Thrive LDN & The Mayor of London: Eight Years Of Public Mental Health Achievements

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01. Executive Summary

“Throughout history, movements that promote change have been driven by passionate leaders.” Erica Sánchez and Madeline Schwartz, Global Citizen

The leadership, advocacy and investment demonstrated by the Mayor of London on mental health and wellbeing has been vital to establishing London as global exemplar for public mental health, where reducing health inequalities is the priority aligning individuals, communities and partners across the health and social care system.

On taking office in 2016, the Mayor brought together leaders from health, education, sport, business, local government, cross-party, charities and business with the objective to improve everyone’s understanding of mental health and wellbeing and drive change for how things are done in London. This meeting surfaced the need for a citywide movement to challenge the status quo and create the capacity to support ongoing and sustained change. Thrive LDN – a public mental health partnership was established as an independent and challenging voice to the system, advocating for those with lived experiences of poor mental health and inequality, to create an infrastructure for creativity and change.

Strong leadership resides at the heart of Thrive LDN’s movement activity. By stepping up, accepting responsibility, caring deeply enough to commit and creating an opportunity for others to join, the Mayor has tapped into new sources of power, creativity and energy for change as demonstrated in this report and the spotlight focus areas.

Since inception, Thrive LDN has evolved based on an agile and adaptive theory of change and thanks to the individuals, communities and the systems involved is regarded as a global leader in public mental health. Public mental health innovation offers rich opportunities for Londoners to live happier, healthier lives and to tackle the lived and material costs of poor mental health, including an economic cost of at least £117.9 billion or 4.7% of UK GDP annually. Over the past eight years, the Mayor has invested £4.4 million in mental health activities delivered by Thrive LDN, which has empowered hundreds of thousands Londoners to live happier, healthier lives through events, resources, training and community-building.

Since 2021, Thrive LDN has reached a new level of action, agency and impact for both the Londoners we serve, the communities which make up our city and the system within which we exist. The partnership has worked with almost 1000 community organisations, spanning all 32 London Boroughs and the City of London, listening to and amplifying the voices of more than hundreds of thousands Londoners. This active conversation and trusting relationship with Londoners has created dialogue and routes to engagement, which has not previously been achieved at this scale leading to an expansive programme of work which engages directly with London’s most marginalised communities, upskills and builds capacity for community leaders and champions and navigates crises, to build resilience.

London is an extraordinary city; however we know that the current life of a Londoner is more complex than we could have ever imagined, even since 2016. From a pandemic virus and multiple lockdowns to the existing social injustices and structural inequalities which have never been fully addressed, London services are under huge strain and the demand is growing exponentially for mental health support. Unfortunately, the challenges facing Londoners opportunity for good mental health and wellbeing have been more serious, however the opportunity for growth and transformation has never been greater, building on purposeful leadership and a sense of urgency to radically change and innovate. It will take resilient and enabled people and places for London to thrive.

The growth will continue in the coming years, with two world-leading, multi-year academic partnerships recently being funded to the tune of £15 million from UK Research and Innovation Councils. The Mayor’s commitment public mental health and leadership of Thrive LDN has been central to bringing these research centres to London, which promise to put the city at the forefront of global public mental health research. Thrive LDN will facilitate a democratic, participatory, and intersectional approach to the research.

Through Thrive LDN, the Mayor of London and all its partners continue to build the foundations for a world-leading public mental health approach to supporting citizens. We begin this report looking back at how senior level support towards Thrive LDN, led by the Mayor, has translated into direct action to support Londoners’ mental health. We do this by unpicking the commitments made in the 2021 manifesto and plotting the highlights on a timeline of key moments in the Thrive LDN journey.

The spotlight sections in this report offer more depth on some of those key achievements, including:

• Building a global exemplar: over the past three years, Thrive LDN has responded to the Mayor’s manifesto commitment to “take Thrive LDN to the next level.” Whilst the challenges Londoners currently face are at extreme levels, new strategic opportunities continue to emerge through international academic collaboration and the mental health vanguard prevention initiative.

• Leading on public mental health: the leadership role which the Mayor and health and social care leaders have played is reflected in a timeline of key Thrive LDN developments and achievements from 2016 to now: 1) Challenging stigma and supporting Londoners to look after their mental health and wellbeing; 2) Training and championing Londoners mental health; 3) Tools for better mental health and 4) Leading research on public mental health.

