Place-Based Health Innovation: Why the East of England Can Lead

Health is largely a function of place. The social, economic and environmental conditions in which people live, all determine health outcomes. In England, men living in the most deprived areas can expect to live 10 years less than those in the most prosperous (The Kings Fund, 2025). While women can expect almost 20 fewer years living in good health (The Health Foundation, 2025). Understanding the importance of place leads to different conclusions about what our health system should look like and how it should be delivered.

Place-based health innovation involves developing and applying evidence-backed solutions tailored to community needs, including health inequalities. The East of England, with its strong Integrated Care System (ICS) clusters and health and life sciences sector, is well positioned to become a leading example in this area.

Why place-based innovation matters

The NHS’s 10 Year Health Plan commits to shifting more care into communities, focusing on prevention and giving neighbourhood teams scope to affect change (NHS 10-year Plan). The plan sets out three clear commitments: a neighbourhood health centre in every community, a shift in funding from hospitals into communities and empowering neighbourhood teams with budgets and local accountability. These changes aren’t cosmetic; they represent a move to ever more prevention-focused and proactive healthcare. Developing health innovations in this manner enables the East to utilise its research capabilities, diverse communities and recognised civic partnerships as the basis for locally grounded health solutions.

Established in an underserved coastal community, Clacton Community Diagnostic Centre shows how innovation rooted in place can tackle health inequalities. As Professor Chris Whitty has argued, coastal towns are “among the most deprived places in England, with some of the worst health outcomes” (Chief Medical Officer’s Annual Report, 2021), place-based care is a route to addressing the most pressing national challenges.

Landing health in people’s lives: Clacton Community Diagnostic Centre

As of August 2025, there are 100 Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) across England, with more to follow. Since July 2024 CDCs have delivered approx. 7.2 million diagnostic tests, 1.2 million of which have been in the East. 2024’s full launch of Clacton Community Diagnostic Centre is a prime example of brining health closer to people’s lives. Clacton-on-Sea sits within the 1% most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, an example of a coastal community underserved by traditional services. Opportunities abound in Clacton for place-based health innovation to tackle health inequalities. One of 19 CDC’s in the east, Clacton’s full suite of diagnostic scans and tests are closer to people’s lives and, supported by improved infrastructure, have helped to cut waiting times locally and relieve pressure on nearby Colchester Hospital.

The East’s strengths and Stakes

The East’s health ecosystem features a high concentration of life sciences, research and health technologies, including leading clusters in Cambridge, Norwich and Stevenage. Organisations like Health Innovation East play an important role in implementing innovation within this context. The key questions are: a) how to apply these capabilities to achieve equitable health outcomes across urban, rural and coastal communities? and b) how to ensure that innovation leverages the region’s scientific resources for economic benefit?

Transforming sickle cell services in the East of England

Sickle cell disease is one of the most common genetic disorders in England. Sickle cell patients receive frequent care in hospitals and require regular blood transfusions. With the goal of making treatment equally available across the East of England, Health Innovation East worked with several regional NHS partners and Terumo’s ‘Spectra Optia’ Apheresis system to secure £3.5million funding over five years. With the service now deployed in two new locations and with more to follow, an integrated model of preventative care means more treatments are delivered closer to where people are; leading to improved patient outcomes, equity of access and less disruption to people’s lives.

The promise of innovations like the CDCs and transformation of the East’s sickle cell service is clear: when innovation is local and brought to people it is more likely to reduce inequities and, importantly, engender peoples trust. However, fulfilling this potential also necessitates the challenging task of establishing a clear purpose and mutual agreement on how to measure success, which should be supported by strong governance, reliable data, adequate resources and updated operational practices.

Linking health and devolution

The NHS 10-Year Health Plan (July, 2025) commits to a refreshed operating model in which health improvements are driven from the bottom up, with more transparency, local autonomy and performance reporting. (GOV.UK)

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (July 2025) aligns with the government's agenda to reform local governance. Its focus on broadening and deepening devolution aims to provide communities with enhanced mechanisms for influencing health outcomes, primarily through expanded responsibilities for Mayoral Strategic Authorities. Under the legislation, mayors and their administrations will be legally required to consider health equity in all decision-making processes and assume increased responsibility across policy areas including housing, transport, skills development, and economic growth. The framework marks the first instance in which authority over the wider determinants of health will reside at the local level, alongside accountability for tackling inequalities. Nevertheless, the Bill does not yet specify which functions or funding streams will be devolved, nor does it offer a comprehensive constitutional or statutory assurance of devolution.

Both the Plan and the Bill underscore the need for cross-sector partnerships to drive implementation. Undoubtedly, administrative and geographical alignment for our health and its wider determinants is essential. Success will depend on the capacity and capability of local systems to make this happen.

What needs to happen

To unlock the full potential of place-based health innovation change must be structural, civic, practical and grounded in effective communication:

• Structural alignment with devolution: Health must be aligned with devolution and embedded in local decision making, ensuring local leaders can integrate health, housing, transport and education into single strategies.

• Civic and community engagement: Trust must be built with communities. Success depends on co-creation, civic engagement and communication. Innovations work best when rooted in lived experience, without the common language and the trust it builds even the best tech will fail to connect with those who need it most.

• Shared infrastructure and data platforms: Streamlined bureaucracies and shared data systems should become ubiquitous. A regional digital health backbone of health records, analytics and real-time monitoring is required to enable  prevention, target resources and evaluate effectively.

• Flexible funding and procurement: A shift in funding and focus from hospital to community, will enable more care to happen closer to home. While pooled budgets and local accountability will provide more flexibility and empower neighbourhood teams.

• Embedded evaluation and feedback loops: Place-based models require real-time evaluation, learning, and adaptation. Investments should focus on scaling-up what is shown to work.

The Role of Health Innovation East

Health Innovation East is built on a model of place-based collaboration, working with integrated care systems, industry, SMEs, local government and the voluntary sector. The team is committed to supporting the technical, administrative and practical changes needed to make place-based health innovation work for the region. Working alongside devolved authorities in the East, Health Innovation East can help partners to deliver healthier and more resilient communities.

A Regional Call to Action

The East of England has the assets, the expertise, and the political momentum to assume lead-role on place-based health innovation. But success will depend on ambition, communication and community collaboration. If we design health innovation alongside those who understand their communities we can boost productivity, generate growth and enable each other’s prosperity.

It is time for the East to seize its chance to lead.