Chief Strategy Officer speaks at Westminster Health Forum on NHS 10-Year Plan

Laura Churchill, Chief Strategy Officer represented CLCH at the Westminster Health Forum policy conference last Friday, joining healthcare leaders to discuss priorities for the Government's forthcoming 10-Year Health Plan for the NHS.

The event brought together key stakeholders to examine the proposed transition of the NHS into a community-based, technologically adept, and preventively focused health system.

Speaking on a panel titled ‘Community care - priorities and strategic next steps for the 10-year plan’, Laura emphasised the critical role community health services play in transforming the healthcare landscape.

Laura said: "I speak today not just as a representative of CLCH, but as someone who is deeply passionate about the value, complexity, and unique capability of community health services to transform lives — and to fundamentally reshape our health and care system for the better.

“Community services are often seen as the quiet engine of the NHS. But make no mistake — they are powerful, sophisticated, and pivotal.”

She highlighted CLCH's extensive reach, delivering over 100 services to more than 4 million people across London and Hertfordshire.

Laura added: “From specialist nurses and therapists to health visitors and palliative care teams, we are managing complexity daily — in homes, in schools, in community hospitals — often in situations far removed from the visibility and infrastructure of acute settings.

“What makes community services exceptional is not just what we do, but how we do it. We work at the interface of physical health, mental health, social care, and the wider determinants of health. Our teams navigate housing insecurity, isolation, and poverty, all while providing compassionate, expert care that helps people stay independent, connected, and well.”

Laura highlighted that the Government’s ambition to build a ‘Neighbourhood Health Service’ is both welcome and essential — and advocated for bold investment in community care. She highlighted the need for a transformed approach of integrated neighbourhood teams, rooted in place, using data to target inequalities, co-designed with communities, and empowered to lead at the frontline.

Laura also presented CLCH's proposed Trust strategy, ‘Healthy Neighbourhoods and Thriving Communities’, which will focus on four key priorities:

• Standardising core community offers across systems

• Co-developing integrated models of care that focus on patients and their families and helps to tackle the most pressing population health needs.

• Building an integrated workforce that reflects and understands the communities we serve — and giving them the tools to thrive.
• Future-proofing enablers including digital infrastructure, estates, data, and governance so that community services can lead not follow.

The conference explored several crucial topics, including strengthening community and primary care services, digital transformation in the NHS, and the shift towards a preventive health model. Discussions also covered how the 10-Year Health Plan aligns with other policy initiatives, including social care planning, workforce development, and public health interventions.

Notable speakers at the event included Louise Ansari, Chief Executive of Healthwatch; Tim Horton, Assistant Director of The Health Foundation; and Richard Sloggett, Founder and Programme Director of Future Health Research.

Laura concluded by emphasising that community healthcare is already driving positive change: "We are ready, we are capable, and we are ambitious. What we now need is policy, funding, and commissioning strategies that match that ambition — and recognise the community sector as the indispensable foundation for a 21st-century health system."