Operational update from Jamie Waterall

We have this month published the latest official statistics on the NHS Health Check programme. This data provides information on offers and uptake for 2014-15 and the two consecutive years since local authorities became responsible for commissioning the programme. It is hugely promising to see that almost 20% of the eligible population were offered an NHS Health Check over the past 12 months and that an extra 100,000 checks were delivered compared to the same time period during 2013-14. Although uptake has remained at just under 50%, quarter four data for 2014-15 showed the highest uptake reported since the programme started at 56%. This is likely to be attributed to the tremendous efforts being made locally to address low uptake in certain regions and I would like to thank all those involved.

Supporting local implementation remains a key priority for PHE. Over the coming year we will be looking at how we can continue to strengthen our support on marketing, programme improvement and research and evaluation. We continue to work with the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) to move towards agreeing a national data standard for the programme and we will also be exploring options for collecting a representative or national data collection system.

We have recently been reviewing the frequency and structure of this e-bulletin and would value your feedback on what works and does not. We are keen to capture your local case studies and would request that you flag these via our PHE centre teams. This month we feature a case study from Enfield but we are aware that many areas have useful learning to share with colleagues across England. Further case studies can be accessed here.