, we are fundamentally changing how healthcare is delivered– making sure people have access to the vital care they need right on their doorstep.
“These trailblazer sites will turbocharge our mission, by bringing services focused on prevention, tackling inequalities and improving health outcomes together under one roof.
“The programme will pave the way for other neighbourhood health services, as we take the best of the NHS to the rest of the health service, boosting the wellbeing of communities up and down the country.”
Toby Hyde, Managing Director of the South West Hertfordshire Health & Care Partnership, said: “By working in close partnership with a wide range of partners in Hertfordshire, we’ve already rolled out a new model for providing joined up, expert care for older people with complex health needs – on their doorstep and tailored to their specific needs. It’s early days but the early results have been very positive.
“We now want to encourage other NHS Trusts and local community organisations to consider becoming a Trailblazer site and attract social investment to deliver meaningful change within their local areas”
Gemma Peters, Chief Executive at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “Cancer isn’t fair and too often, cancer care isn’t either. Too many people living with cancer and other long-term conditions are navigating fragmented systems that weren’t designed around their lives.
“At Macmillan, our mission is to make care fairer for everyone from diagnosis, through treatment and beyond so every person can get the support they need. The Trailblazers programme is an exciting opportunity to show how to revolutionise healthcare. It will demonstrate how to bring care closer to home, and reshape it around people and their communities – providing a roadmap for long-term, sustainable investment in neighbourhood health.”
Caroline Gadd, Chief Executive of Social Finance, said: “Delivering neighbourhood health is crucial to improving health and care for communities, as well as helping the NHS become financially sustainable. At Social Finance we work in partnership to deploy impact capital to drive change at a system level and I am delighted to see this Government commitment to enabling social investment to back outcomes in health.
“What is most exciting is not just the first wave of six sites, but what comes next and the potential to transform how we invest in health in the future.”
ENDS
For more information, please contact:
- Nick Foley, Director of Communications at West Herts NHS Trust, 07929094922 nick.foley@nhs.net
- Contact Eleanor Watson, Communications Manager at Macmillan Cancer Support on EWatson@macmillan.org.uk or media@macmillan.org.uk for more information
- Contact Sara Felix, Director of Engagement and Influence at Social Finance on sara.felix@socialfinance.org.uk for more information.
Notes for editors
About West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust provides healthcare services to over 600,000 people living in West Hertfordshire and the surrounding areas. We see nearly a million patients every year and employ around 5,800 people, making the Trust one of the largest employers in the area. We operate Watford General Hospital, Hemel Hempstead Hospital and St Albans City Hospital, and have ambitious plans to redevelop our hospital sites for our patients and staff.
About Macmillan Cancer Support
Macmillan Cancer Support has spent more than 100 years helping people living with cancer. We know that cancer can disrupt your whole life. And it can be made worse simply because of who you are and where you live. But we’re here to change that. The number of people diagnosed with cancer is growing, and every one of them needs the best support to meet their unique needs. That's why we'll do whatever it takes to help everyone living with cancer across the UK get the support they need right now and transform cancer care for everyone who will be diagnosed in the future.
About Social Finance
Social Finance is a non-profit organisation that helps our partners design, fund and scale solutions to complex and enduring social issues in the UK and globally. We launched the world’s first Social Impact Bond in 2010 and since then our pioneering work has delivered lasting and widespread change that improves the lives of people and communities. We are FCA-regulated and help with mobilising finance, strategy, design, data, and building partnerships, in a human-centred way. We partner with local and national governments, commissioners, service providers, such as charities, as well as socially-motivated investors, funders, international donors and philanthropic organisations.
About the Office for the Impact Economy
The Office for the Impact Economy, based in the Cabinet Office, unlocks innovative partnerships between government and the impact economy—including purpose-driven businesses, impact investors, and philanthropists. By blending public sector expertise with private impact capital to tackle some of the UK’s biggest social and economic challenges, this cross-government and cross-sector collaboration demonstrates what is possible when we rethink how public services are delivered.