Projects

Our lead Mental Health Awareness trainer has over twenty years experience delivering mental health awareness training and mental health first aid for staff in local authorities, NHS Trusts, and the voluntary and community sector. 

• In 2023 our trainer delivered 6 two-day, in person sessions of Mental Health First Aid in Lambeth, training a total of 120 people. The training was offered to Council frontline staff (i.e. adult social care staff, care homes staff), as well as voluntary sector organisations regularly in contact with the public. 
• Since 2021, she has been delivering a one day version of Mental Health First Aid training to voluntary and community sector organisations, schools, and faith groups who signed up to be Be Well Spaces as part of the South London Listens programme.
• Since 2018 our trainer has trained around 60 Mental Health Champions. The Mental Health Champion training contains elements of Mental Health First Aid with a specific focus on situations that might arise in the workplace.

Sugar Smart Enfield was a two-year innovative programme, which took a whole-systems approach to help local people to achieve healthier diets.  

We conducted multi-method, multi-output community engagement involving materials design, digital-outreach, community events (e.g. Enfield Town FC), school competitions, surveys, focus groups and workshops. We worked with Corporate Communications on a one year sugar reduction campaign, which ensured all Council communications were in line with healthy eating messages. Following the engagement activities, the Council signed the Local Government Declaration on Sugar Reduction and Healthier Food, committing to improve the availability of healthier food and to reduce the availability and promotion of unhealthier alternatives by integrating and coordinating local policies.

We worked with communities and stakeholders across sectors to take action. Success included: 

Vending machines 

• Full removal of the vending machine in the Civic Centre restaurant
• In leisure centres, the vending machines were moved away from the entrance and out of sight of children. Healthier options were provided, in addition to a display of sugar content information. 

Civic Centre restaurant

• Following a staff survey, high sugar content drinks and snacks were removed from sale to support staff to reduce their sugar consumption. 

Healthier Food Environment

• Supported local businesses to sign up to Healthier Catering Commitment (85),  Breastfeeding Welcome scheme (200), and Healthy Start Vouchers (32)
• Worked with planners to restrict the proliferation of hot food take-aways in areas around schools
• Implemented an Outdoor Events Policy ensuring that at least 40% of food and drink provided at events are healthy choices, free drinking water is available and mothers are aware that breastfeeding is welcome
• Developed an Advertising Policy to restrict the promotion of high fat, salt and sugar products, based on the TfL Advertising Policy. 

Educational settings

• 25% reduction in sugar content of school desserts, resulting in 11.4 tonnes less sugar in school desserts 
• Eat Better, Start Better training delivered to 36 early-years settings. Water/milk-only policy adopted by these settings.
• Organised sugar-themed assemblies in schools

Community settings

• In partnership with the campaign, Middlesex FA encouraged FA Charter Standard Clubs to implement a Water Only Policy. We also supported coaches and managers from Enfield Town FC who provided education to their youth teams about the risks of eating too much sugar.  

The team conducted a needs assessment for Enfield Council, who wanted to understand the scale of household food insecurity and to develop an action plan. 

We identified the population groups and geographical areas most at risk of food insecurity. We estimated the possible extent of food insecurity in the borough, using proxy measures. We researched the causes and impacts of food insecurity on future health and life chances. We identified evidence-based or promising actions that could be taken at a local level to start tackling the issue. 

We mapped the current assets available to help those who are at risk of food insecurity and identified gaps in provision, policy and services. We achieved this by using a multi-method approach to stakeholder and community engagement, through interviews with key works and people with lived experience; focus groups; community events; surveys. We provided actionable recommendations for how the borough could increase its provision of affordable, healthy food.

Insight revealed a strong desire among local stakeholders to collaboratively address household food insecurity with community involvement and empowerment at its core. This led to the formation of an Alliance of 60 cross-sector groups and organisations who co-developed a Food Poverty Action Plan based on NA findings. This work was also delivered by our team.

The team has led the development of healthy weight strategies for a number of local authorities, using a whole systems approach. This approach to obesity epitomises a ‘Health in All Policies’ approach, drawing on local authorities strengths, supporting their key priorities and recognising that they can create their local approaches better and more effectively by engaging with their community and assets.

We engaged a wide range of stakeholders and communities and followed a systematic approach to creating a strategy and action

plan that recognised the importance of upstream actions that focus on promoting healthier physical, economic and social environments. We incorporated multifaceted interventions that address the built environment (food and physical activity) diet, physical activity, and behaviour change. 

In 2020, the team supported the creation and coordination of the Enfield Food Alliance, a community-led network, which aimed to enhance the capacity to respond in a joined-up way to the increasing demand for food aid amongst communities that had been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19 in areas entrenched in poverty and inequalities. 

The Alliance brings together over 60 statutory, private and VCSEF sector partners in order to build community capacity and resilience to support sustainable solutions to household food insecurity such as improved financial stability, employment, housing and health outcomes. 

The Alliance builds upon the communities’ own resources, solidarity, and skills. For example, they develop innovative initiatives (e.g. Food Pantries), share surplus food and spaces, identify and offer training opportunities to members and volunteers, and organise workshops to explore specific topics such as improving referral processes. By sharing knowledge, ideas and best practice, the Alliance works together within the community and identifies real opportunities to strengthen and improve outcomes for residents. The role of the Council is to wrap support around the Alliance through making assets available, training programmes and advice.

This has led to a range of new initiatives, e.g.

• a local food poverty action plan & new funding streams 
• co-production of a cash-first approach tool 
• food security intervention training
• the Cooperation Town initiative (community-led on housing estates) 
• Edible Playgrounds
• five food pantries offering low-cost nutritious food and wrap-around services; 
• Felix Project schools programme; free weekly delivery of fresh food for 13,000 children.

Schools: Our nutritionists have worked with nearly 100 schools to ensure school menus meet Government School Food Standards and the Soil Associations Food For Life Served Here criteria. 

Across hundreds of schools, they have 

• Delivered allergy training sessions with catering staff
• Created allergy and special diet menus for pupils
• Liaised with parents and schools regarding special diets
• Delivered nutrition education workshops for parents at schools 
• Created nutrition-related content 

Businesses: They’ve also supported over 70 businesses through the Healthier Catering Commitment (HCC) Scheme, advising them on making changes to their cooking or serving practices to encourage a healthier food and drink intake for customers; producing promotional material for business to promote the scheme; and liaising with Communications teams to promote the scheme to local residents. 

In Thurrock, we undertook a qualitative review to understand the barriers that families from deprived communities faced in accessing services and explore how these barriers might be overcome.   

Activities included 3 world cafe events with stakeholders and communities to gather initial insights and identify key themes; 3 focus groups with diverse groups of service users to explore specific themes and gather more in-depth information; one focus group with programme facilitators to identify key challenges and barriers; 12 interviews to validate and refine findings (including 4 with service users who had withdrawn from the service early); and finally 2 surveys (service users / residents) to gather additional information and help quantify and general use the findings. Altogether we reached over 610 people, thanks to a strong recruitment plan that included strategies to engage seldom-heard groups. 

Insight gained informed improvements to services, from small changes (start-time alteration, culturally relevant materials) to large (e.g. new school-based programmes).