The Camden Council Health and Wellbeing Board met on 10 September 2025, to discuss health protection, sexual health, the NHS 10-year plan, and alcohol strategy in Camden. The board noted the health protection update, reviewed the draft Sexual Wellbeing and Reproductive Health System Review and Work Programme 2025–2030, and heard about the implications of the NHS 10 Year Plan for Camden. The board also reviewed and noted the Camden Alcohol Strategy 2025-30, which aims to reduce harm from alcohol in the borough.

Camden Alcohol Strategy 2025-30

The board reviewed and noted the Camden Alcohol Strategy 2025-30, which aims to reduce harm from alcohol in the borough. The strategy sets out a vision for how Camden Council and its partners will work together to reduce alcohol harms for residents through prevention, early intervention, and care and support.

The strategy highlights that harmful and dependent alcohol use is a major public health concern with widespread health, societal, and financial costs. It notes that rates of alcohol dependence are higher in Camden than for London and England, and that Camden has higher hospital admissions related to alcohol-specific conditions than the English average. The strategy also acknowledges that harmful and dependent alcohol use are both drivers and consequences of health inequalities, with those in the most deprived groups experiencing more alcohol-related illnesses and deaths.

The strategy sets out clear commitments to action across a variety of areas, including:

• Addressing inequity in access to alcohol support services.
• Addressing wider determinants of alcohol use, such as housing, mental health, and employment.
• Reducing stigma associated with alcohol dependence.
• Improving alcohol education in schools and colleges.
• Strengthening alcohol use recording and early intervention in primary and secondary care settings.
• Providing out-of-hours support for residents with harmful or dependent drinking.
• Addressing the relationship between alcohol and violence, including violence against women and girls and domestic abuse.
• Considering the impact of parental alcohol use on children and young people.

The board agreed that an alcohol strategy working group should be convened to support the development of detailed action plans to guide the implementation of the strategy recommendations.

Camden Sexual Wellbeing and Reproductive Health System Review and Work Programme 2025–2030

The board reviewed the draft Camden Sexual Wellbeing and Reproductive Health (SWRH) System Review and Work Programme 2025–2030. The SWRH sets out a partnership approach to improving sexual and reproductive health outcomes for all residents, ensuring that everyone, regardless of age, gender, sex, sexuality, ethnicity, disability, or background, can access high-quality, culturally competent, and trauma-informed care.

The review and work programme set out findings and actions in relation to four key domains:

• Healthy, Fulfilling and Safe Relationships
• High Quality Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) Testing and Treatment
• Towards Zero HIV Transmission and Living Well with HIV
• Good Reproductive Health Across the Life Course (this domain is particularly focussed on women and girls)

The work programme is guided by insights from Camden's 2024 Sexual Health Needs Assessment, interviews, focus groups, and surveys with over 190 residents most likely to face poorer sexual and reproductive health outcomes or significant access barriers. It also draws on feedback from frontline staff, as well as relevant local and national research and reports.

The board were asked to recommend existing forums or partnership groups within Camden's health and wellbeing system that could provide oversight for the implementation of the work programme's recommendations.

System Transformation: NHS 10 Year Plan

The board received a report on the NHS '10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future', published on 3 July 2025. The plan supports the reinvention of the health service in line with the core principles of the NHS. The plan was a recent agenda item at the Camden Integrated Care Executive group where leaders across the Camden place-based partnership discussed the emerging picture and local implications.

The report summarised engagement in the development of the NHS 10 Year Plan, the plan itself, and how system transformation work across Camden coheres to the ambitions of the plan.

The plan outlines a major shift in how services will be designed and delivered, moving towards more integrated, personalised support that recognises the impact of social, economic and environmental factors on people's health. The plan sets out reform that will shape the health and care system, over the next decade, shifting from:

• Hospital to community-based care
• Analogue to digital-first services
• Treatment of illness to prevention and population health

The board noted the national commitments outlined in the NHS 10 Year Plan.

Health Protection Update

The board received a report providing an update on health protection issues and epidemiology in Camden. Areas of focus included:

• Measles: Following a very large Measles outbreak across London in Summer 2024 and subsequent decline of cases, measles rates across London have begun to increase again this summer. 15 confirmed cases of measles have been reported in Camden between 2 June and 28 July 2025.
• Invasive Group A Streptococcus (iGAS) in people who inject drugs and people living with homelessness (Camden & Islington): The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) informed us earlier in the year of a cluster of iGAS cases in Camden and Islington (7 cases over a 3-month period) between March and May 2025. This was followed by a period of no cases until the 20 July. Since then, a further 5 cases of iGAS have been reported.

The board noted the contents of the report.

Work Programme of the Health and Wellbeing Board

The board considered the provisional work programme for the Health and Wellbeing Board for 2025/26 and were asked to suggest items for inclusion at future meetings.