• Supporting Londoners through tough times: the response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic: 1) Wellbeing in the pandemic; 2) Mental health recovery mission; 3) Being there in a crisis; 4) Preventing suicide and supporting bereaved Londoners; and 5) Building economic wellbeing.

• Diversity is one of London’s greatest assets: Thrive LDN’s approach to participation, coalition building and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: 1) An innovative EDI framework to drive equity; and 2) Supporting the next generation of Londoners.

• Empowering London’s local communities: Recognising the important role communities play in supporting positive mental health and wellbeing: 1) Investing in grassroots mental health action through Right to Thrive; and 2) Great Mental Health Day and wider community mental health events.

02. Public mental health progress in London, 2016 - 2024

• Nearly 400,000 Londoners complete online suicide prevention training

• More than 220,000 Londoners participate in Mayoral funded mental health and wellbeing activity as part of pandemic recovery

• All five of London’s suicide bereavement support service commissioned by the ICS’s utilise Thrive LDN’s real-time surveillance system for suspected suicides to contact details of bereaved individuals in their locality, to make a proactive support offer.

• 4,000 staff trained in Youth Mental Health First Aid across all 32 London boroughs

• Over 1,600 professionals in London working with children and young people took part in the Papyrus suicide awareness and suicide prevention training sessions

• Mayoral commitment helps secure £15 million towards two world-leading, multi-year academic partnerships and research centres with KCL and SOAS

• More than one in four of London’s elected councillors engaged in mental health training

• Rollout of wellbeing ‘grab bags’ across TfL’s London Underground, DLR and River Services to support vulnerable customers (delivered by the GLA Health Team in collaboration with TfL and supported by Thrive LDN)

• More than 37,000 employees engaging with This is Me – In the City

• Since 2018, Right to Thrive initiative supports almost 8,000 Londoners and invests more than £580,000 to support marginalised and racialised communities

• 225,000 wellbeing cards across London during pandemic and pandemic recovery to those on lower incomes or less digitally enabled

• Debt Free Advices’ free, impartial debt advice service operates 24/7 between January and March 2021 with Mayoral funding

• 292,000+ Londoners reached in the In Loving Memory of Londoners Lost bereavement campaign

• London’s Great Mental Health Day grows, becoming annual regional event engaging tens of thousands of Londoners on local services and support in January

• Thrive LDN and Mayor of London step up and support nuanced public mental health responses to geo-political crises, including displaced Afghans, Ukrainians and Hong Kongers

03. Acting together to improve Londoners mental health

At its core, Thrive LDN is a participation driven partnership that engages with and responds to the needs and insights of Londoners. By working in partnership across London we are better able to achieve our shared goal for all Londoners to have an equal chance to lead happier, healthier lives.

Thrive LDN has driven improved mental health for Londoners through partnership working, strategy and coordination, communications, engagement and campaigns, research and insights, programme development and delivery and evaluation. The partnership has also helped to drive forward the Mayor of London’s public mental health agenda, taking action on the commitments made in the 2021 manifesto. The following table shows how the Mayor’s support for Thrive LDN has translated into direct action to support Londoners mental health.

04. Building on eight years of success

As demonstrated in this report, there has been real progress to support Londoners’ mental health and wellbeing showing what we can achieve when we work together. Further to this, in direct response to the huge challenges experienced in recent years, we have witnessed and supported innovation and disruption on a new scale. Through recovery from the pandemic, in response to geopolitical unrest, conflict and displacement, combating the environmental emergency, and existing through a cost-of-living crisis, we are constantly learning and deepening our understanding of resilience and levers available to London to adapt to and overcome adversity.

Yet, many Londoners are now more vulnerable than ever before. The lid has been lifted on what influences our opportunity to thrive, demonstrating how social, economic, and racial inequalities limits progress for not only good mental health and wellbeing but also for achieving social justice.

We are ambitious about the future of public mental health in London. This ambition is reinforced by a strong commitment from all parts of the system who are coming together to break down the siloed working, democratise how knowledge is produced and challenge processes for translating evidence into action.

