Webinar 1
Date: Thursday 2 July 2026
Time: 9am – 10am
Trailblazer programme
Information for applicants
The Trailblazer programme aims to support the development of system-level investments that improve health outcomes at scale. Macmillan, the programme’s first investor, is looking to invest an average of £10m per site.
- Footprints need to either include an NNHIP Wave 1 area or commit to sharing learning with NNHIP on how to use social investment to support the spread and scale of neighbourhood health.
- All expressions of interest (EOIs) must be submitted by a lead applicant organisation, detailing co-applicants where a partnership is involved.
- The lead applicant must be an organisation that can manage the minimum investment level required and is willing to repay investors for outcomes achieved. In practice, this means the funding is primarily suitable for:
- Integrated Care Boards
- NHS provider organisations or collaboratives (e.g. hospital trusts, community trusts)
- Large social enterprises or Community Interest Companies
- Local Authorities
- Other substantial delivery partners
- Lead applicants must demonstrate they have the sponsorship of their Chief Financial Officer (or equivalent role) and of the relevant ICB.
Resource will be made available to successful sites to support development of their investment cases.
Please note that the Trailblazer programme is open to applicants from England only.
Application support
Webinars and drop-in sessions
View a video of the first webinar here:
Webinar 2
Date: Friday 3 July 2026
Time: 11am – 12pm
Webinar 3
Date: Monday 6 July 2026
Time: 4pm – 5pm
Drop-in session 1
Date: Wednesday 8 July 2026
Time: 10am – 11am
Drop-in session 2
Date: Tuesday 14 July 2026
Time: 1pm – 2pm
Drop-in session 3
Date: Thursday 16 July 2026
Time: 10am – 11am
Submit questions about Trailblazer
The best way to ask questions is to attend one of our webinars or drop-in sessions detailed above.
Further questions can be submitted via email at trailblazer@socialfinance.org.uk by 5pm on Friday 3 July.
The answers to all the questions we have received so far are below:
How to apply
When completing the form, please note:
- This is an outline proposal, not a full business case.
- Responses should be clear, concise and evidence-based.
- Where information is not yet fully developed, indicative answers are acceptable, provided these are clearly identified.
- Full evaluation criteria can be found in the applicant pack.
- Incomplete applications, applications that do not meet the eligibility criteria, or applications submitted after the deadline of midnight on Friday 17 July will not be progressed.
- Applicants will receive a confirmation email upon submission of their EOI and can expect to hear back about whether they have been shortlisted by Friday 24 July at 5pm.
About the Trailblazer programme
The Office for the Impact Economy, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England have commissioned West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to lead its Trailblazer programme. Macmillan Cancer Support and Social Finance, with the Strategy Unit, are delivery partners for the programme.
The programme will select up to six sites for rapid social investment, supporting local systems to redesign community health and care services around people’s wider needs, combining health, community and voluntary sector support to help people stay well for longer in their communities.
They will have the opportunity to become part of the first wave of areas testing a new approach to neighbourhood health, using innovative finance to help create more joined-up, preventative care and support closer to people’s homes.
As well as tackling health inequalities, the programme will also support wider regeneration and community resilience efforts. The programme will place a particular focus on improving support for communities facing the greatest barriers to accessing care and with the poorest health outcomes.
Through neighbourhood health, we are fundamentally changing how healthcare is delivered – making sure people have access to the vital care they need right on their doorstep. These trailblazer sites will turbocharge our mission, by bringing services focused on prevention, tackling inequalities and improving health outcomes together under one roof.
Stephen Kinnock MP, Minister of State for Care
What does the programme offer?
The Trailblazer programme will prepare the selected sites to be ready for social investment. That means ensuring they have built new ways of working, governance and delivery mechanisms to deliver these localised services.
West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will act as a ‘mentor’ to the Trailblazer sites, offering support and practical advice. Macmillan Cancer Support and Social Finance will provide expert financial and technical support to help local health and care systems build the skills, confidence and culture needed to attract and use finance and impact investment to improve community-based care.
As part of its wider commitment to invest £250 million in neighbourhood health across the UK over the next three to five years, Macmillan intends to be the first to invest in several of the Trailblazer sites at the end of the nine-month programme.
A key part of model development and selection will be market engagement with potential social investors. The expectation is that the sites will receive impact investment from April 2027. Learning from the programme will be used to produce playbooks and frameworks for a future wider national rollout, helping inform the future development of neighbourhood health services, as well as wider applicability for how public services can effectively partner with impact capital.
“By working in close partnership with a wide range of partners in Hertfordshire, we’ve already rolled out a new model for providing joined up, expert care for older people with complex health needs – on their doorstep and tailored to their specific needs. We now want to encourage other NHS Trusts and local community organisations to consider becoming a Trailblazer site to deliver meaningful change in their local areas.”
Toby Hyde, Managing Director, South West Hertfordshire Health & Care Partnership
“Cancer isn’t fair and too often, cancer care isn’t either. Too many people living with cancer and other long-term conditions are navigating fragmented systems that weren’t designed around their lives. At Macmillan, our mission is to make care fairer for everyone from diagnosis, through treatment and beyond so every person can get the support they need. The Trailblazer programme is an exciting opportunity to show how to reshape care around people and their communities – providing a roadmap for long-term, sustainable investment in neighbourhood health.”
Gemma Peters, Chief Executive, Macmillan Cancer Support
“Delivering neighbourhood health is crucial to improving health and care for communities, as well as helping the NHS become financially sustainable. At Social Finance we work in partnership to deploy impact capital to drive system change, and I am delighted at the government’s commitment to enabling social investment to back outcomes in health. This has the potential to transform how we invest in health in the future.”
Caroline Gadd, Chief Executive, Social Finance
Current funding models can leave people stuck in a cycle of reactive, hospital-based treatment, particularly those living with cancer and other long-term conditions who often need support that goes beyond clinical care alone.
In contrast, this new approach focuses on long-term, preventative and community-based support, helping create more joined-up care that is designed around people’s lives and delivered closer to home.
Last year, West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust – in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support and Social Finance – launched a pioneering collaboration that leverages around £10 million of social investment to help redesign care. Social investment is a mechanism used to fund preventative, community-based healthcare services using upfront capital from social investors, which the NHS only repays if the service successfully achieves specific, pre-agreed health outcomes.
By focusing on communities facing the poorest outcomes and greatest barriers to care, the Trailblazer programme also aims to help tackle health inequalities and build more sustainable models of neighbourhood health – and a scalable model that could be replicated nationally.
To achieve real national renewal, we have to do government differently. By leveraging our newly launched Office for the Impact Economy, this Trailblazer programme will empower local communities to build innovative partnerships and deliver on the priorities that matter most to them.
Satvir Kaur MP, Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office