Building equal partnerships for neighbourhood health across seven councils

The Challenge

Partners across Sussex shared a strategic ambition to develop neighbourhood approaches to health and wellbeing, but turning that ambition into practical local delivery was complex.

The area included seven district and borough councils, each with different priorities, perspectives and relationships with health partners. Many local government partners were concerned that the neighbourhood agenda was being driven primarily through a health lens, with insufficient recognition of the contribution of prevention, wellbeing and the wider determinants of health.

Without a shared approach, there was a risk that partners would see themselves as participants rather than equal partners in shaping the future model.

My Approach

I created the conditions for genuine partnership by ensuring all organisations could see themselves as equal partners in the neighbourhood agenda.

Working individually and collectively with district and borough councils, health partners and voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations, I built shared understanding, strengthened relationships and aligned perspectives around a common purpose.

I established governance arrangements that visibly demonstrated equality of partnership, including shared leadership arrangements between general practice and local government, and developed structures that enabled local authorities to work together in shaping and implementing the neighbourhood vision.

The Result

Seven Integrated Neighbourhood Leadership Teams were established, creating a practical structure for joint planning, decision-making and delivery across health, local government and wider partners.

Partners agreed shared priorities, clarified roles and responsibilities, and established new ways of working focused on prevention, health inequalities and reducing avoidable demand on services. The work strengthened collaboration between organisations that had previously operated through separate structures and priorities, creating a more consistent approach to neighbourhood development across Sussex.

Importantly, the programme secured the active involvement of district and borough councils by positioning neighbourhoods as a shared agenda shaped by health, wellbeing and the wider determinants of health, rather than solely as a health initiative. This helped create a stronger sense of collective ownership and partnership across the system.

Perhaps most importantly, the work translated a broad strategic ambition into practical local delivery arrangements, establishing the governance, relationships and leadership structures needed to support long-term implementation. The model went on to inform wider neighbourhood development across Sussex and created a stronger foundation for place-based partnership working.