A special focus of 2023/24 has been on supporting the establishment of the two academic networks to improve the health of people, places and communities. The PROMISE Network, in partnership with King’s College London and funded by UKRI (£7m over four years) will formally launch in April 2024, creating new opportunities for population-based improvements in mental health, focusing on children and young people, suicide and self-harm prevention, and multiple long-term conditions.

Additionally, Thrive LDN is a lead partner to the SOAS Centre for Anthropology Mental Health Research and Action, funded by Research England (£7.8m over five years), which will launch in September 2024.  This global centre is being developed to better understand and address inequalities in access to mental health care, challenges in provision, and deficits in the experience and overall outcomes of care.

Academic and research partnerships are a key lever Thrive LDN continue to explore with support and commitment from system partners, communities and Londoners with lived experience to sustainably grow and establish an infrastructure which understands and implements what works, ultimately improving the mental health of everyone and enabling more efficient preventative approaches for mental health.

It’s never been more important for us to come together across the region, collaborate and share resources to achieve common goals. We strongly believe that it is only through continued efforts to support whole communities to come together and address the causes of poor mental health that we can meet our shared vision of all Londoners having an equal opportunity for good mental health and wellbeing.

05. A global exemplar in public mental health: highlights

Key moments in the Thrive LDN journey.

2016/17: Building firm foundations

• Sadiq Khan makes commitment to create a citywide mental health partnership

• London Health Board agree to support the development of Thrive LDN (originally called ‘Mental Health Roadmap for London’) and establish Thrive LDN Steering Group

• Six task and finish groups established across several areas

• Commissioned Mapping mental health in London report

2017/18: Launching, listening and learning

July 2017: Thrive LDN launched by the Mayor of London alongside health and care partners.

• Thrive LDN publish Towards happier healthier lives

• Community conversations across half of London’s boroughs

• ‘Are we OK London?’ campaign launched across London, including TfL network poster campaign

• Problem Solving Booths

• Thrive LDN Suicide Prevention Network established

• Thrive LDN Champions Network formed

2018/19: Delivering for Londoners

Right to Thrive

• Keeping Londoners Well report published

• Right to Thrive community engagement begins

• Right to Thrive events with Brixton Reel

Young Londoners

• First young Londoner-led festival for World Mental Health Day

• Youth Mental Health First Aid programme launched

• Discover Storytelling partnership

Suicide Prevention

• Thrive LDN becomes Zero Suicide Alliance partner

Participation and Campaigns

• The opportunities for arts and cultural activities to improve the mental health and wellbeing of Londoners published

• Thrive LDN publish Londoners said report

• Are we OK London? campaign

• This is Me campaign partnership launched

• Thrive Together interfaith campaign and event

September 2018: Mayor of London’s Health Inequalities Strategy published, with Thrive LDN supporting on delivery.

2019/20: Scaling and innovating

More than 200,000 people took part in events and activities which Thrive LDN has led or collaborated on.

Young Londoners

• More than 450 people attended a Young Londoner-led World Mental Health Day Festival with over 90% rating the festival as ‘good’

• Young London Inspired grants scheme awarded 32 grants

• Youth Mental Health First Aid programme trained 101 new Youth MHFA Instructors and delivered Youth MHFA training to more than 1,300 education staff

Suicide Prevention

• The citywide #ZeroSuicideLDN campaign saw more than 53,000 Londoners take the Zero Suicide Alliance’s free, online suicide prevention training

• Partnership with Papyrus to train educational staff in suicide awareness launched

• Thrive LDN and The Metropolitan Police pilot a Real-Time Surveillance System suspected suicides (RTSS)

Right to Thrive

• ‘Too Desi Too Queer’, Too Black Too Queer’, ‘Too Latino Too Queer’, a series of film events took place celebrating the LGBTQ+ community.

• ‘A Journey Less Ordinary’ a series of short films, poetry and discussions took place exploring transgender experience and wellbeing.

• ‘Never going to beat you’, a powerful film on domestic violence within the Traveller community was screened.

Communications and campaigns

• Supporting the growth of the ‘This is Me – In the City’ campaign, seeing over 37,000 employees helping to change attitudes towards mental health in the workplace in 2019.

