Share your idea with us

The issue

Childhood obesity is a complex global issue and a major challenge in Lambeth and Southwark, where local rates are among the highest in the country.

Our ten-year programme aims to help children in our boroughs to achieve and keep a healthy weight by changing the environments in which they live, learn and play so they will find it easier to eat well and exercise more. There is a clear link between an area’s average income and obesity, so we’re focusing our efforts in the areas with greater levels of income inequality where rates are highest.

What we typically fund

We’re particularly interested in hearing from organisations based in the areas of Lambeth and Southwark with the highest rates of childhood obesity, however we’re open to partnerships at a variety of scales. Any projects at a city or national level must still be relevant to our boroughs.

We fund or support ideas to help change nurseries, children’s centres, schools, high streets, parks and green spaces, and anywhere else where children and young people are eating or spending their time. We group these environments into three strands: Home, School and Street.

What we are unlikely to fund

We are unlikely to fund projects which seek to change the behaviour of people through education or awareness raising. These projects can have a range of benefits but the current evidence suggests that they have a limited effect on preventing childhood obesity at a population level. Read more about this research here.

The issue

Multiple long-term conditions is a growing health issue with a large impact on peoples’ lives, their communities and our health and care system. We use multiple long-term conditions to describe when someone lives with three or more long-term health conditions for which there is currently no cure, but which can be treated – such as diabetes, kidney disease or depression.

Through our programme, we’re aiming to partner with others and support projects that slow down people’s progression from one to many long-term conditions.

What we typically fund

Through our programme, we’re aiming to partner with others and support projects that slow down people’s progression from one to many long-term conditions. We’re concentrating our efforts on working-age people in Lambeth and Southwark, focusing on those at risk of rapid progression to multiple conditions and supporting partners to help address the complex mix of factors that influence progression.

While we take a place-based approach, we’re also interested in projects at a city or national
level, however they must still be relevant to our boroughs. If you’re wondering whether your idea is right, get in touch.

What we are unlikely to fund

We are unlikely to fund projects that focus on the management of individual conditions, unless there is a potential relationship to people’s progression from one to many long-term conditions. We are also unlikely to fund projects which focus on improving the care of older people with multiple and complex conditions.

The issue

We know that air pollution has damaging health effects. In inner city areas everyone is exposed to air pollution – but some groups are particularly susceptible to these health effects, in addition to impact depending on where they live, work and move around the city.

Our ten-year programme focuses on reducing the negative impact on people who are most vulnerable to the health effects of air pollution. We’ll do this by building evidence on how to both reduce exposure for people whose health is most impacted by air pollution, as well as reducing the levels of pollutants in our air.

What we’re hoping to fund

Our programme will start with and focus on the impact air pollution has on the four groups whose health is most affected by air pollution, including:

• Children
• People with heart and lung conditions
• Older people

We’re looking to identify and test solutions to the issue, and plan to work across London and at a local level in our boroughs. We’re particularly interested in working with a range of partners – from residents to Government, urban planners to transport leaders, businesses to the NHS – to accelerate the change we want to see.

In the first two years of our programme, we will focus on what we can practically do to reduce the impact of air pollution on vulnerable groups. We will fund or support ideas to change the environments where we know vulnerable groups spend their time, including nurseries, hospitals and care homes.

What we’re unlikely to fund

We know that there are multiple causes of air pollution and multiple routes to being exposed to poor quality air.

At the moment we’re unlikely to fund projects that have a focus on broader sustainability issues such as climate change, unless improving air quality is a specific aim. We are also not currently funding projects that aim to remove outdoor pollutants from the air such as filters.