This meeting was largely focused on the needs for pharmaceutical services in the city, the recent performance of the council’s health protection team, and the Director of Public Health’s annual report.

Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment

The board has a legal duty to publish a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) that assesses whether there are enough pharmacies, in the right places and with the right opening hours, to meet the needs of the city’s population. The draft PNA was prepared in accordance with national guidance. It had two parts, the main report and the appendices, and was supported by data from the Southampton Data Observatory. The draft report concluded that there was no need for improvements in, or better access to, pharmaceutical services in the city. This was based on observations about the pharmacies in the city including:

• There is a good geographical spread of community pharmacies across the city • Almost all of Southampton’s population is within a 1.6km straight line distance of a community pharmacy • There are 14.8 community pharmacies per 100,000 population in Southampton, which is very similar to the average for neighbouring areas and is broadly in line with the national average • Over 98% of the Southampton population are within a 20-minute walk of a community pharmacy • With three 100-hour pharmacies in Southampton, supplementary hours in other pharmacies and provision in neighbouring Health and Wellbeing Board areas, there are sufficient access times to meet the needs of the city’s residents

The main finding in the draft PNA report is that, in Southampton, the number, distribution and choice of pharmaceutical services meet the current and future needs of the population within the lifetime of this PNA.

There are 38 community pharmacies in Southampton. The report identifies that Lloyds Pharmacy in Asda, in central Southampton, closed in August 2024. It also identifies that Boots the Chemist at 9 Victoria Road Woolston Southampton, stopped dispensing medicines from 27 January 2024. 3 of the pharmacies in Southampton open for 100 hours per week; the rest open for at least 40 hours per week. The report identifies that there are two areas of the city that are more than 1.6km from a pharmacy. The first is in the west of the city, in the industrial docklands area, and has no residents. The second area comprises four residential streets in Bassett. The report identifies that these streets are more than 1.6km from a pharmacy in Southampton, and are also further than 1.6km from the nearest pharmacy in Hampshire, which is in the ASDA in Chandler’s Ford. However, the report notes that the area is well connected by road, and there are bus services connecting the area to the city centre, Portswood, and to the ASDA. For these reasons, the report does not find the area to have a gap in provision. The report also observes that Southampton has a higher proportion of residents who cannot speak English well than nationally. This is a relevant finding because there are twenty different languages spoken amongst the staff at Southampton’s pharmacies, and because residents for whom English is not their first language may seek out services from a pharmacy that speaks their language.

Health Protection Annual Report

The board received a Health Protection Annual Report from Dr Robin Poole, Public Health Consultant at Southampton Council. The report describes how the council works with other organisations, including the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), to protect the health of the city’s population by preparing for and responding to health threats including infectious disease outbreaks and the impacts of climate change.

The report described a number of situations and incidents that had occurred in the past year including cases of measles, whooping cough and mpox, as well as the council's ongoing preparations for a possible avian flu outbreak. Councillor Marie Finn, the Cabinet Member for Adults & Health, had been concerned about childhood immunisation uptake. The report set out what the council had been doing to increase uptake. This included working with the NHS to deliver a Childhood Immunisations Strengths And Needs Assessment, which had identified that the council could help increase the number of children vaccinated by working more closely with partners to understand the reasons for the low uptake of immunisations, and what can be done to improve it, and by making information available in a range of different formats and languages. The report included a summary of how the council is embedding health considerations into its air quality plans. The report also described a number of emergency plans, including the pandemic flu plan and the cold weather plan that had been updated in the past year. The report also outlined the council’s priorities for the coming year, as agreed by the Health Protection Board. These include continuing to improve childhood immunisation rates, reviewing pathways for tuberculosis cases, finalising a local pandemic framework, working with partners to counter the threat of antimicrobial resistance, and undertaking a Climate Change health Impact Assessment.

Director of Public Health - Annual Report

Councillor Marie Finn, the Cabinet Member for Adults and Health, presented her annual report to the board. The report focused on taking a community-centred approach to improving health and reducing inequalities. It describes how such an approach can help empower people and communities to have more control over their lives and be more resilient by strengthening social networks and community life, by building community capacity, by working in partnership with communities and by utilising the assets of communities. The report argues that this approach needs to be adopted in Southampton because of the impact of deprivation on health and wellbeing in the city. It describes how in Southampton:

People living in the most deprived places in Southampton are expected to live a quarter (24%) of their life in poor health, compared with just a seventh (15%) for people living in the least deprived, who are also expected to live longer.

