Community pharmacies: promoting health and wellbeing

Educational resources and programmes

• The following resources and programmes may be useful when training staff to support the implementation of this guideline:
  • The National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training has free training and resources such as brief advice and behavioural support modules to help people stop smoking.
  • Public Health England and Health Education England’s Making Every Contact Count (MECC) programme has developed a suite of practical resources in conjunction with NHS England and the national MECC advisory group. Resources include a national repository of practice and guides and an e-learning module. Senior leadership and support, and the right systems and infrastructure, also need to be in place. This is addressed in the MECC implementation guide which can be used by organisations to carry out a self-assessment, or for MECC planning.
  • A guide to delivering and commissioning tier 2 weight management services for adults, in partnership with Public Health England and NICE. This takes a detailed look at the effective components of weight management services, and how they should be delivered.
• Support is available from national bodies, professional groups and royal colleges, including the:
  • Royal Pharmaceutical Society
  • Company Chemist’s Association
  • National Pharmacy Association
  • Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.
• The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has published a ‘walk in my shoes’ toolkit for community pharmacy contractors or Local Pharmaceutical Committees. This aims to bring together community pharmacy and GP practice teams to help them better understand each other’s roles, improve working relationships and ultimately provide better care.
• NHS England and partners are promoting the ‘House of Care’ model as a checklist/metaphor for the building blocks of high-quality person-centred coordinated care. The House relies on 4 key interdependent components, all of which must be present for the goal, person-centred coordinated care, to be realised. These are:
  • Commissioning – which is not simply procurement but a system improvement process, the outcomes of each cycle informing the next one.
  • Engaged, informed individuals and carers – enabling individuals to self-manage and know how to access the services they need when and where they need them.
  • Organisational and clinical processes – structured around the needs of patients and carers using the best evidence available, co-designed with service users where possible.
  • Health and care professionals working in partnership – listening, supporting, and collaborating for continuity of care.