Congratulations to our Chair, Penny Dash, who has been named as the ‘preferred candidate’ of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to be the new Chair of NHS England. At this stage, Penny is the government’s preferred candidate. A final decision will be made following her pre-appointment hearing with the House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee. Subject to the committee’s report, Penny is expected to take up the role in April and a process to recruit a new Chair of the ICS and ICB would then take place.

You may also have read that Daniel Elkeles, Chief Executive of the London Ambulance Service, has been appointed as the new CEO of NHS Providers, a role he is expected to take up in May, 

We know you will want to join with us in congratulating Penny and Daniel.

This spring, NHS North West London wants to talk to residents, health and care professionals, and community groups on how we can improve planned care for all. Planned care refers to non-emergency health care, such as hospital outpatient appointments or planned surgery. This piece of work does not cover mental health care.  

We want to improve waiting times, fair access and peoples’ experience of planned care. To do this, we need to consider the changing needs of people in north west London, the increasing number of people who are seeking care, and how we tackle the unfair differences in waiting times and care experiences for people from different communities.  

Find out the numerous ways we are collating views amongst our communities and stakeholders. You are welcome to take part, including by joining our Residents Forum on 5 March 2025, 6 – 7.30pm.

North west London continues to lead the way in our response to winter pressures. National indicators suggest that we are among the best performing ICSs in the country in terms of managing winter pressures. This is something we are proud of and it reflects our joint work across the whole system this winter.

Whilst our performance on improving health outcomes, reducing inequalities and driving value for money is not yet where our residents need it to be, North west London is performing well compared to other systems, and we recognise and thank staff across the system for their hard work over a challenging winter period. 

As we approach financial year end, we are optimistic than north west London will be one of the few ICSs in the country to achieve break-even. A good deal of work has gone into improving our financial position and addressing areas of challenge.

While we are not there yet, this joint work across the system and within the ICB has helped enormously. National planning guidance for 2025/26 has now been issued and we are starting to look at our own plans, while recognising that the exact finances are still to be finalised. 

NHS North West London and NHS trusts are required to publish a Joint Forward Plan before the beginning of each financial year. Each JFP covers the next five years.

We have refreshed last year’s Joint Forward Plan to cover the coming years. There are only small changes in the Joint Forward Plan 2025/6. Please note changes are likely to be made as Health and Wellbeing Board will be providing us with feedback in due course.

The government has been consulting the public ahead of publishing it’s Ten Year Plan for the NHS. The plan aims to achieve three historic shifts: from hospital to community, sickness to prevention and analogue to digital.

We have been promoting the government’s consultation and we funded Healthwatch Brent, Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea to carry out our local events on behalf of the whole of north west London, seeking input and feedback from local residents. Read more about the NHS Ten Year Plan.

NHS North West London is currently looking at what services and support should look like for those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire moving forward. We have been engaging with survivors, bereaved and local residents through various means including roundtable everts, focus groups, and community group meetings which saw participation from 259 residents. We also published a survey with a total of 195 responses to date.  

Whilst the closing date for formal submissions was Monday 3 February 2025, we want to make sure as many people as possible have the opportunity to give their views and provide their feedback. As a result, we extended the time for people to give feedback to Friday 28 February 2025. The information received will be considered in deciding what future health services and support should look like for those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. 
 
NHS North West London is inviting Grenfell Tower survivors who escaped Grenfell Tower after 1.28am to book a Personal Health Assessment (PHA). These assessments are specially designed to provide an in-depth review of health. The PHA includes an extended assessment and regular check-ups, with up to 60 minutes dedicated to each patient. On-the-spot testing and optional lung X-rays are available. Assessments can be done by NHS West London GP Federation at St Charles Health and Wellbeing Centre or the London Doctors Clinic. 

Appointments will be available from 1 February - 30 April 2025 and can be booked via email, phone, or through a dedicated service case manager. Two online sessions are being held on 26 and 27 February 2025 for survivors to attend to discuss the offer. For more information, email nhsnwl.nkrt@nhs.net 

Residents across north west London have been sharing their views in our public consultation on the future of adult community specialist palliative care services. The consultation closed on Monday 24 February 2025 and we will now need to consider what we have heard from local residents before making a final decision.

