South London Listens — impact report and action plan published
South London Listens is a collaboration of thousands of people, and a wide range of organisations, to address challenges that affect the health and wellbeing of people in south London — and to bring about real change.
They have just published their South London Listens Impact report 2021-23 and plan of action 24-25.
Alongside this important report is a new film, showcasing the people, stories, and impacts of their work so far, South London Listens – south London acts.
Taken together, they set out the significant progress South London Listens has made – a partnership programme formed in response to the urgent mental health challenges of Covid-19.
South London Listens’s programme is a collaboration of both South East and South West London Integrated Care Boards, the three south London mental health trusts, local authorities and over 150 community organisations across south London.
Working with strategic charity partner Citizens UK, South London Listens have now listened to over 10,000 people and trained almost 1000 people in community organising to understand the biggest challenges our communities face and identify solutions together.
Most importantly — as this report shows — they have moved from South London Listens to South London Acts. With your help and support they are now building a long-term movement of change tackling deep rooted health inequalities.
- Working with over 60 community organisations to take action on mental health and tackle the structural barriers to good health.
- Bringing communities closer to services. Not just engaging with communities, but co-developing and delivering, from embedding practitioners in community organisations, to creating new parental peer support programmes.
- Over 7,500 families now have access to a new CAMHS Virtual Waiting Room co-developed from listening to communities
South London Listens evaluation reports show that they are improving access to services, supporting good mental health and wellbeing, and developing the capacity of the voluntary sector to support their communities.
Going further, South London Listens are using their voice and power to work in partnership with communities to tackle some of the biggest structural barriers to good health — from championing the London Living wage, which has led to wage uplifts for thousands of people employed by NHS Trusts to supporting over 200 services in becoming ‘Safer surgeries’ for migrants and refugees.
Following their Going Deeper listening campaign last year and commitments from NHS and local authority partner to go drive this work forward, they are setting out their plan for 2024 and 2025. This has refined goals and new priorities emerging — including a powerful commitment to tackle the issue of housing and health.
We have already begun delivering against the important commitments made to our communities, as set out in this report, working with our South London Listens partners. This work will be guided by our Taskforce and we are hosting quarterly Borough focused meetings with our Taskforce representatives and local stakeholders to ensure we can strengthen local relationships, align and support existing initiatives. Alongside delivering plans for 2024/25, we will be working to increase the reach of our programme and use our model to work with an even wider range of partners, so that we can utilise our collective power to truly build a healthier and fairer south London.