Other health strategies
Our strategies
Alcohol action plan
Alcohol over-consumption and the associated outcomes are an area of concern locally. Southwark ranked sixth among the 32 London boroughs for hospital admissions episodes due to alcohol and third for mortality from chronic liver disease in 2014/15. Acute intoxication, sometimes linked to a vibrant night time economy, creates a considerable burden on local enforcement services and there are far reaching societal impacts of alcohol misuse which include crime, antisocial-behaviour, impact on families and the safeguarding of children and young people. Southwark’s Alcohol Action Plan 2017-20 (PDF, 144kb) has been produced in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders from across the council, Southwark NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, providers and the voluntary and community sector and represents a local commitment to reducing alcohol harm across the borough.
Sustainable Food Strategy
Almost one in six residents in the borough are food insecure. Being food insecure means being unsure of your ability to secure enough food of sufficient quality and quantity to allow you to stay healthy and participate in society (Food Foundation, 2016).
In Southwark, there are opportunities to change our food system to make it fairer for local people. Our Sustainable Food Strategy, developed in partnership with Southwark Food Action Alliance, sets out how we can improve health, reduce inequalities and protect the planet through food.
Healthy weight
Southwark has some of the highest rates of overweight and obesity in the country, with 58% of adults and 43% of children in Year 6 classified as obese or overweight. Our refreshed 2022-27 healthy weight strategy (PDF, 841kb) has been put together in an effort to tackle obesity in Southwark using an evidence-based, life-course approach that is family-focused and brings all partners together in a whole systems approach. This strategy builds on the ambitions of the previous strategy: Everybody’s Business 2016-21.
All professionals working in Southwark are eligible to receive our free, bespoke Healthy Weight Training course developed to help healthcare and non-healthcare professionals gain confidence to sensitively and effectively raise the issue of weight with their clients. The fully online course is worth between 2.5 and 5 CPD credit hours. For more information apply at Southwark healthy weight.
Suicide prevention strategy and action plan
In Southwark, between 25 and 30 people take their own life each year. The trend has been upward in Southwark over the last decade. Every suicide is a tragic event with devastating impacts on friends, families and communities. Our Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan 2017-22 (PDF, 746kb) represents a local commitment to reduce suicide, attempted suicide and self-harm in the borough from currently among the highest to among the lowest rates in London. You can read the full strategy and action plan via the link below.
Tobacco control
In Southwark, 16% of all adults currently smoke. While this is relatively low, this is still an estimated 46,000 adult smokers with the majority coming from disadvantaged communities. Reducing smoking prevalence, particularly among our most deprived communities, is a key ambition of the Southwark Health and Well-being Board.
The Tobacco Control Strategy (PDF, 1.6mb) outlines a co-ordinated, multi-agency approach to tobacco control focussing on the following widely recognised strands of tobacco control.
Vaccination
Vaccination is the safest and most cost-effective way to protect against vaccine-preventable diseases and aims to prevent disease at the individual level and also to achieve a level of population coverage that confers herd immunity. Despite the success of vaccination programmes, recent work undertaken in Southwark has identified that local vaccination coverage for several vaccines has also declined and some have now fallen below both locally and nationally agreed targets. Reasons for this decline include widening inequalities, growth of underserved groups and creation of “vaccine hesitant” clusters fed by misinformation.
Our Immunisation Strategy and Action Plan has been developed with partners across Southwark and represents a commitment to reverse this downward trend in vaccination uptake, and to achieve our vision to improve coverage over the next two years.
Sexual health
Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham face some of the greatest sexual health challenges in England, including high rates of HIV, STIs, emergency contraception use and abortions.
As the challenges we face are similar, we're in a stronger position to meet the needs of our populations through collaborating on sexual health commissioning and strategy. Through this approach, we're able to effectively pool resources to maximise our impact in many areas.
The 2019-24 Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy sets out four key priorities for our three boroughs:
- healthy and fulfilling relationships
- good reproductive health across the life course
- high quality and innovative STI testing and treatment
- living well with HIV
There are three key components to the strategy:
- the main strategy document (PDF, 2.8mb), which is supported by two appendices:
- a summary of the evidence in each of our priority areas (PDF, 331kb) and
- a statistical appendix (PDF, 880kb), summarising the current picture and recent trends
Also available is an executive summary (PDF, 81kb) and quick guides (PDF, 738kb) summarising how we'll achieve our vision.
Page last updated: 11 October 2023
