Public Health

Latest Health Bulletin

Dear all,

Please see below the latest health Bulletin:

Commissioning guidance for community pharmacy prescribing-based services.

NHS England; 2026.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/commissioning-guidance-for-community-pharmacy-prescribing-based-services/
[This document sets out the important role that ICBs have in supporting the national uptake and effectiveness of pharmacy led services, the principles underpinning the ICB commissioning of community pharmacy clinical services to meet local need, and the steps necessary to ensure prescribing is safely embedded within local and national services.]
Freely available online

ICBs told to redraw boundaries again.
HSJ: Health Service Journal 2026;(31 July):8123939.
[Integrated care board boundaries will be redrawn again after Andy Burnham pledged they would match new local government footprints by 2029. The government said ICBs, along with other public bodies, would align with strategic authorities by the end of this parliament. It also pledged to give “more local democratic control” to services including health and by establishing deputy mayor roles responsible for “key public services”.]
Available with appropriate registration or membership

Addiction in the UK.
The Forward Trust; 2026.
https://forwardtrust.lon1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/publications/Forward-Crest-Addiction-in-UK-Report-A4-2026-V4—amended-8.7.26.pdf
[Looks at how alcohol and illegal drugs addiction affects families and communities in the United Kingdom. The first report to bring together addiction data from all four UK nations into a single evidence base.]
Freely available online

Opening up opportunity for the ‘lost generation’: The role of Young Futures in boosting youth employment.
Catch22; 2026.
https://www.catch-22.org.uk/resources/opening-up-opportunity-for-the-lost-generation-report/
[This report sets out how Young Futures Hubs can help tackle the growing crisis of young people who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) by: fixing the architecture of support; building skills, confidence; and resilience; breaking the link between mental health and being NEET; tackling the risk factors of low attainment and school absence; providing work experience and practical employment support; and strengthening connections between Young Futures Hubs and DWP services.]
Freely available online

Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance (nRTSSS) for England: data to April 2026.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID); 2026.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/near-to-real-time-suspected-suicide-surveillance-nrtsss-for-england-data-to-april-2026
[Reporting of deaths by suspected suicide, acting as an early warning system for indications of change in suicides to inform suicide prevention.]
Freely available online

Department of Health and Social Care British Sign Language (BSL) 5-year plan: 1-year update, July 2026 – GOV.UK

The BSL Act 2022 requires that named ministerial government departments must report on how they are promoting or facilitating the use of BSL in their communications with the public.

In July 2025, all ministerial departments published a 5-year BSL plan, setting out how they plan to improve the use of BSL within their departments.

These were published alongside the third BSL report, which summarises work being done across the government to improve the use of BSL.

Departments have been asked to update on their progress every year for the duration of the 5-year plan.

Published 15 July 2026

Public Health Service Clinical Journeys of Patients With Primary Substance Use Disorders Who Are Subsequently Diagnosed With Non-Affective Psychotic Disorders.

Chai KEK. Early Intervention in Psychiatry 2026;20(7):e70211.

[Analysis of 7,568 adults in Western Australia found a median 1.9-year gap between substance use disorder and psychosis diagnoses. SUDs were usually first identified during inpatient care, while psychosis was most often diagnosed in emergency departments. Women experienced longer delays than men. Findings highlight the need for better integration between addiction, emergency and mental health services to enable earlier psychosis detection and treatment.]

Public Health Service Clinical Journeys of Patients With Primary Substance Use Disorders Who Are Subsequently Diagnosed With Non-Affective Psychotic Disorders – PubMed

Open access

Mental Health Report

Dear all,

Spiralling cost of mental health patients stuck in acute hospitals revealed.
HSJ: Health Service Journal 2026;(27 April):7041548.
[Hospital trusts are spending millions of pounds a year on expensive temporary staff to look after mental health patients stranded in emergency departments and acute wards, HSJ has learnt. Figures released to HSJ by 70 acute trusts showed several trusts in cities spent more than £1m each during 2025 on additional agency staffing to care for patients waiting for mental health treatment, and with no physical care need.]
Available with appropriate registration or membership

Prison leavers in substance misuse treatment: 4-week outcomes.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID); 2026.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-leavers-in-substance-misuse-treatment-4-week-outcomes

[Analysis of mortality and re-incarceration rates within 4 weeks of release for prison leavers receiving substance misuse treatment in England.

The main report and accompanying data tables present information and findings from this analysis, including demographic and offending characteristics and mortality and re-incarceration rates for prison leavers receiving substance misuse treatment.]

