Place and focus

For over 500 years we’ve been based in and focused on improving people’s health in Lambeth and Southwark, two of the UK’s most diverse and deprived areas. We do this in a number of ways:

• We work with a range of partners – both within and outside of Lambeth and Southwark – to identify, test and scale new approaches to health and healthcare. We take a programmatic approach, identifying the biggest health issues for people in our communities, understanding what's underneath these issues, and working with others to address them. We collaborate with anyone who has the very best approaches and shares our drive to make them happen. Whenever possible, we fund jointly with others.
• Through a combination of fundraising and our own philanthropic support, we help Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust provide exceptional care and a word-class environment for patients and staff at Guy's, St Thomas' and Evelina Children's Hospital, as well as in community health services across the boroughs.

What makes us different

We believe there are five distinct aspects to our work:

• Place. We work in the London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, supporting new approaches to health and sharing insights, and learning with anyone facing similar challenges.

• Focus. Our programmatic approach focuses on a few complex health issues at a time. Currently we’re aiming to reduce childhood obesity and improve health and care for people with multiple long-term conditions.

• Connecting. We bring great minds together, within and outside the NHS, to come at problems from different angles. And we collaborate, partnering with anyone – here and in other cities – to find, develop and deliver the best possible approaches to drive change.

• Vision. Great ideas sometimes need the space and resource to fly and to reach their potential – so we take a long-term view and keep a very open mind.

• Impact. We're led by evidence and focussed on outcomes – always testing, evaluating, learning and adapting for greater results. By combining our resources with others, we create the kind of firepower that achieves meaningful change now and for future generations.

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Our current focus

​For our 2017 to 2022 strategic plan, we're focusing on tackling the major health challenges facing people living in urban, diverse and deprived areas – developing new approaches to health and sharing what we learn. Our first two programmes will tackle childhood obesity and multiple long-term conditions. We also aim to increase fundraised income for Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.