Across the United Kingdom, the role of the local high street is changing. Many of the civic buildings that once anchored communities, such as local police stations, small health centres, and council offices, are gradually disappearing as services modernise and budgets tighten. While change is inevitable, it raises an important question: how can we keep public services visible, accessible, and connected to the communities they serve?

One promising answer is the Integrated Community Hub. This would be a shared public building where Community Minor Injury Units (MIUs) and Neighbourhood Police Teams operate under the same roof. Rather than maintaining separate facilities scattered across towns and cities, a hub creates a single, welcoming location where residents can access help, advice, and care.

If implemented effectively, this idea should not remain a small pilot project. Instead, it could form part of a wider national network, with local hubs distributed across communities to ensure that essential services remain close to the people who rely on them. In an era when trust, efficiency, and accessibility matter more than ever, bringing policing and healthcare together locally makes practical sense.

Making Public Services Less Intimidating

For many people, walking into a traditional police station can feel daunting. Formal environments, security barriers, and unfamiliar procedures can discourage individuals, especially victims of crime, from seeking help.

Hospitals, meanwhile, can feel overwhelming for people dealing with relatively minor health concerns. A community hub helps break down these barriers. By placing neighbourhood policing teams inside a modern, community-focused health facility, the atmosphere becomes more approachable and less intimidating.

Residents may already be visiting the building for medical appointments or local advice services, making it a familiar environment. That familiarity matters. Someone experiencing harassment, antisocial behaviour, or domestic abuse may find it far easier to approach an officer in a community setting than in a traditional police station.

The hub becomes a genuine front door for public services, embedded in everyday neighbourhood life rather than standing apart from it.

Joining Up Services That Already Overlap

Many of the issues police officers deal with every day are closely linked to health and social challenges. Mental health crises, substance misuse, youth vulnerability, and domestic violence often require medical or social support alongside policing.

Yet public services are still too often organised in silos.

Officers who encounter someone needing medical or social support may have to make referrals, contact other agencies, or direct people to entirely different buildings. Delays can occur, and vulnerable individuals may struggle to navigate the system.

Co-locating services makes collaboration far easier. When police officers and healthcare professionals share the same building, communication becomes immediate. A simple conversation between a nurse and a neighbourhood officer can lead to quicker referrals, stronger safeguarding decisions, and more effective support for people in crisis.

These everyday interactions help build working relationships that improve the overall response to complex social issues.

Easing the Pressure on A&E

The National Health Service is under significant pressure, particularly in Accident and Emergency departments. Each year, many patients attend A&E with injuries that could be treated in less intensive settings.

Community Minor Injury Units provide an effective alternative. Staffed by trained clinicians, they can treat common conditions such as cuts, sprains, minor burns, and simple fractures. These units offer quick treatment without the long waiting times often associated with busy emergency departments.

When MIUs are based within community hubs alongside neighbourhood police teams, the benefits increase. Officers encountering someone with a minor injury during patrols can take them directly to the on-site clinic rather than transporting them to a distant hospital. Residents also gain a clear and convenient alternative to A&E, improving access to care while reducing pressure on hospitals.

Smarter Use of Public Buildings

Integrated hubs also make financial sense. Maintaining separate buildings for different public services can be expensive. Police stations and health centres each require their own maintenance, utilities, security systems, and reception staff.

By sharing facilities, services can reduce duplication and operate more efficiently. A single modern building serving multiple purposes is cheaper to maintain than several ageing facilities spread across a town. Savings from property and operational costs could then be redirected towards frontline services, supporting more nurses, community officers, and local support programmes.

Rebuilding Community Anchors

As high streets evolve and some traditional public buildings disappear, communities risk losing visible centres of support and connection.

A well-designed community hub can fill that gap. Many could include meeting rooms, community cafés, gardens, or spaces for local organisations and charities to gather. Residents might visit not only for healthcare or policing services but also for workshops, advice sessions, and community events.

In this way, the hub becomes more than a service centre. It becomes a shared neighbourhood space.

A Simple Idea with Powerful Potential

The future of public services will depend on collaboration, accessibility, and trust. Integrated Community Hubs offer a practical way to bring those principles together.
By placing healthcare professionals and neighbourhood police teams in the same local building, communities gain easier access to support, stronger cooperation between services, and more visible public institutions. Sometimes the most effective ideas are also the simplest: place the services people rely on in one location, close to home, and create a front door that everyone feels comfortable walking through.

* Jean-François Burford was Chair of the Kensington and Chelsea Liberal Democrats (2022–2025) and former Councillor for Kew Ward in Richmond upon Thames across two separate terms (2010–2014 and 2018–2022).