The Kent Health and Wellbeing Board considered an early draft of a Neighbourhood Health Plan that must be in place by April 2027, covering prevention, hospital admissions and wider health inequalities across the county.

An early draft of a Neighbourhood Health Plan (NHP) for Kent was presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board when it met on 30 September 2026, with officers seeking members’ comments on a document that must be ready for implementation by April 2027.

The plan is required under the nationally published Neighbourhood Health Framework (NHF), which places responsibility on Health and Wellbeing Boards for leading its development. A small group of officers from Kent, Medway and the NHS has been working on an initial draft, described in the papers as being at a fairly early stage.

What the plan must cover

According to the report, the NHP must provide an overview of how NHS objectives will be delivered through three reform agendas — improved routine services, proactive care and alternatives to hospital. It must also describe how neighbourhood health will support local goals around inequalities and health outcomes, link objectives to the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, confirm geographies and organisational responsibilities, define governance and operational partnerships, and describe how other local initiatives such as family hubs, housing and voluntary and community sector services align with neighbourhood health.

The report noted that the initial NHS priority within neighbourhood health is identifying frail people at risk of admission and offering proactive support to help them remain independent, alongside reactive community services able to provide rapid, intensive care to avoid hospital admission. The framework has since been widened to include access to primary care and routine hospital waits.

Officers acknowledged that mental health and the needs of children, young people and families do not receive the same initial emphasis as prevention of hospital admission in frail older people, and said it was important these areas were included specifically in the NHP and agreed actions.

Kent-wide and local priorities

The draft plan includes current NHS plans around neighbourhood health and local structures, as well as draft Kent County-level priorities with a focus on adult social care, following a KCC workshop on that theme. Priorities around children’s services and mental health are also to be included.

Officers from all city, district and borough councils in Kent have been engaged in meetings about the plan, and a meeting has taken place with Healthwatch to consider how qualitative information on local resident needs can inform the work. The Kent Housing Group and voluntary and community sector health alliances are also being engaged.

The report proposed that the plan run for three years, with more detail around year one and high-level actions for years two and three to be developed further. It would be a high-level document referencing other more focused local and system-level action plans.

Local government reorganisation complication

Officers noted the complexity introduced by upcoming local government reorganisation, but said the need for the NHP to commence in April 2027 meant action had to progress within prevailing systems. The plan is to be developed at Kent and Medway level, with overlapping but distinct outputs for Kent and Medway, to remain relevant following reorganisation.

The Kent Health and Wellbeing Board will formally approve the Kent NHP, while Medway Health and Wellbeing Board will approve the Medway NHP. It is planned that the two documents closely align where possible to allow a Kent and Medway NHP to be agreed at the ICB.

The council had not published the minutes of the meeting at the time of writing, so the committee’s decision is not yet on the public record.

Sources

Top image: illustrative, computer-generated. Illustrative AI-generated image. This is not a photograph of any real Kent health facility or building.