Local Professional Networks are:

• working with key stakeholders on developing and delivering local priorities;
• providing strong local clinical leadership,
• supporting the implementation of national frameworks, to provide overall consistency, at a local level.

Where do LPNs sit within healthcare?

Local Professional Networks are a key part of providing sustainable leadership in the NHS and are working across commissioning and provider services, to drive positive change.

All LPNs are represented on a national LPN Assembly, hosted by NHS England, that enables LPNs to influence future policy changes and deliver service improvements. The LPN Assembly supports work to shape the commissioning framework further, agreeing a common national approach to LPNs where beneficial, and providing an opportunity to share innovation.

The core functions of LPNs are:

• providing robust clinical input to NHS England’s primary care commissioning decisions;
• driving improvements in patient outcomes to meet local and national priorities;
• providing local clinical leadership and facilitating wider clinical engagement;
• supporting greater patient involvement in shaping and developing services;
• working with commissioners including Clinical Commissioning Groups, Public Health England and Local Education Training Boards, to bring a more joined-up approach to delivering healthcare;
• advising and working with local Health and Wellbeing Boards to help develop local health and care services;
• contributing to the national LPN Assembly;
• helping to reduce health inequalities within the overall context of improving patient outcomes;
• acting as a critical friend to NHS England’s local area teams.

For healthcare overall, LPNs generate a range of benefits including:

• providing credible and consistent clinical advice to commissioners and providers;
• ensuring clinical support for prioritised and aligned improvement activities;
• focusing on patient care pathways across organisational boundaries;
• ensuring continuous and consistent improvements to healthcare services , regardless of where patients access care;
• sharing and disseminating learning and improvement with other dental, pharmacy and eye health care professionals;
• giving patients a structured route for influencing service improvements;
• contributing to system resilience to meet changing demands;
• supporting Local Education and Training Boards in workforce planning and identifying educational and training needs across the pharmacy, dental and eye-health workforce.