Lucy Hubber, Director of Public Health
Feeling connected to other people is an important part of happiness and therefore health and wellbeing. This might be spending time with friends or family, but can also be saying hello to the bus driver, discussing the weather with the shop assistant, or knowing where to go for help.
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.
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.
This report highlights what we can learn from these successes – the importance of listening to and trusting communities; building a common purpose and sharing our resources; and work together to improve outcomes.
Our next collective challenge is how we invest in building these into new approaches to neighbourhood working, so that our services are designed around people where they live, work or study.