Throughout this consultation, we have been fully committed to ensuring an inclusive and accessible process. We recognise the importance of hearing from all communities, including those from protected characteristic groups, deprived areas, and digitally excluded populations. To achieve this, we have:

• Held over 100 involvement sessions across all boroughs in north west London
• Organised three north west London-wide consultation events
• Ensured every borough has hosted at least one local event
• Attended numerous meetings with a diverse range of groups to ensure broad engagement.

We continue to progress neighbourhood health (formerly called integrated neighbourhood teams) across north west London, working in collaboration with the seven Borough Based Partnerships.

Neighbourhood teams will deliver seamless, community-based care, ensuring they are accountable for their local populations and responsive to individual needs. This approach provides personalised, proactive support based on what matters most to people and communities.

At the January North West London ICB Board meeting, we outlined our vision for neighbourhood health, key models of care, and priorities for 2025.  Our current focus areas include:

• Proactive care for older people: Brent colleagues are supporting a north west London system-wide workshop in late April 2025 to help shape this work
• Children’s health: supporting the development of child health hubs, early years and family hubs.

After two years of construction, the new Chiswick Health Centre on Fisher’s Lane will open and is set to receive its first patients on 31 March 2025.

This purpose-built modern health facility is a joint £23 million project between NHS North West London, NHS Property Services and Hounslow Council. It will house three local GP practices, West London NHS Trust community services and be the base for Chiswick Primary Care Network (PCN).

Our ICS Health Equity programme is a partnership between local NHS bodies and local authorities and continues to make progress. A Shared Needs Assessment covering the whole of north west London has been developed to explore inequalities and support data-driven decision-making. This sits alongside and is drawn from the Joint Strategic Needs Assessments that each local authority is required to produce.

The Health Equity Team are working with local people to co-produce a new sustainable community in-reach model, working with local residents in Core20Plus communities to reduce health disparities. The aim is to ensure that communities are central to interventions that improve health outcomes. The official launch event is on 04 April 2025 Join us to learn from best practice and co-develop a sustainable model. Contact nhsnwl.healthequity@nhs.net to get involved.

Penny Dash, Chair of NHS North West London, and Rob Hurd, Chief Executive, have co-authored a blog on addressing barriers to career progression for staff from ethnically diverse backgrounds. As part of this work, NHS North West London is launching the Empowerment Circle Programme for Black Women in March 2025, facilitated by Excellence in Action and hosted by Yvonne Coghill. This programme will support leadership development. 

There are a range of other initiatives developing or in place across the system to tackle barriers to career progression for staff from ethnically diverse backgrounds and some of these are highlighted in the blog. 

The ‘Healthier Homes’ online portal provides resources on damp and mould prevention across north west London. Visit www.healthierhomeslondon.com and share with your networks.

Every year, the Health Equity programme allocates national funding to support transformational activities that reduce health inequalities and expressions of interest for 2025/26 funding will open soon.

You can read more about the programme in its first newsletter.

Our Estates Team continue to work with various teams to prioritise existing sites and projects, helping to develop a collaborative 5 to10-year delivery plan. This will involve estates enabling Neighbourhood Health (formerly Integrated Neighbourhood Team) plans, maximising use of existing health centres (and trust sites) across north west London and exploring greater opportunities for local authority and one public estate collaboration.

However, following the Government’s announcement on the revised programme to roll out the New Hospital Programme (NHP) all three Imperial Healthcare projects at St Mary’s Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals have been deferred for at least ten years.  NHS North West London Estates Team is working with estates directors to identify the increased risk of infrastructure failure arising from the highest backlog maintenance in the UK which is at £769.4m and growing further. This is likely to have an impact on the existing pressure on primary and community services to support delivery via alternative models of care in the community such as Neighbourhood Health and the required pace of delivery necessary to mitigate the risk.

We have also developed a North West London Sustainability Strategy. This outlines our commissioning intentions and responses to national targets in order to meet numerous net zero carbon ambitions, reduce emissions, improve building compliance and enhance social value. Estates are proactively working with NHS England, procurement leads, anchor institutes, Health Equity, London Ambulance Service, dedicated trust sustainability leads, Imperial College Health Partners and primary care to coordinate activity to meet national targets. Several Trust sustainability leads are presenting at a number of seminars (including this month’s Decarbonising the NHS) and other key forums across London to share expertise and case studies on progress to date. 