• Thrive LDN Champions Leadership Development programme

• National Park City Festival partnership

• Creativity and Wellbeing Week partnership

• This is Me campaign partnership

Leadership

• Ensuring all Londoners have an equal opportunity to good mental health and What Londoners with Lived Experience Said reports published

• Academic partnerships with NIHR Mental Health Policy Research Unit and the Centre for Society and Mental Health established

• Dr Jacqui Dyer represents Thrive LDN at #CitiesThrive conference in New York

Read the 2019/20 impact report for more

2020/21: Co-ordinating pandemic response

More than 685,000 people took part in projects, events, and activities that Thrive LDN has led or collaborated on.

Leadership

• Supporting the Strategic Coordination Group and associated sub-groups to embed wellbeing into pandemic response structures.

Research and insights

• Establishing a public mental health research and community insights team, to provide up-to-date evidence on mental health and wellbeing in the capital.

• Working with 200 different community groups and organisations and listening to the voices of over 10,000 Londoners to understand more about the experiences of 20 disproportionately at-risk groups.

• Thrive Together report and Thrive Together: lessons from the most challenging year of Londoners’ lives published.

Communications and campaigns

• Expanding our communications function to develop and distribute regular public mental health communications toolkits so that key messages can be widely shared.

• In partnership with Doctors of the World, producing wellbeing guidance in 36 languages to support migrant communities during COVID-19.

• Distributing 225,000 wellbeing cards across London to those less digitally enabled or struggling with personal debt, as featured on BBC London.

Training, workshops and festivals

• More than 700 parents in London took part in online resilience building workshops.

• Launched in February 2021, our emotional resilience training video has had more than 461 hours’ worth of total viewing time to date.

• Over 7,000 people took part in the Coping Well During Covid webinar series.

• More than 3,000 people have engaged with World Mental Health Day festival content.

Right to Thrive

• Awarding grants to 23 community and grassroots projects across London to help support the mental health and wellbeing of those who are experiencing higher levels of unfair treatment and discrimination.

Economic Wellbeing

• In partnership with the Mayor of London, enabling Debt Free Advices’ free, impartial debt advice service to operate 24/7 during January to the end of March 2021.

Suicide prevention and bereavement support

• Sudden bereavement support has been accessed almost 4,000 times.

• Almost 100,000 Londoners complete free, online suicide awareness training

• The Real-Time Surveillance System refers 204 people who are the next of kin to suspected suicide to specialised bereavement support in the days following a death by suicide

Read the 2020/21 impact report for more

2021/22: Supporting London’s recovery

Co-ordination

• Public Mental Health Report published by Thrive LDN, with full endorsement by the London Health Board chaired by the Mayor of London. 150+ stakeholders consulted.

• In September 2021, Thrive LDN was asked to undertake a rapid programme of work to help support the mental health needs of Afghan evacuees.

• Worked directly with 20 groups impacted by global crises to support mental health and wellbeing

• Thrive LDN established 250+ new partnerships with organisations

Research and Insights

• Insights into London’s public mental health was accessed by over 800 people

• More than 20 research papers and briefings around population mental health were produced and shared with health and social care stakeholders

Communications and campaigns

• 292,000+ Londoners reached in the In Loving Memory of Londoners Lost bereavement campaign

• Thrive LDN coordinated London’s first Great Mental Health Day, with more than 60 events citywide to raise awareness of mental health and the support available

• Thrive LDN public mental health communications toolkit downloaded 2,400+ times

• Mental Health Awareness Week & Creativity and Wellbeing Week supported with:

  • Panel discussions

  • Live Q&A and interactive workshops

  • New social media graphics

  • Vox pops and interviews with young Londoners

Suicide prevention and bereavement support

• Over 65,000 Londoners complete online suicide prevention training

• Identification of 7 suspected suicide clusters via the Real-Time Surveillance System

Right to Thrive

• Right to Thrive Innovation Fund grants awarded to 14 grassroot and community organisations

• 82 participants took part in Radical Self Care, supporting people experiencing higher levels of inequality.

• Training and coaching through Mind, was delivered to 40 participants to support the mental health and wellbeing peer support for their group/community.

