The NHS 10-Year Plan, Fit for the Future, sets out three priority strategic shifts for health and care in England: towards neighbourhood-based care, prevention, and digitisation.

The Neighbourhood Mental Health Centre pilot programme (also known as Community Mental Health Centres) sits squarely within this reform agenda, testing how mental health support can be redesigned around communities, relationships, and social determinants rather than crisis led, clinically dominated responses.

This paper provides a framework to help strengthen the rollout of neighbourhood support, so it works for all communities. Drawing on cross-site learning from Voluntary, Community, Faith, and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) organisations working within pilot centres, convened through a national network co-chaired by NHS England and the Association of Mental Health Providers, supported by the London School of Economics and Political Science and the NIHR-supported Mental Health Social Care Incubator, this paper explores what it takes to deliver neighbourhood mental health models in practice and the system conditions required for them to succeed.

It highlights the foundational role of Mental Health Social Care (MHSC) and VCFSE partners within neighbourhood health, in building trusted, accessible, and preventative support, and surfaces critical tensions around outcomes, risk, workforce culture, and system structures that risk undermining impact if left unaddressed. Together, these insights provide timely learning for policymakers, system leaders, commissioners,and providers as neighbourhood health models continue to develop and scale nationally.