National priorities for public health initiatives are published by Public Health England. These form the basis of the national public health campaigns which we see in the national media. Pharmacies may be required to engage with some of these campaigns by NHS England. Details of all the campaigns and the calendar of national awareness events are available on the internet.

Local needs will have been identified by the local Clinical Commissioning Group or Health Board and local public health department. The strategic plans for both will be available on their websites and a joint strategy for public health should be available. More detailed breakdowns for specific localities are available from the Public Health Outcomes Framework on the Public Health England website, or from the Scottish Public Health Observatory, Public Health Wales Observatory and the Public Health Agency of Northern Ireland. 

Engaging with national and local campaigns is important, however to maximise impact these should be delivered in the context of the local population who use your pharmacy. Thinking about the profile of your local population in terms of age, sex, ethnicity, etc. will help you ensure messages are appropriate.

All pharmacies will provide services to a range of different customer groups, so it is important to deliver messages in a range of ways to meet the needs of those different groups. You may find that different groups of customers use the pharmacy at different times (e.g. younger adults might use the pharmacy more frequently in the evenings and at weekends). Using electronic presentations will allow you to deliver different messages at different times to maximise your impact.