Lucy Hubber, Director of Public Health
Health is built in neighbourhoods, not just in services. I see this every day. People’s lives don’t fit neatly into organisational boundaries and many face several connected challenges at once. When care is designed from the centre, it often feels distant, complicated and hard to access – especially for those who need it most.
Neighbourhood working starts from a different place. It begins with communities, with trust and with the relationships that already exist in local places. When support is rooted in neighbourhoods and organisations work together around people, help happens earlier, barriers are reduced and outcomes improve. This approach is not new, and it is not theoretical – it is already working across Nottingham.
The real challenge now is leadership. We need to move beyond pilots and short‑term projects and make neighbourhood working the normal way we plan, fund and deliver support. That means long‑term commitment, shared responsibility and the confidence to shift power closer to communities.
If we are serious about tackling inequality and building a more sustainable system, neighbourhood working must move from the margins to the mainstream
This year’s Annual Report takes a different approach. Rather than a document to be read from start to finish, it is a set of webpages that can be explored in the way that works best for you. Throughout, we highlight examples where neighbourhood working is already making a real difference in Nottingham. These examples show what is possible. My call now is for this good practice to move beyond isolated pockets of excellence and become a stable, system‑wide way of working across our city.
