The Islington Health and Wellbeing Board met to discuss the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment, the Young Black Men's Mental Health Programme, and the NHS ten-year plan. The board approved the Health and Wellbeing Strategy for publication and noted the progress of the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment.

Health and Wellbeing Strategy Consultation Outcomes

The board approved the Islington Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2025-2030 for publication. The strategy sets out the board's commitment to improving the health, wellbeing, and independence of Islington residents, with overall goals to:

• Improve life expectancy
• Improve healthy life expectancy
• Reduce health inequalities

The strategy focuses on four priority areas: Start Well, Live Well, Age Well and Healthy Environments.

Following a public consultation, several amendments were made to the strategy, including additions to the goals, outcome measures, and linked strategies. Key themes from the consultation included:

• A focus on mental health issues across all strategic priorities
• A focus on physical activity and healthy eating across all life stages
• Prioritising support for vulnerable groups across all strategic priorities
• Collaborative working to improve access to integrated and holistic support
• Ongoing engagement with the voluntary and community sector

Councillor Michelline Safi-Ngongo, Executive Member for Children, Young People & Families, was pleased to see the references to children throughout the strategy. She asked for more information about the prevention and early intervention piece, and what that focus might be. Jonathan O'Sullivan, Director of Public Health, explained that the strategy takes an approach to prevent risk to health, and then to intervene earlier before health problems arise.

Councillor Una Halloran, Leader of the Council, noted that the strategy is not linked to finances, and suggested that future strategies should have more sophistication around where it could potentially link up with resources. John Everson, Corporate Director for Health and Social Care, responded that health and wellbeing strategies are partnership documents, and not authorising documents in terms of committing resources.

Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment Update

The board noted that a draft Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) has been produced and is currently out for consultation, with the consultation period running from 16 June to 16 August 2025. The PNA is a statutory requirement for all health and wellbeing boards, and must be updated on a three-year cycle. The assessment looks at a range of things around the actual location, opening hours of pharmacies, and the types of services that they provide, against the population to understand whether or not needs are being met.

Charlotte Ashton, Islington Deputy Director of Public Health, reported that the top-level findings show good access to pharmacies across the borough, both during the weekday and over weekends. She stated that 100% of residents are within a 12-minute walk of a pharmacy during weekdays and a 15-minute walk at weekends. She added that the assessment indicated that the additional services provided through pharmacies are good and aligned with what is needed within the borough.

Laura Saxena, Chief Executive at Inglinton Healthwatch, said that Healthwatch have been involved in the PNA, so that there is resident voice representation. She added that the PNA is quite narrow in its parameters, but there is a lot to consider around resident experience of pharmacy that sits outside that, particularly pharmacy first and a lot of widespread confusion about when to go to a pharmacy.

Councillor Halloran said that she had visited pharmacies locally and was shocked that some have a waiting room where you can have a consultation. She said that if we're really going to try and get people away from the hospitals, the pharmacies are there and need to be used.

NHS Ten Year Plan Update

Clare Henderson, Director of Place for the ICB, provided an update on the NHS ten-year plan, which sets out the vision for the NHS. Key highlights included:

• Neighbourhood health services
• A move from treatment to prevention
• A move from hospital to community
• Focus on GP access
• Redesign of outpatients and diagnostic services
• Urgent and emergency care
• A move from analogue to digital
• A single patient record
• Technology for the workforce
• A move from sickness to prevention

Henderson noted that there will be a new tobacco and vape bill, meaning children turning 16 this year or younger can't be sold tobacco ever. She added that North Central London has been leading the WorkWell programme, and Islington is about to launch the Connect to Work programme, as evidence shows that being in work is good for people's health.

Henderson also noted that the DASH review has said that health watches are going to be abolished, and NHS England ICB is changing. She said that they are trying to think hard about how to keep working with the current health watch and really have that voice of residents as they continue to develop services in the borough.

Councillor Safi-Ngongo asked if the neighbourhood plan includes GPs, and if it does, she said that it is still very difficult to see a GP, and sometimes they are asking you to take a photo to send them by email. She asked if we need to win that confidence back to GPs to their own patients before we move on. Henderson responded that GPs have seen demand go up since the pandemic, and they have responded, but they cannot keep up with demand. She said that is why they are focusing on practices that are demonstrator sites, and are doing some work with NHS England to understand how primary care can really change the way they operate to enable meeting some of that demand.

John Everson said that he was pleased to hear that there will be a director of patient experience, and that there will be league tables published. He said that this gives much more accountability and visibility to local residents about how providers are delivering what they say they're going to do.

Young Black Men and Mental Health Programme

Curtis Ashton, Director for Young Islington in the Council, introduced the Young Black Men and Mental Health programme, which is designed to improve mental health wellbeing outcomes for young Black men, and to improve their life chances in Islington. The programme is comprised of four pillar programmes:

• Becoming a Man programme (BAM)
• Elevate Innovation Hub
• The Barbers Round Chair Project
• A cultural competency and anti-racist practice training programme

Ashton reported that the BAM programme has been successfully implemented and delivered across three Islington secondary schools. He said that the feedback that has been provided by the schools is that the programme is making a difference to the lives of children that it is supporting and that it is improving outcomes for them.

He added that the Elevate team focuses on young Black men aged between 13-25 who are affected by mental health and serious youth violence, or at risk of becoming so. He said that the service provides a combination of holistic, psychodynamic therapy and youth work interventions.

Ashton said that the aim of the Barbers Round Chair Project was to engage and train a number of barbershops to become mental health ambassadors for young men. He said that this pillar of the programme has proven to be the most challenging to date, but efforts will continue to be made to make this pillar a success.

He reported that the System Change and Innovation Programme trained a number of partners across the system to be culturally competent, anti-racist, anti-discriminatory in approach. He said that this pillar will not be continued with going forward due to a lack of funding.

Councillor Safi-Ngongo asked how they are trying to reach out to many young people, because so far they are dealing with just on this. Ashton responded that they may well be able to roll it out further afield if they are successful in receiving the funding from the youth endowment program.

Karl Milner, North London NHS Trust Representative, asked if they were seeing an increase in Asian men as well, and how they are measuring success. Ashton responded that they don't see large numbers of Asian children coming through certain parts of the system in children services, but they definitely need to do more in that space to increase awareness amongst that community so that they can actually benefit from services. He added that there are a number of metrics that they are using to determine whether or not they've been successful across the four pillars, such as reduced hospitalisations, school improvements, and reducing the prevalence of knife crime.