The political context for Healthy Living Pharmacies (HLPs) was set out in 2008, in a Government white paper called Pharmacy in England: Building on Strengths, Delivering the Future. This described how, in time, community pharmacies would become Healthy Living Centres that would promote and support healthy living and health literacy, offering patients €“ and the wider public €“ healthy lifestyle advice and support on self care and a range of pressing public health concerns. Like many local commissioning organisations, NHS Portsmouth recognised the significant role that community pharmacies could play in reducing health inequalities by delivering consistent and high quality health and wellbeing services, promoting health and providing proactive health advice and interventions.

While this role had been accepted for a number of years, progress had been slow, with some pharmacies engaging in services and others not. As a result, consistency in delivery was variable. The public, while fully aware of pharmacy's core role in the supply of prescription medicines and providing medicines over the counter, had little awareness of the broader role that pharmacists and their teams could play in their health and wellbeing. Research shows that around one in 10 people get health advice from their pharmacy, but very few use their pharmacy to obtain other health-related services, such as regular monitoring of current health conditions and health screening for conditions such as diabetes and cholesterol. NHS Portsmouth understood that if the public were to engage more in community pharmacy health and wellbeing services, a new approach was needed €“ and the Healthy Living Pharmacy concept was born.