Projects and Programmes

• Developed and scaled projects and activities which are coproduced, culturally competent and proportionate to the needs of Londoners and communities.

• 2020 Right to Thrive grants scheme concluded across 996 activities, supporting close to 4,000 beneficiaries through 22 funded projects

• 2021 Right to Thrive Innovation Fund provides a total of £120k to support another 14 community organisations

• 1,500 more staff were trained in YMHFA across all London boroughs

Read the 2021/22 impact report for more

2022/23: Responding to crises and building London’s resilience

Economic wellbeing

• Responded to the cost-of-living crisis, with 5000+ Londoners participated in cost-living training programmes, in training co-created with 200 front-line experts. 15 London borough specific and five pan-London training sessions enabled 265 participants to experiment with alternative approaches to having meaningful conversations.

• 30 interactive, live training webinars on mental health awareness and financial hardships were delivered in partnership with Healthy Dialogues.

• The Economic Wellbeing Forum was stepped up to meeting monthly, and by bringing together a broad range of statutory partners, community organisations and those from the workplace/ business sectors, it has created a supportive platform that streamlines signposting efforts, provides ideas for training and resources, and raises awareness of both new and existing support services.

Crisis response

• We took an adaptive approach to initial public mental health responses to wider crises that have an impact on Londoners’ wellbeing, including supporting Turkish, Kurdish, and Syrian Londoners’ mental health needs.

Training for councillors

• A total of 532 councillors, more than 1 in 4 of all London councillors, took part in training that defined mental health and illness and gave evidence-based advice on looking after individual and community mental health.

Communications and campaigns

• Co-produced resources, toolkits and campaign materials, taking a highly networked and coordinated approach, including user testing and direct engagement with Londoners from diverse communities.

• London’s first Great Mental Health Day amplified local services and support as part of the recovery from the pandemic.

Suicide prevention and bereavement support

• In 2022/23 an average of 79% of specialist bereavement support service referrals to ICS-commissioned suicide bereavement services were a direct result of referrals made through the Real-Time Surveillance System.

• Expansion of the Real-Time Surveillance System commences to include information on attempted suicides and self-harm.

• More than 350 people across 31 London boroughs and 80 higher education or further education institutions participated in Papyrus suicide prevention training in 2022/2023.

Right to Thrive

• Six community projects were awarded funding to build capacity for targeted engagement

• The Hong Kongers Award Scheme 2023 launched as part of The Greater London Authority’s Hong Kong Integration Programme

Research and insights

• In 2022/23, insights were gathered from 55 Community or partner organisations supporting frontline work in London, 63 young Londoners, 31 elected London councillors and 5 community champions and leaders.

• Publication of Towards Happier Healthier Lives – A public mental health review for London, commissioned by the London Leaders Group.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

• Implementation of an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Framework for Thrive LDN which has supported the delivery of more accessible, inclusive, and responsive activities to Londoners and their communities, including those from racialised and minoritised groups.

Read the 2022/23 impact report for more

2023/24: Building a prevention and research infrastructure fit for the future

April 2023: Thrive LDN’s 2023-24 Strategic Plan endorsed by the by the London Health Board.

Communication and campaigns

• Our community-led campaigns Getting Through This Together and Great Mental Health Day emphasised the importance of context and collectivism.

• #ThroughTogether stories were viewed 10,000+ times.

• Full rollout of wellbeing ‘grab bags’ across TfL’s London Underground, DLR and River Services to support interventions with vulnerable customers on the network (delivered by the GLA Health Team in collaboration with TfL and supported by Thrive LDN.

• New bitesize training approach to Gift of Reconnection: trauma-informed practice training to help make training offer more manageable.

Projects and Programmes

• Right To Thrive Impact Report published, providing overview of the outcomes and impact of activities and sets the context and case for targeted intervention.

• Thrive LDN’s Economic Wellbeing Forum stepped up to shape the response to support Londoners dealing with the cost-of-living crisis and emerging economic pressures.

• More than 5,000 people trained to better support themselves and those others experiencing financial struggles.

• 22 young Londoners with lived experience of bereavement through violence support development of report to help shape future programmes of work.

• Working with GLA’s Hong Kong Integration Programme to deliver training offers to provide support for Hong Kongers in London.