Latest Community Health Bulletin

Dear all,

The latest Community Health Bulletin is ready for you to view at https://www.evidentlybetter.org/community-bulletin/2026/05/7-may-2026/

In this edition:

Government response to the report ‘The First 1000 Days: a renewed focus’
“More Than Missing School”
Adopting a greener lens on mental health
NHS overhauls clinical standards to reduce maternal deaths
Overwhelmed community mental health nurses raise alarm over staffing and caseloads
Tobacco and Vapes Bill becomes law
Plus much more

Please let us know if there are other people who you think might benefit from receiving this bulletin.

Thank you

Report

Shaping neighbourhood health: reflections and insights from mental health providers.

The NHS Alliance; 2026.

https://thenhsalliance.org/resources/shaping-neighbourhood-health-reflections-and-insights-from-mental-health-providers

[This briefing shares reflections and insights on the development of neighbourhood health, early lessons, and ongoing challenges and barriers for mental health trusts.]
Freely available online

Current Awareness

Source: KnowledgeShare

Reverse the Trend: Reducing type 2 diabetes in young people.
Diabetes UK; 2024.
(This report reveals a 40% rise in type 2 diabetes diagnoses in younger people between 2016-17 and 2022-23. There are now almost 168,000 people under 40 years in the UK who live with type 2 diabetes. This troubling and growing trend underlines how serious health conditions linked to obesity, caused by the environment we live in, are becoming more prevalent in a younger demographic.)

Equity of access to cancer treatment: An analysis of travel times to radiotherapy services across the UK.
Radiotherapy UK; 2024.
(Radiotherapy UK have captured the reality of accessing radiotherapy treatment in the UK, and what this means for cancer patients. This analysis covers current access to radiotherapy, an overview of the 45-minute benchmark, key findings, what this means for patients with cancer and recommendations for the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.)

Poverty stigma: a glue that holds poverty in place.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation; 2024.
(Poverty stigma exacerbates shamefully high rates of poverty in the UK. It can affect health as much as trying to survive on a low income. How do we combat it?)

A Neglected Generation: Reversing the decline in children’s health.
The Food Foundation; 2024.
(The report highlights the increase in obesity and type 2 diabetes driven by calorie dense diets, and the results of poor-quality diets and undernutrition, which are increasingly impacting on children and often paradoxically co-existing with obesity. The findings raise questions regarding the nutritional quality of food that children are eating, in addition to wider socio-economic forces that shape the conditions for the optimal growth and development of young children.)
Freely available online

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Public Health

Current Awareness

Are UK health systems dementia ready?: Comparing dementia policy across the four nations of the UK.
Future Health; 2024.

(A dementia diagnosis remains one of the most feared by the public. The potential arrival of new treatments creates an opportunity to improve patient outcomes. But to do so will require health systems to be dementia ready quickly. Urgent action is now needed to make them so.)
Freely available online

When I’m 64: A strategy to tackle poverty before state pension age: summary report.
Fabian Society; 2024.

(The UK is facing a hidden poverty crisis among 60 to 65-year-olds. Since 2010, no significant measures to ameliorate the impact of the rising pension age have been introduced. This report looks at the roots of the problem and presents a strategy for solving it.)
Freely available online

The future for health after Brexit.
Nuffield Trust; 2024.

(This report tracks issues that are important for the delivery of health and care in the UK to understand how our changing relationship with Europe is changing the picture for the NHS and health more generally, and what the prospects are for the future. This latest report shows that global medicine shortages are being felt particularly acutely in the UK, and the country’s reliance on migration as a source of health and social care staff is intensifying.)
Freely available online

Internet Watch Foundation Annual Report 2023: #BehindTheScreens.
Internet Watch Foundation (IWF); 2024.

(IWF works to end child sexual abuse imagery online. The annual report contains 2023 trends and data, and case studies and provides some analysis on the distribution of child sexual abuse images and videos on the internet. The new data reveals thousands of images and videos of three to six year old children who have been groomed, coerced and tricked into sexually abusive acts, are now being found on the open internet.)

On the path to ending smoking: using new funding.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH); 2024.

(With a major opportunity to reset our local strategies and make rapid progress towards ending smoking for all populations this paper has been developed by ASH in partnership with DsPH and Humber and North Yorkshire’s Centre for Tobacco Control Excellence to support local decision making in spending new funding to address smoking. It has been reviewed and endorsed by the Association of Directors of Public Health.)

