Guy's and St. Thomas' Charity Logo
  • Home
  • Who we are
    • Why we're here
    • Our boroughs
    • Our hospitals
    • Our team
    • Our history
  • What we do
    • Our approach
    • Programmes
    • Projects
    • Insights
  • Get involved
    • Start a conversation
    • Support Guy's and St Thomas'
    • Partnerships
    • News and opinion
    • Knowledge Hub
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • Blogs
  • Contact
  • Search form

  • Twitter
  • Linked In

Working with businesses to create healthier high streets

Working with businesses to create healthier high streets

Vicki Purewal, Senior Associate, Innovation Unit, and Jessica Attard, Programme Manager, Guys' and St Thomas' Charity

Oct 22, 2018

For some time now, those working on population health have recognised the role that businesses can play in health improvement. As the RSPH gets ready to publish its latest ranking of 'healthy high streets', there is an opportunity to consider the impact of businesses in health and how to tap into the opportunities they offer for improvements, be it through employee wellbeing schemes or through the products and services that they sell to the public. 

As well as engaging with businesses on a national scale, local opportunities are key too.

In Lambeth and Southwark, we’re increasingly seeing the development of ‘food swamps’: high streets, usually in low income areas, which have a high density of fast food outlets and unhealthy food offering.

Through our own research, we know environments have a big impact on childhood obesity and wanted to better understand how businesses could be part of the solution to addressing the high rates of overweight and obesity we see, particularly in densely populated and disadvantaged areas. Over the last year, we’ve been working in partnership with others through the Healthy High Streets Challenge. 

Together, we set out to test whether using a challenge prize approach could help involve businesses in creating healthier environments on the high street. We chose three places – Haringey, Lambeth and Southwark – and went out, met with the local community and businesses and asked for ideas that could make a difference, be possible, long-lasting and that could be replicated in other places. The best ideas were selected by experts and got a small financial award to help test them on the high street. 

A different approach in Southwark

In Southwark, we focused on Walworth Road – an area with a high level of childhood obesity and families on low incomes - as well as East Street - both areas with high levels of chilhood obesity and families on low incomes. Here we found an abundance of local people with good ideas and fledgling enterprises with a passion for supporting local children to be healthy. Exceptionally, our panel of judges decided that five local entrepreneurs should be supported as a group. With Innovation Unit, we created a flexible six-month incubator programme to help them flesh out their early-stage ideas.

Through our Southwark incubator, we backed initiatives including healthy eating programmes and cooking clubs, making healthier food available to families on a housing estate and in the local market, as well as a recipe exchange group to bring isolated parents together. 

Out of the five ideas, two have already set up trials and the other three are close to testing. Our incubator has given our local entrepreneurs more confidence when pitching their idea, help them develop skills to evaluate their initiatives and grew their local networks.

Although still in their early stages, the projects are already making a difference in their local community. For example, at the start of the Eat fit, Drink fit, Be fit healthy eating programme nearly a third of the young people attending did not eat any fruit or veg at the start. The programme got them discovering new flavours and eventually making their own smoothies and wraps, and the organisation is now working with the Southwark Youth Offending Service on a longer trial. 

Learning directly from businesses and communities

The experiences with our local entrepreneurs in Southwark, Lambeth and Haringey have opened up our eyes to how to engage with local businesses, what really works for them and the important role that local people and entrepreneurs can play in improving the health of their communities. 

Although a short, experimental programme, we saw that small changes to menus could persuade people to go for healthier options.

We found that there are people in and around London’s high streets with relevant ideas for helping others keep healthier and that young people are keen to be involved and can influence retailers.

We’ve pulled key lessons into a short report so that health innovators, local authorities, high street businesses and funders elsewhere can learn from our challenge approach. The learning from our Healthy High Streets Challenge has spurred on new ideas at the Charity. We’ll continue to work with local people, entrepreneurs and established businesses, harnessing them as the critical local asset they are to improve health. 

Go to our Healthy High Streets Challenge report.

Share this story

Twitter Linked In Email us

Print this page

Print this page
  • Start a conversation
  • Support Guy's and St Thomas'
  • Partnerships
  • News and opinion
    • News
    • Blogs
      • Programmes roundup - February 2019
      • London weighs in with renewed action on child obesity
      • A message for our partners and supporters
      • Social prescribing from the margins to the mainstream
      • Working with businesses to create healthier high streets
      • What we’ve learnt developing our programmes
      • Multiple long-term conditions: the inter-relationship between physical and mental health
      • People’s journeys to multimorbidity start early – and so should care
      • From one to many report: View from our Chief Executive
    • Events and networks
  • Knowledge Hub

Donate

Donate

Please support us so Guy’s, St Thomas’ and Evelina London hospitals can provide the best possible care to every patient and their families. Your gift, no matter what size, really can make a difference. Find out more and donate here.

Support Guy's and St Thomas'Support Guy's and St Thomas'

 

Contact

Contact

Guy's and St Thomas' Charity

Francis House

9 King's Head Yard

London SE1 1NA

Tel: +44 (0)20 7089 4550

Fax: +44 (0)20 7900 1801

Email: info@gsttcharity.org.uk

2018 Guy's and St Thomas' Charity
Registered Charity No. 1160316
Company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales No. 9341980 

Cookie Policy | Data Privacy Statement

2017 Guy's and St Thomas' Charity | Francis House, 9 King's Head Yard, London SE1 1NA | Cookie Policy
Registered Charity No. 1160316 | Company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales No. 9341980 

  • Twitter
  • Facebook