The Health Champion is an important member of the HLP team. The accessibility and location of community pharmacies provides significant opportunities to make every contact count and provide people who visit the pharmacy with information as well as signpost them to NHS and other local community services. The Health Champion in the pharmacy undertakes a number of activities, including:

• Engaging proactively with individuals and the community on health and wellbeing issues; signposting them to relevant services within and outside the pharmacy
• Leading on health promotion activities
• Keeping the health promotion zone up-to-date
• Supporting the delivery of local and national health promotion campaigns
• Working with the team to identify and implement community outreach activities
• Maintaining a signposting resource within the pharmacy
• Developing window displays to attract the public into the pharmacy to use its health and wellbeing services.

Other activities might include:

• Considering whether the pharmacy is a healthy workplace and thinking up ideas to make it healthier for all staff
• Networking with other Health Champions to share ideas and find out what works well
• Completing an audit of interventions and outcomes.

Those who wish to develop their capabilities further may also deliver services such as stop smoking, weight management, chlamydia screening and other services not requiring the specific input of a pharmacist. Health Champions have undertaken training and completed an assessment to accredit them with the Royal Society for Public Health's Understanding Health Improvement Level 2 award (see: www.rsph.org.uk for details). This training can be delivered by a number of providers, including the NPA www.npa.co.uk