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Public Health

Current Awareness

Source: KnowledgeShare

Evaluation of the Changing Futures programme.
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities; 2024.

(The evaluation aims to understand the impact of the Changing Futures programme on people experiencing multiple disadvantage. It also aims to examine how changes at a wider system level affect the way services operate and are delivered. Changing Futures is playing a key role in supporting people to access services and supporting people by coordinating access to different services.)

Making Prepared Foods Healthier & More Sustainable: The Case for Regulating Ready-made Meals in the EU.
Fern; 2024.

(This study finds that a significant and increasing portion of food eaten in the EU comes in the form of ready-made meals (currently 17%, and rising rapidly), which are less healthy and sustainable than food consumed in other forms. Placing legal requirements on the content of these meals could thus significantly reduce the harmful health and environmental impacts of EU food consumption, without burdening consumers.)

1,000 voices not 1: a report highlighting differences in cancer care in the UK.
Bristol Myers Squibb; 2024.

(To form the foundations of the Cancer Equals campaign (which aims to understand and help address the many factors leading to delays to diagnosis and differences in experiences of cancer across the UK), Bristol Myers Squibb carried out quantitative and qualitative research in partnership with Shine Cancer Support. This research report highlights some of the challenges that people living with cancer are facing and the inequalities that exist in how cancer is experienced across the UK.)

Always at the Bottom of the Pile: The Homeless and Inclusion Health Barometer 2024.
Pathway & Crisis; 2024.

(This report from homelessness charities Pathway and Crisis reveals how the national crisis facing England’s health and housing systems leads to worsening health for people in inclusion health groups. Drawing on 85 pieces of published literature from the past two years, and a survey of frontline medical and health care professionals, the findings reveal how those who are most excluded in our society struggle to access health services due to inflexibility, discrimination and stigma.)

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Public Health Updates

Current Awareness

Source: KnowledgeShare

Cold at home: How winter cost of living pressures continue to impact older people.
Age UK; 2024.

(This report from highlights concerns about the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis on older people who are not receiving support from the benefits system. Many of these people are likely to be eligible for support but will still be missing out for a variety of reasons. Government figures show that an estimated 800,000 pensioners are eligible for Pension Credit but are missing out on this much-needed support.)
Freely available online

Alcohol dependence prevalence in England.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID); 2024.

(Estimates of the number of alcohol dependent adults in each local authority in England. Health commissioners can use this information to: estimate the number of alcohol dependent adults in their area and the number who need specialist treatment; and plan and improve alcohol treatment services.)
Freely available online

We’ve only just begun: Action to improve young people’s mental health, education and employment.
Resolution Foundation; 2024.

(This publication – the final report of a three-year research programme funded by the Health Foundation – explores the relationship between young people’s mental health and work outcomes, and how policy-makers should respond. It finds that young people are now more likely to experience a common mental disorder (CMD) than any other age group – a complete reversal compared with two decades ago, when they were least likely to.) Freely available online

Mental health 360.
The King’s Fund; 2024.

(Mental health 360 aims to provide a ‘360-degree’ review of mental health care in England. It focuses on eight core areas including prevalence, access and the mental health workforce.)
Freely available online

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Public Health

Current Awareness

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Bowel Cancer Screening: Annual Report 2021 to 2022.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID); 2024.

(Data report for the Bowel Screening Programme (BCSP) screening which focuses on programme performance in England during the screening year 2021 to 2022 (1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022) compared to the national bowel cancer screening programme standards. It also includes trend data from previous years where this is available.)

Supporting Families – a foundation for family help: Annual report of the Supporting Families programme 2023-2024.
Department for Education, Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities; 2024.

(This eighth annual report of the Supporting Families programme provides an update on progress made during 2023 to 2024. Since the publication of our last Annual Report, 77,203 families have been supported to achieve a successful family outcome.)
Freely available online

Autism Statistics, January to December 2023.
NHS Digital; 2024.

(These statistics present a group of measures on waiting times for autism spectrum disorder diagnostic pathways, based on the time between a referral for suspected autism and the first care contact associated with that referral.)
Freely available online

Drug and alcohol treatment for victims and suspects of homicide.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID); 2024.

(A Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) report looking at the use of substance misuse treatment services by victims and suspects of homicide in England. The report includes information and findings on treatment characteristics of victims and suspects, such as their sociodemographic, accommodation and employment status; and characteristics of the homicide and the relationships between victims and suspects and whether the homicide was drug-related.)

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