This meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board included updates on a number of public health issues, consideration of how to improve community pharmacy services in Camden, a presentation of a new health campaign for young people, and the consideration of a report about how to tackle obesity in the borough.

Camden's Healthy Weight Acceleration Plan – Year 1

A report included in the meeting pack detailed Camden's new Healthy Weight Acceleration Plan, which sets out the borough's approach to tackling overweight and obesity in children and adults. The report describes the borough's progress against the aims of this plan in its first year.

Camden has developed a Healthy Weight Acceleration Plan this year in response to the health and wellbeing crisis linked to population levels of overweight and obesity.

The report notes the significant increase in childhood obesity, which nearly doubles between Reception and Year 6. In Reception, 9.1% of children are overweight or obese, rising to 35.9% in Year 6. This is higher than in other similar London Boroughs. Among adults, 36% are overweight and 17% are obese. Adults from Black Caribbean and Asian backgrounds are more likely to be overweight or obese than average.

The plan aims to increase levels of healthy weight in the borough, particularly amongst children and to reduce inequality. The plan divides the work needed to reach these aims into five workstreams:

1. Early years
2. Schools
3. Organisations and Place Shaping
4. Weight Management Services
5. Population Groups with greater needs

Schools

The report focuses on the work to improve the health of school children as an example of the progress that has been made since the plan was adopted in April 2024. It describes a range of initiatives including breakfast clubs, free school meals, and a £500k investment in secondary school eating infrastructure. A range of physical activity initiatives, such as the Daily Mile, are also taking place. Camden Council is working to expand the number of schools that take part in the Healthy Schools programme, and is also working to improve opportunities for physical activity in schools, especially for teenage girls.

Progress in other workstreams

The report also describes progress on the other four workstreams. These include developing training for early years staff on supporting healthy weight, encouraging businesses to take part in the Healthier Catering Commitment, piloting a culturally competent adult weight management scheme in partnership with the Kings Cross New Brunswick Association, developing plans to support people with learning disabilities to maintain a healthy weight, and promoting the Active for Life campaign, which supports people aged over 60 to be more physically active.

Innovation in Community Pharmacy and Future Ambitions

The meeting pack included a report about the role of community pharmacies in Camden. The report notes that community pharmacies are a vital and trusted part of the NHS. However, it also highlights the challenges facing pharmacies, including workforce shortages, increasing costs, stock shortages, and an unsustainable funding model.

Community pharmacy is an integral part of the NHS. Embedding its clinical services and recognising its reach into other care settings is essential in ensuring clinically safe and effective patient care.

The report describes the services offered by pharmacies. It highlights the role that pharmacies play in offering essential, advanced and locally commissioned services.

Essential services

These are services that all pharmacies must offer as part of their contract with the NHS. These include:

• Dispensing medicines
• Disposal of unwanted medicines
• Healthy Living Pharmacy
• Public Health Promotion
• Discharge Medicines Service

Advanced services

These are nationally commissioned services, which pharmacies can choose whether to offer. They include:

• Flu Vaccinations
• Pharmacy First
• Hypertension case finding
• New Medicines Service
• Appliance Use Review
• Smoking Cessation
• Contraception Service

Locally commissioned services

These are commissioned by local authorities and integrated care boards. The report describes examples of locally commissioned services in Camden, including:

• Needle exchange
• Palliative Care medicines
• Emergency contraception
• Self-care medicines

The report highlights the potential for community pharmacies to provide even more clinical services in the future. It also describes the role of the North Central London Integrated Care Board (NCL ICB) in overseeing community pharmacies in Camden.

Pharmacy First

The report describes the new Pharmacy First service, which launched in January 2024. This service allows patients to be treated for a range of minor illnesses and urgent repeat medicine supply, as well as receiving advice on seven common conditions without needing to see a GP. In Camden 58 of 61 (95%) pharmacies offer this service.

Self-care Medicines Scheme

In 2023, the NCL ICB expanded Camden's scheme for providing over-the-counter medicines to people who cannot afford them to all five boroughs in North Central London. This scheme is currently offered by 28 pharmacies in Camden. This scheme has been a success, as shown by the fact that 91% of the 1,126 patients who used the service in Camden between June and October 2024 said they would have gone to their GP if it had not been available.

Other schemes

The report also describes the blood pressure checking service, offered by 54 (89%) Camden pharmacies and the contraception service offered by 44 (72%) Camden pharmacies.

