Services helping to care for people closer to home win NHS Excellence Award

A pioneering Liverpool initiative, that includes three of our community-based services, has been named the national winner of the Neighbourhood Health Award at the NHS Excellence Awards 2026.

This award recognised the pioneering work to deliver proactive, community-based care that helps people stay well and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions, providing care closer to home.

The initiative brings together a number of local health services and organisations to work in partnership, which includes UHL Group’s Liverpool Community Respiratory Team, the Renal Team and the Liverpool Diabetes Partnership.

The Liverpool Place Population Management model uses health and care data to identify people who are most at risk of deteriorating health and provides coordinated support before they reach crisis point.

Paul Tinnion, Liverpool Community Respiratory Team Clinical Team Leader at UHL Group, said: “As part of this project we used protected data from the Cheshire and Merseyside Care Record and the CIPHA Population Health Intelligence Platform. This allowed us to identify people – such as those over age 65 with COPD and living alone – who may benefit from additional support, and we could proactively engage them in our community care.

“The aim is to reduce hospital admissions by supporting and treating patients before they need to come into our hospitals, it’s more beneficial for vulnerable patients to be treated at home without the need to travel. Plus, we can also provide guidance and other support services, such as referrals to the Healthy Homes programme. People can also refer themselves into our community respiratory services.”

Our Renal Team and Liverpool Diabetes Partnership have also been using population health data so they can help identify patients proactively, allowing clinicians to offer a targeted community intervention.

At the NHS Excellence Awards, judges praised Liverpool’s “mature, system-wide model” and highlighted its innovative use of population health management to bring together services and target people most in need of support. They described the programme as a “working, city-scale example” of the neighbourhood health model set out in the NHS 10 Year Health Plan.

The initiative brings together organisations and teams from across Liverpool, including NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, GP practices, Mersey Care, Prima Housing Group, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Fusion21 Foundation and University of Liverpool’s Civic Health Innovation Labs.

Liz Bishop, Chief Executive of NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, said: “This award is national recognition of years of collaborative work across Liverpool to transform the way care is delivered. Rather than waiting for people to become unwell, teams are using data, clinical insight and partnership working to identify those most at risk and provide support earlier.

“The Liverpool Place Population Management model demonstrates how neighbourhood health can work in practice. By bringing together primary care, community services, hospitals, mental health, social care and wider partners around the needs of local people, we are improving outcomes, reducing health inequalities and helping more people stay well for longer.”

The full list of NHS Excellence Award winners can be viewed on the NHS ConfedExpo website.