• Facilitating an evening of powerful short films that explore authentic lived experiences of Hong Kongers from the LGBTQ+ community living in London.

• In partnership with Papyrus, delivered suicide prevention training to more than 350 higher and further education (HE/FE) staff from across more than 80 London colleges and universities.

Research & Insights

• Kings College London and Thrive LDN’s joint bid to UKRI for a Population Mental Health Improvement Cluster successful, awarded £7 million over four years.

• Thrive LDN supports successful SOAS bid for new mental health research centre in London, securing a Research England grant worth nearly £8 million over 5 years.

• Together with Toynbee Hall, undertake participatory action research with young Londoners to investigate the emotional support they need from their families, in the context of the cost-of-living crisis.

• Working in partnership with the Fast-Track Cities Initiative in London to carry out a participatory action learning with more than 90 Londoners living with HIV.

Spotlight 1: Supporting Londoners through tough times

This section details how Thrive LDN has supported Londoners through multiple crises, worked towards the aim of becoming a zero-suicide city and built economic wellbeing.

Wellbeing in the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how a citywide approach to mental health is more important than ever. Thrive LDN played a key role in the response, supporting the Strategic Coordination Group and associated sub-groups to embed wellbeing into pandemic response structures. The Coping Well During Covid webinar series received more than 19,000 unique visits, and in partnership with Doctors of the World, Thrive LDN produced wellbeing guidance in 36 languages to support migrant communities during the pandemic.

To support the mental health and wellbeing of groups impacted by global crises, Thrive LDN has co-created targeted resources, workshops and briefings. Thrive LDN worked directly with 20 impacted groups in 2021/22 alone, including undertaking a rapid programme of work to help support the mental health needs of Afghan evacuees in response to the withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) at the end of 2021. A 2021 internal evaluation of the project showed it had helped increase knowledge around culturally competent ways to engage with Afghan refugees, and added value to the network of professionals supporting the refugee community.

In 2022/23, Thrive LDN developed additional resources, workshops and briefings to support those in crisis. 667 people took part in trauma-informed practice in humanitarian crisis training in response to the Ukraine crisis. In addition, there were 1,151 views on the webpage collating resources for supporting Turkish, Kurdish, and Syrian Londoners’ mental health needs and a scenario planning briefing was downloaded a total of 476 times. Trauma-informed practice training and resources were provided for 158 professionals supporting Hongkongers, with additional training provided for 91 participants in 2023/24. An evaluation by WAVE Trust showed the latter project led to significant increases in knowledge, understanding and confidence working in a trauma informed way.

Preventing suicide and supporting bereaved Londoners

Thrive LDN has driven improved suicide prevention through training and system-wide surveillance, as well as providing sudden bereavement support.

Over the last five years, nearly 400,000 Londoners have completed the Zero Suicide Alliance’s online suicide prevention training as part of the citywide #ZeroSuicideLDN campaign which was launched by the Mayor of London in September 2019.

The Thrive LDN Suicide Prevention Group, composed of 40 organisations and 57 members, has facilitated a range of citywide projects, including the Thrive LDN Suicide Prevention Information Sharing Hub, hosted by the Metropolitan Police Service.

The Real Time Surveillance System (RTSS), has supported suicide prevention in London, identifying multiple suspected suicide clusters a year. This was achieved by cross-referencing submitted cases and reviewing potential demographic, geographic and contextual links. That led to response groups being convened for each to investigate the incidences and develop actions for the prevention of additional suicides and provision of bereavement support. The RTSS also enables longitudinal and thematic data analysis on a bi-monthly basis to monitor the impact of the pandemic on suicide incidence in London, and highlights emerging means of suicide, which can be proactively escalated to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). In 2022/23 an average of 79% of specialist bereavement support service referrals to NHS-commissioned suicide bereavement services were a direct result of referrals made through the RTSS.

Since 2019 Over 1,600 professionals in London working with children and young people took part in the Papyrus suicide awareness and suicide prevention training sessions. One participant said it “reaffirmed the value of responding, talking, being present and engaged can be enough of a starting point to make a difference – not to be afraid of acting.”

As well as suicide prevention work, online sudden bereavement support was developed and accessed almost 4,000 times. As well as targeted online support, more than 292,000 Londoners were reached in the In Loving Memory of Londoners Lost bereavement campaign.