The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment training has been offered to numerous partners across the ICS to improve understanding and influence ICS activity. Following publication of NHS England green plan guidance this month, work is ongoing across teams to refresh Trust and NHS North West London green plans for July 2025. Various regional forums are underway to support ICBs and Trusts with this activity.

Work progresses with ICS partners to inform local authority local plans and their respective Infrastructure Delivery Plans (IDPs). Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) bids for Hounslow were submitted in December 2024 and will go through local authority approval this month. Further discussions are currently underway with Brent and RBKC local authorities around bidding for additional CIL funding to enable projects identified under the strategy and mitigate the impact of population growth across boroughs.

Our Estates Team continue to meet regularly with NHS property companies to undertake audits and review occupancy, lease management and charging across all sites. Feasibility and utilisation studies are commencing at Jubilee Gardens, St Charles Health and Wellbeing Centre, Heart of Hounslow, Willesden Centre for Health and The Meadows, some of our costliest and underutilised estate, to explore new opportunities for optimisation and reducing significant ‘void’ costs to NHS North West London. This month, Estates have visited Abingdon Health Centre, Earl’s Court Centre for Health and Wellbeing and Grand Union Village.

Estates projects which have completed or are due to complete in quarter 4 (2024/25) and quarter  (2025/26) include the Hillcrest Surgery relocation and refurbishment (February 2025 - Ealing), the handback of Wealdstone Centre for Health (completed January 2025 – Harrow), the Chiswick Health Centre Rebuild and handback of Stamford Brook Centre for Health (March 2025 – Hounslow), expansion of primary care and reduction in underutilised space at Grand Union Village (February 24 - Ealing), and the delivery of a new primary care facility in South Kilburn, which will replace a residential GP site (April/May 2025 - Brent).

NHS North West London has published its latest communications and involvement summary, covering January 2024.

Much of our focus was on the ‘compassionate care for all’ consultation. We are grateful for all the residents who have spoken to us across our eight boroughs, including at the various community events and meetings that have taken place. 

Overall, in January, we reached over 285,938 residents across all our platforms, speaking directly with 1,110 residents in local community settings via our in-reach programme, which included 50 events. As well as the public consultation, themes included GP access, screenings and vaccinations and health and wellbeing events.

NHS North West London shared a summary of the key findings from the feedback and comments gathered from the over 100,000 residents who took part in an engagement exercise on access to general practice, which included a survey and public events led by local general practices.

In an event held on 06 February 2025 at Brent Civic Centre, local people discussed the findings and next steps with our Chair Dr Penny Dash, CEO Rob Hurd and primary care leaders, including Dr Vijay Tailor, borough clinical director for Ealing, who is also the GP leading the primary care access programme. The findings were also discussed at an online meeting for residents in the evening.

Key findings include:

• The friendliness and professionalism of staff within our practices across north west London was highlighted and valued
• Patients report challenges in securing timely GP appointments, particularly in areas with higher demand
• There are now more digital tools to support access to healthcare, but some patients report barriers to accessing or using these effectively.

More information and the key findings are on our website.

NHS North West London’s Personalisation Programme jointly with North London Training Hub hosted its 2nd annual north west London Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme Personalisation Networking Event, for social prescribers, health and wellbeing coaches and care co-ordinators. The event was held at St Mary’s in Marylebone with over 100 attending from all eight boroughs. Key stakeholders such as London Sport and other NHS services were present. Staff feedback about the event, include: “It was a very useful and motivating training/learning event.”

Dr Venothan Suri (GP and NHS North London Cardiovascular Disease Clinical Fellow) is delighted to share that the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Champions abstract has been accepted for a poster presentation at the European Society of Cardiology conference, offering an excellent opportunity to highlight the programme’s impact in north west London and learn from international teams.

