GUIDE

Neighbourhood Health SOP guide

The Neighbourhood Health Framework (March 2026) sets the exam question every system will face: can you show, with evidence, that your neighbourhood model reaches the people who need it most and changes what happens to them?

This guide answers it in six practical steps. Each step names the question you will be asked, sets out the external evidence, and adds one reality check from live Joy data: over 47,000 live community services, more than 437,000 referrals and support cases in the last 12 months, and 98% of referrals made inside the clinical working week.

What you get

• Six SOP steps, from needs evidence to first-neighbourhood selection to measurement
• The external evidence for each step, fully cited to primary sources
• Live Joy reality checks, every figure re-verified with a provenance note
• A quarter-by-quarter checklist for the first 12 months