Since the Mayor launched Thrive LDN’s #ZeroSuicideLDN campaign in 2019, more than 390,000 Londoners have taken the training and learnt how to save a life

Building economic wellbeing

Thrive LDN has responded to the mental health impacts of rising economic inequality and the cost-of-living crisis in London by developing training, printed wellbeing resources, webinars, a helpline and a citywide forum.

In the 2020/21 period, 225,000 wellbeing cards were printed and strategically distributed across London, prioritising those less digitally enabled or grappling with personal debt. With Mayoral funding and Thrive LDN involvement, Debt Free Advice’s impartial debt advice service operated round-the-clock during January to March 2021 exemplifies a proactive response to the urgent needs of individuals facing financial challenges in light of the pandemic.

More recently, London’s Economic Wellbeing Forum (EWF) has elevated collaborative efforts, bringing together a diverse array of statutory partners, voluntary and community organisations, and representatives from the workplace and business sectors. The forum has proven to be a highly effective platform, streamlining signposting efforts, offering valuable insights for training and resources, and enhancing awareness of both new and existing support services.

During 2022/23, and with the increased cost-of-living pressures in autumn 2022, training initiatives were collaboratively developed with input from 200 front-line experts, ensuring a wide range of expertise and lived experience was involved in the development of training offers. More than 5,000 individuals equipped themselves with the skills to better support themselves and others experiencing financial struggles. Within this, a series of 30 interactive live training webinars were held on mental health awareness and financial hardships. This initiative, conducted in partnership with Healthy Dialogues, engaged almost 400 participants, with more than 500 modules successfully completed.

With continued support to maintain an active forum, feedback from participants underscores the forum’s significance, with statements affirming it as “one of the best sources of insight and information offered in London.” The efficiency and impact are further underscored by a comment that it was “impressive how many partners were able to give succinct and helpful updates in such a short space of time.”

Spotlight 2: Nurturing wellbeing champions and leading on public mental health

Thrive LDN has put the Mayor’s support for the NHS on firm foundations, bringing all partners, including the newly formed integrated care boards (ICBs), around the same table. Together, we have levelled up London’s public mental health through training, champions, toolkits, and research. This dynamic, multi-level and resilient approach to public mental health would not have been possible without the Mayor’s support.

Building a movement through partnership

Partnerships have been key to building a public mental health movement in London under the Mayor of London’s leadership. The Mayor’s chairing role at the London Health Board has allowed Thrive LDN to unite key London partners under a single vision, including the NHS and local authorities. As well working with almost 1000 community organisations, Thrive LDN’s convening of and partnership in citywide forums has also allowed the Mayor’s commitments to be delivered. The Suicide Prevention Group convened by Thrive has brought together 40 organisations and 57 members to facilitate a range of citywide projects including the Thrive LDN Suicide Prevention Information Sharing Hub. The Economic Wellbeing Forum (EWF) has elevated collaborative efforts, bringing together a diverse array of statutory partners, voluntary and community organisations, and representatives from the workplace and business sectors. The forum has proven to be a highly effective platform, streamlining signposting efforts, offering valuable insights for training and resources, and enhancing awareness of both new and existing support services. Thrive LDN’s membership in the Health Equity Group has allowed for cross-city working with a focus on tackling health inequity. Thrive LDN continue to build partnership through newly established academic platform PROMISE, providing a collaborative framework for public mental health research across the UK, as well as a new SOAS Centre for Anthropological research in Mental Health. Partnerships have also helped to deliver events and campaigns including the National Park City Festival, Creativity and Wellbeing Week and the This is Me campaign.

Training and championing Londoners mental health

The advancement of mental health and wellbeing among Londoners has been bolstered through comprehensive citywide training initiatives on topics ranging from trauma to resilience and having meaningful conversations.

In May 2023 a notable achievement was the active participation of over 2,750 Londoners in The Gift of Reconnection: Trauma-Informed Practice Training. This engagement resulted in the consumption of over 1,200 hours of training content.