Launched in June 2023, the CVD Clinical Champions Programme was developed by NHS North West London and Imperial College Health Partners to enhance population health outcomes by supporting local champions in driving evidence-based cardiovascular care. Seven CVD champions were selected from different boroughs, receiving training in data utilisation, quality improvement, and peer mentorship.  In its first year, the programme has led to significant improvements, including:

• 93% increase in demand for a cholesterol-lowering treatment
• Implementation of a remote blood pressure monitoring service, improving access for underserved populations
• Improved hypertension detection using an innovative search tool to identify untreated Black and Black British patients
• Introduction of a health passport containing BMI, blood pressure data, and prevention support
• Expanded use of clinical tools, embedding evidence-based practices across both clinical and non-clinical teams.

This innovative, data-driven approach has demonstrated how clinical leadership and collaboration can drive sustained improvements in hypertension and lipid management, ultimately contributing to better cardiovascular health for north west London’s population.

NHS North West London and local authority public health partners have been regularly meeting, sharing best practice, and learning what works for which communities across north west London.  Over the next six months we are working to:

• Invest to support a small number of dental practices to provide tailored sessions for children
• Develop a pathway of care that is integrated with GPs, family hubs and wider child health and education settings and other local assets
• Funding for health inclusion services to improve access for people in emergency/temporary accommodation and for people who are homeless
• Increase the capacity for dental practices in areas of high demand/need to purchase additional capacity. This is aligned to the national dental recovery plan and NHS operational
• Oral health training for midwives and infant feeding experts, as well as promoting oral health in schools.

NHS England has recently announced the government’s commitment to extend the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme in 2025/26. This year, 40 mainstream primary schools in Harrow and Hillingdon have been participating in the programme which has successfully brought together health and education workforces and expert parent carers to shape whole school SEND provision and upskill staff so they can provide early interventions for neurodivergent pupils.

Approximately £250,000 will be made available in 2025/26 to support the roll out of PINS to 30 additional primary schools in north west London and to work with the existing Harrow and Hillingdon schools to embed improvements. 

The Children and Young People Mental Health Strategy Oversight Group held their first meeting at the end of January to commence the beginning of the work on the new strategy. The initiative brings together key stakeholders from across north west London.

The Harrow Family Hub Networks were officially launched at Harrow three main Children’s Centres, marking a significant step in providing integrated support for Harrow’s children, young people and their families within the three neighbourhoods. These hubs serve as a one-stop shop for a range of services, including early years, parenting support, SEND advice, mental health as well as practical help with housing and financial advice. 

The launch event featured key speakers from the local authority, schools, voluntary and community sector organisations, as well as NHS North West London’s Harrow borough team, highlighting leadership commitment to strengthening local services and ensuring families can access the right support. The launch of the Harrow Family Hubs Network is just the beginning of developing and strengthening our networks to ensure more services are joined up.

Stay Steady and Active, the Hounslow Borough Based Partnership falls prevention offer, which aims to increase activity levels, test balance abilities, and reduce the risks of falls for residents aged 60 plus, hosted more than 100 residents aged 60 plus at their third Stay Steady and active event on Wednesday 22 January 2025. Residents enjoyed a range of free taster activity sessions on the day including dance, Otago strength and balance, ballet, and free swim sessions. 

Alongside a range of activities, residents also benefited from: 

• Blood pressure readings
• Health checks
• Balance tests
• Chats with health and care professionals, plus community services.

The Hounslow Health Outreach Team has also been trained in falls prevention, and they now deliver targeted engagement and gait and balance tests. At the event, the team completed 34 gait and balance tests, with 14 residents being referred to the West London NHS Falls Prevention Service. This joint approach between health, care, and leisure colleagues is helping to ensure that more residents are being accurately identified for clinical prevention services. The tailored events for the over 60s are also helping to highlight social isolation and increase public confidence in clinical services that have been designed to support mobility.  

More than 20 residents at the event also brought their old slippers and swapped them for a new pair at the ‘slipper exchange’. As correct slippers can play a significant role in preventing falls, while old, worn-out ones can lead to serious injuries, resulting in hospitalisation and a loss of independence and confidence.

The new Steady and Active website lists a range of falls prevention community, council, and clinical services, plus the tailored activity programme. Residents can also take the new online Staying Steady Test designed by the West London NHS Trust Falls Prevention and Bone Health Service to help them navigate to the best service to support their needs.