Dr Clare FitzGerald and Dr Alec Fraser were invited by Macmillan Cancer Support and Social Finance to act as ‘learning partners’ on the development of the Neighbourhood Transformation Fund (NTF). The first of these, the £10 million West Hertfordshire Neighbourhood Integrator (WHNI) was launched in September 2025 and funded by Macmillan to shift the care of those at risk of frailty from hospital to the community.
Social Finance and Macmillan had previously collaborated on the Macmillan End of Life Care Social Investment Fund and wanted to adapt their approach to improve the integration of the whole spectrum of heath and care providers. As part of the design process, Social Finance, Macmillan and King’s consulted with both voluntary and statutory health and social care providers from across the UK to understand their needs.
The Neighbourhood Transformation Fund, the new model emerging from these conversations, builds on existing collaborations. It takes its financing model from Social Outcome Contracts, a form of finance where a funder provides up-front finance and receives repayment when defined desirable outcomes have been reached. Its coordination model is influenced by research on ‘anchor institutions’, which emphasises the importance of local long-term partnership work between statutory and non-statutory organisations. The Macmillan NTF will provide financing on a non-profit basis and will be governed by a community interest company (CIC) carrying out the coordination mechanism. The CIC will work with local statutory and non-statutory bodies to determine local priorities and the measures and services needed to address them, as well as defining the desired outcomes that will trigger repayment.
There are now two Neighbourhood Transformation Funds being piloted by Macmillan and Social Finance. The King’s Business School team will continue to act as learning partners, advising stakeholders and evaluating their success with other locally situated academic partners.
Earlier this week, King’s Business School hosted an event for other potential adopters of the model to explain the research and thinking behind the new model. The discussion also included some early feedback on how the first NTFs are progressing, including the story of ‘Alan’, who the West Hertfordshire Neighbourhood Integrator (WHNI) had been able to help access a range of services locally, from exercise at a local hospice to a local authority carer’s assessment for his wife.