Here is a summary of the scheduled discussions for the upcoming Health and Wellbeing Board meeting. The agenda includes discussion of the NHS 10-year plan and neighbourhood working, the Health Protection Annual Report, and the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment. There will also be a verbal update on the Refugees and Asylum Seekers Workshop.

Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment

The board will be asked to approve the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) for Bristol, which is scheduled to be discussed by Carol Slater, Bristol City Council. The PNA assesses pharmaceutical service provision, identifies gaps, and informs commissioning decisions. It is a statutory requirement under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and the NHS (Pharmaceutical Services and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013. The PNA covers the period from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2028.

The PNA's key findings include:

• All of Bristol's population is within a 10-minute rush hour drive to a pharmacy.
• Pharmacies are accessible within a 20-minute weekday morning public transport journey.
• 99.7% of the population is within a 20-minute walk of a pharmacy.

The report states that, based on the information available, there are no identified gaps in the need for necessary services in Bristol. It also notes that the Steering Group is satisfied that Bristol has adequate coverage of essential pharmaceutical services through community pharmacies.

The report also refers to a 60-day statutory consultation that was held from 1 July to 31 August 2025, involving statutory consultees and the general public. The consultation received a total of 19 responses. Thematic analysis of the feedback highlighted several concerns:

• Insufficient pharmacy services in specific areas, particularly in deprived communities, with calls for additional provision.
• Workforce challenges and significant service pressures affecting pharmacy operations.
• Perceived inconsistencies with wider council policies on accessibility and travel, and concerns about demographic changes, including a growing population with increasing pharmacy needs.
• Reduction in opening hours and temporary closures impacting the availability of services from other local pharmaceutical contractors.

The PNA assessment of pharmacy provision has been revised from good in 2022 to adequate in 2025, reflecting the reduction in pharmacy operating hours and service availability across Bristol over the past three years.

The Health and Wellbeing Board has expressed concerns to the government regarding the strictly regulated nature of the PNA, which limits its flexibility to capture the lived experiences and voices of the local population.

Health Protection Annual Report

The Health Protection Annual Report is scheduled to be presented by Julie Northcott, Bristol City Council. The report covers the period from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, and provides an overview of infectious diseases and environmental risks to the population. It reports on the health protection priorities, targets, and recommended actions identified by the Health Protection Committee within that time.

The report's executive summary identifies the scope of health protection as including:

• Prevention and control of infectious diseases
• National immunisation and screening programmes
• Healthcare associated infections and antimicrobial stewardship
• Emergency planning and response (including severe weather and environmental hazards)

The report also makes a number of recommendations, including to:

• Finalise and exercise the Bristol Communicable Disease Plan
• Improve screening and immunisations, with a focus on inequalities
• Strengthen data collection and analysis to support action
• Undertake an assessment of health protection activity against the recently published Health Protection Assurance Framework¹
• Strengthen system working by supporting the implementation of NHS commissioning guidance on the clinical response to local incidents and outbreaks of infectious disease and the adoption of the Health Protection Memorandum of Understanding across BNSSG.
• Work with partners to understand the persistent pattern of high healthcare associated infection rates across BNSSG and monitor and support actions to reduce these.
• Work with partners to understand the findings of the Getting it Right First Time review of tuberculosis services, and to establish a more localised focus on TB prevention and treatment.
• Focus on continued prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including access to free condoms, the introduction of the gonorrhoea vaccination, the roll out of doxyPEP², as well as enhanced health promotion interventions.

The report notes that local healthcare systems continue to be in a state of flux, since government announcements in March 2025 to abolish NHS England and scale back Integrated Care Boards. It says that it is paramount that local Health Protection systems continue to be protected throughout this time so that we remain resilient to current, new and emerging health protection threats and can respond to system challenges and change.

The report also notes that between January 2025 to May 2025 Bristol saw 47 confirmed cases of measles, some outbreaks in education settings, health settings and workplaces but the rest were community cases with often no clear link to other cases in the city.

NHS 10-Year Plan and Neighbourhood Working

Joe Poole, Locality Director, Integrated Care Board, is scheduled to present an update on the NHS 10-year plan and neighbourhood working. The paper provides updates on:

• The 10 Year Health Plan for England: Fit for the Future" NHS Long Term Plan, published 2 July 2025
• The National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP), launched 9 July
• The Planning Framework for the NHS in England, published 8 September 2025, with particular focus on developing Neighbourhood Health Plans through the HWBB Board

The paper asks the Health and Wellbeing Board to note the Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England , the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme and the successful South Bristol Proposal, and the opportunity for the HWBB to lead on the development of Neighbourhood Health Plans for Bristol and discuss next steps to progress their development.

The Plan seeks to reinvent the NHS through 3 radical shifts:

• hospital to community
• analogue to digital
• sickness to prevention

The Plan proposes to change this by developing a Neighbourhood Health Service to provide continuous, accessible and integrated care by bring care into local communities, convening professionals into patient-centred teams and ending fragmentation.

Refugees and Asylum Seekers Workshop Follow-Up

Christina Gray, Service Director, Public Health, is scheduled to provide a verbal report on the Refugees and Asylum Seekers Workshop. No further information is available in the agenda.

Draft Health and Well Being Board Forward Plan

The board will note the Health and Well Being Board Forward Plan. The draft forward plan includes a development session on neighbourhood health on 23 October, and a public meeting on 19 November to discuss the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment annual report, and the carers strategy and action plan.