Challenges and Future Opportunities

The report details the challenges facing community pharmacies and calls for a complete overhaul of the funding model for community pharmacies. It also describes a number of future opportunities, such as better integration of pharmacy services into local health and care pathways, expansion of clinical services, and development of digital services.

The report concludes by emphasising the importance of integrating community pharmacies into the emerging system of neighbourhood healthcare. It calls for the Health and Wellbeing Board to support efforts to raise awareness of community pharmacy services and to support workforce development initiatives.

Look After You - A Coproduced Health Campaign for Under 25s

The meeting pack included a report about a new health campaign aimed at young people in Camden. The 'Look After YOU' campaign has been developed with a group of Camden young people aged 16 to 23, called Camden Youth: Tell Them. It aims to make young people more aware of health services and to encourage them to use them. The campaign is being promoted on social media, buses, posters, stickers, and digital screens in libraries. It also includes a dedicated web page on Camden Rise.

Look After YOU is a health campaign looking to promote access for young people to GP, primary care, sexual health and mental health services. It was coproduced by Camden Council and ‘Camden Youth: Tell Them’, a group of Camden young people aged 16 to 23.

The report notes that the campaign has already reached more than 800 people in its first six weeks. Future plans include developing a PSHE lesson on the campaign for use in Camden Schools, and working with health services to improve the experience of young people, particularly around access to appointments.

The report calls on the Health and Wellbeing Board to discuss how to improve awareness of services, and how to ensure that young people have positive experiences of using these services.

Health Protection Update from the Director of Public Health

The meeting pack also included a report providing an update on health protection issues and epidemiology in Camden.

Mpox

The report notes that the number of cases of mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) has been falling steadily in recent months. However, the report highlights that there are increasing numbers of cases of a more severe form of the virus in Central and East Africa, and that 4 cases have been reported in the UK, all in the same household.

Winter Respiratory Viruses

The report highlights that the number of cases of influenza is increasing, as are cases of RSV, another common respiratory virus.

Norovirus

The report also notes that the number of cases of norovirus has remained high in recent weeks.

Measles

The report highlights that the measles incident declared in January 2024 has been reduced from a standard incident to routine incident following a dynamic risk assessment, and that measles cases will continue to be managed by the UK Health Security Agency.

Pertussis (Whooping cough)

The report notes that the number of cases of pertussis has fallen since its peak in May and are back to baseline levels.

Community Connectedness and Friendships

The meeting pack also included a report about the work being done to tackle loneliness and social isolation in Camden. The report details the strategic background to the work, and sets out the progress that has been made on the three priority objectives:

1. Improve identification and engagement of people who are chronically lonely and isolated
2. Explore service area specific opportunities to help reduce social isolation and loneliness
3. Undertake a borough wide communications campaign to increase awareness and reduce stigma

Social Isolation Webinar

The report details the work of the Community Connectedness and Friendship Working Group in developing and delivering a webinar on social isolation and loneliness, aimed at front-line staff in a range of organisations. The webinar aims to improve their understanding of the issue, and equip them with the tools and knowledge needed to better support people experiencing loneliness.

'Camden, together': Communications campaign

The report also describes the development of a new borough-wide communications campaign called 'Camden, together'. The report highlights that the campaign is the first step in a longer-term communications strategy to reduce loneliness and improve community connectedness. The campaign will launch in December 2024 across a range of council channels.

Community Connectedness Workshop: Befriending services

The report also describes a workshop held on 6 November 2024 to discuss befriending services, which primarily work to support socially isolated older adults. The workshop brought together teams who provide befriending support to identify challenges and opportunities.

The report concludes by setting out the next steps in the work being done to tackle loneliness in Camden.

Work Programme of the Camden Health and Wellbeing Board

The meeting pack also included a report providing a draft of the Board's work programme for the 2024/25 municipal year. It lists all of the topics that are scheduled to be discussed by the Board in its four quarterly meetings. The report notes that the Health and Wellbeing Board is responsible for the implementation of Camden's Health and Wellbeing Strategy. Three of the Board's meetings each year focus on one of the three short term priorities listed in the strategy:

1. Healthy and Ready for School
2. Resilient and Connected Communities
3. Ageing Well

The work programme shows that the Board is scheduled to consider reports on the following topics in its March 2025 meeting:

• Health Protection
• Endometriosis
• Transformation in health and care
• Healthy and Ready for School

The report also lists a number of other topics that are scheduled to be discussed at future meetings, but for which dates have yet to be agreed:

• Neighbourhoods
• Adult Early Help

The report invites Board members to suggest additional items for inclusion in the work programme.