From vision to reality: building the future of neighbourhood care
The NHS 10-Year Plan has landed and with it, a renewed sense of purpose.
To reflect on what this means for the future of care and infrastructure, we spoke with Shane Dineen, Commercial Executive at Archus. His perspective helped us explore how this long-awaited vision can be translated into meaningful, system-wide transformation—grounded in integrated planning, data-led prioritisation, and a belief in the power of change.
For years, we’ve talked about the need to shift care closer to home, to digitise the NHS, to move from reactive to preventative health. Now, with the launch of the NHS 10-Year Plan, we finally have the direction of the vision and the ambition, the “what” and “why” that brings the scope together. It’s bold. It’s overdue, but finally it gives some direction to a nation ready to embrace and see change.
As highlighted in Lord Darzi’s report, the plan centres on three transformative shifts:
- From hospital-centric to community-based
- From analogue systems to digital-first delivery
- From treating sickness to enabling prevention
These aren’t new ideas. But what’s different now is the urgency and the alignment across policy, funding, and public expectation. The plan sets out a future where neighbourhood health centres become the front door to care, where digital tools support self-management, and where the system is designed around people, not processes.
At the heart of the Archus mission lies a commitment to revolutionise healthcare delivery and foster an approach that enhances community well-being and improves the health of our populations.
Infrastructure: The enabler beneath the vision
There is hope. Healthcare has been prioritised in the UK’s 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy, receiving 16% of the total £725 billion investment. That’s a clear signal of intent - and a platform for delivery.
These investments are designed to deliver three strategic goals:
- Modernisation: upgrading NHS facilities to improve safety and care
- Resilience: addressing critical risks like RAAC
- Long-term planning: ensuring stability and predictability in capital investment
While the vision is clear, there is an opportunity to enhance the “how” and “what”. What steps are required to enhance these transformations and how will these be implemented at system and local levels? Capital alone won’t deliver change. It’s how we align that capital with clinical and operational priorities that will determine success.
The need for modern, flexible, and resilient healthcare infrastructure is undisputed. The planning of it needs to be well-led, data-driven and digitally enabled for the investment to be efficient, effective and sustainable.
This isn’t new news, but we believe we need:
- Integrated planning: Infrastructure must be planned in lockstep with clinical models, digital strategy, and workforce planning. The estate is an enabler but it's how it integrates with data, digital, workforce and population need that will make the stepped change.
- Capital prioritisation: With billions committed, we need transparent, data-led prioritisation. We must be honest about what delivers value. That means using real-world data, evidence-based research and literature reviews, not just political optics.
- Delivery capability: The scale of investment demands a step-change in delivery capacity. We’ve got the ambition. We need a consistent standard and approach adopted for its delivery.
- Cultural shift: Perhaps most importantly, success hinges on mindset. This isn’t just about buildings. It’s about belief. We need to believe that transformation is possible and build the cultural legacy to bring about the required changes.
The steps to delivering the plan: Archus’ new Neighbourhood Care Framework
At Archus, we’re preparing to launch a new framework for neighbourhood care that has been co-designed with clients, utilises patient data, is locally grounded, to address each individual organisations or system challenges, but always nationally aligned. It’s been built specifically to help deliver the ambitions of the NHS 10-Year Plan: enabling care that’s closer to home, digitally enabled, and centred around people, not processes.
We’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks, but for now, it’s clear: the vision is set, and the promise of investment remains.
An opportunity to define the steps for implementation at local and system level was required. Collaboratively we can enhance the proposed vision and strategic shifts such as Neighbourhood Care to reshape the clinical outcomes of our local communities, through our understanding of local challenges, national alignment and adoption of international best practice.
Don’t miss out - secure early access to the Neighbourhood Care Framework by registering your interest today.
