Draft Greater Cambridge Planning Obligations Supplementary Planning Document re-consultation - 2025

The NHS 10-Year Plan (July 2025) highlights the NHS’ focus to ensure care is directly delivered into local communities, in a push to decant acute care services generally delivered in the hospital setting. This seeks to optimise the use of hospitals whilst maximising the level of healthcare services being provided in local settings, including through delivering more urgent care within communities.

As drafted, the Planning Obligations SPD – Chapter 22: Healthcare does not make reference or provide detail with regards to the NHS 10-Year Plan or Neighbourhood Health Centres. To ensure the SPD is not only reflective of current changes but also remains relevant and suitable for use, it is recommended that additional wording is incorporated into Chapter 22 of the SPD, in line with the wording below:

Proposed Wording Addition:
“22.17 From an estate perspective, delivering the NHS Long Term Plan means a shift…
22.18 At a national scale, the shape of the NHS is changing, with a strong focus on directly delivering care at the community level. In line with the NHS 10-Year Plan (2025), this is planned to be achieved by investing in integrated neighbourhood provision (‘Neighbourhood Health Centres’). At the time of preparation of this SPD, the specific principles and requirements for the delivery of Neighbourhood Health Centres are still yet to be determined. The delivery of healthcare infrastructure should therefore be reflective of NHS 10-Year Plan guidance as and when it is made publicly available, where identified to be relevant by C&P ICS or its successor body.”