The report includes examples of how this approach is already being used in the city, including:

• SO:Links. These are facilitated by Southampton Voluntary Services (SVS) and are local groups that bring together residents, volunteers, community activists, and representatives from health and council organisations to share resources and information, help local people have a say in what they want to see in their area, and to work together on new projects and initiatives.
• Energise Me. These are working with the Millbrook community to improve levels of physical activity using an asset-based community development approach. This involves starting with the priorities of the community rather than the priorities of service providers. They began by holding an event, a party at the Saints Pub, where residents were invited to identify the things in Millbrook that they wanted to improve. This identified several priorities including having more things for young people to do and reducing anti-social behaviour in local green spaces. The group then mapped the assets in the community to identify the organisations, groups, activities, places and people that already existed. They found that many of the assets that could be used to increase physical activity were not being fully utilised. Existing groups, including the Youth Activities and Health and Wellbeing groups, have been working in partnership to share resources, work towards a joint purpose and drive positive change in the area.
• The Shirley Men’s Shed. This is based at the St James Road Methodist Church in Shirley and aims to combat loneliness and isolation, and improve the mental health of men, by providing them with a space to enjoy making and mending together.
• COVID-19 Community Champions. This initiative was set up by the council at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to improve the council’s response to local needs and its communications with communities. The council recruited volunteers who received regular updates from the council and provided feedback to the council about the needs and experiences of their communities.
• COVID-19 Vaccine Champions. This initiative was also set up by the council, in this case to increase the number of people who had been vaccinated against COVID-19. They worked with community groups and organisations to engage communities with large numbers of unvaccinated people. The groups included Awaaz FM, a community radio station based in Southampton, and We Make Southampton, a network of socially engaged artists in the city.
• Solent Mind peer groups. Solent Mind runs peer support groups for people with mental health conditions throughout the city. Groups are run by peers, people with experience of mental health conditions, employed or volunteering for Solent Mind. The groups provide a safe space for people experiencing mental health issues to connect, share their experiences and support each other.
• Communicare. This charity delivers a range of services to help improve the quality of life of Southampton’s residents and combat loneliness and isolation. This includes a befriending service that connects volunteers to residents in need of support and friendship.
• St Mary’s Pilot. This is a locality-based pilot by the council that aims to empower the community in St Mary's to have greater control over the services and activities that are offered in the area. The pilot is in its early stages but aims to use local assets, including St Mary’s Leisure Centre, to meet local needs including health and wellbeing, skills development and job opportunities.
• Saints Foundation SO14 Active (Active Through Football) programme. This encourages people within the SO14 postcode community to get active through sports-based exercise sessions. The programme was developed in partnership with the local community to ensure that their priorities were reflected in how it was delivered.
• SVS Teenage Girls in Parks. This project by SVS worked with teenage girls in the city, in partnership with academics from the University of Southampton, to get their views on how safe they feel in the city’s parks, what can be done to encourage them to use parks and what new infrastructure could be created in parks to better meet their needs. They held two workshops, one with the girls and another with key stakeholders to generate ideas for policy and service changes.
• Community Roots. This allotment project, based at Redbridge Lane Allotments, provides supported volunteering opportunities to adults recovering from mental health issues and encourages social connections. People can be referred to the project by social prescribers and other health professionals, by community navigators or through self-referral.
• Southampton Family Hubs. These offer a wide range of services to families including parenting programmes, support groups, play sessions and one-to-one help. They act as a “one stop shop” for families, connecting families to a range of different agencies and services. The report highlighted the good practice of the Clovelly Family Hub, which has a partnership with the Nichols Town Surgery in Nichols Town and has been able to increase awareness of the importance of childhood vaccination amongst culturally diverse communities in the city.
• Community Falls Prevention. This is a programme delivered by the Saints Foundation which offers classes, led by level 4 postural stability experts, for people who have had a fall, or who are at risk of falling, to improve their mobility, strength and balance and help reduce their risk of having a fall in the future.

The report makes four recommendations:

1. Identify strengths and enable communities to take control.
2. Build support around families, communities and neighbourhoods, not professions and focus on prevention and early intervention.
3. Prioritise communities with poorer health outcomes to reduce health inequalities and assess the impact of a community-centred approach.
4. Shift mindsets to embed a different relationship between communities and organisations.

The council also announced its plans for a Community Prevention Transformation Programme. This is a long-term programme that will help embed a community-centred approach to improving health and wellbeing in the city. It will align resources with the assets within local communities and will involve local communities in decision-making. The programme will be implemented over a ten year period, starting with a series of pilots in more deprived communities and higher risk groups.