In 2022/23, nearly 400 individuals actively engaged in a Mental Health Awareness training series. An additional 265 participants underwent specialised training in alternative approaches to meaningful conversations, 90% of whom expressed their intention to apply the acquired knowledge in their professional capacities. Furthermore, 44 individuals from the initial training sessions demonstrated their commitment by joining the train-the-trainer programme, pledging to disseminate the acquired knowledge throughout their respective boroughs and grassroots organisations, with an anticipated outreach to an additional 1,200 Londoners.

In response to the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, more than one in four London councillors, totalling 538 councillors, engaged in mental health training led by mental health and local government expert, Ed Davie. Feedback from this training revealed an outstanding 94% satisfaction rate, with trainees rating the sessions as ‘Excellent/Good.’

A significant outreach was achieved through online resilience building workshops delivered in partnership with Bounce Forward, attracting the participation of over 700 parents in London. Launched in February 2021, an emotional resilience training video has garnered more than 235 hours of cumulative viewing time. This collective success underscores the efficacy of the initiatives undertaken to enhance mental health awareness and resilience across the London community.

Between May and November 2019, a cohort of over 40 Thrive LDN Champions underwent an intensive Leadership Development Programme. These Champions reported a notable increase in confidence post-training and drove a rise in the number of locally initiated and led Thrive LDN projects.

Bringing to life the Mayor’s vision of a city of wellbeing ambassadors, more than thousands Londoners have taken mental health and wellbeing training modules since the current Mayor took up office. More than 220,000 have participated in Mayoral funded mental health and wellbeing activity as part of the recovery programme that’s been in place since the pandemic

Tools for better mental health

During 2021/22, we maintained a regular Thrive LDN public mental health communications toolkit for partners to adapt when communicating to the public about resources and services to support resilience, mental health, and wellbeing. In 2019, Thrive LDN Supported the growth of the ‘This is Me – In the City’ campaign, seeing over 37,000 employees helping to change attitudes towards mental health in the workplace. More recently, in 2023, Thrive LDN launched a programme of wellbeing ‘grab bags’ across TfL’s London Underground, DLR and River Services to support customer interventions, delivered by the GLA Health Team in collaboration with TfL.​ This supports operational staff in their day-to-day management of the service when intervening to help vulnerable people, bringing together a range of practical things, such as foil blankets, alongside mental health literature and guidance, including Thrive LDN’s wellbeing cards and a First Hand witness to suicide support booklet.​

Following the Mayor’s drive for simple access to mental health support, Thrive LDN launched the Help Yourself and Others website section, directly linking to the national NHS mental health services directory to help people to self-refer to NHS Talking Therapies

Leading research on public mental health

In 2021/22, research papers, evidence briefings and blog pieces were accessed by more than 800 people, both internal and external to health and care systems and policy making. More than 20 research papers and briefings were published relating to a broad range of social issues and exploring their potential impact upon population mental health and ensuring Thrive LDN was in a strong position to anticipate future challenges.

In 2022/23, insights were gathered from 55 Community or partner organisations supporting frontline work in London, 63 young Londoners, 31 elected London councillors and 5 community champions and leaders.

Following the Mayor’s initiative to establish a new measure of wellbeing in London as the core indicator of our city’s success, Thrive LDN has supported the development of City Intelligence’s Wellbeing and Sustainability Measure, through membership to the Advisory Board and the panel at the January 2023 launch event

Spotlight 3: Foregrounding diversity as one of London’s greatest assets

London’s greatest asset is its diversity. Thrive LDN has celebrated and nurtured London’s diverse communities through funding and supporting 61 projects supporting racialised or marginalised communities. We have a developing and innovative Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) framework and participate in anti-racist work across the region, as well as supporting a range of diverse young Londoners.

An innovative EDI framework to drive equity

Equity has been a central part of Thrive LDN’s work, both through Right to Thrive and, more recently, an explicit EDI Framework, alongside an accompanying Equity Impact Analysis (EIA) template. The framework and template ensure Thrive LDN and partners are optimally placed to empower those affected by health inequities and support them to influence change through participation. All Thrive LDN activities complete an EIA to identify actions to improve their equity focus, which are reviewed at Check and Challenge sessions chaired by Cllr Dr Jacqui Dyer MBE (co-lead, Thrive LDN). The Thrive LDN Advisory Group routinely monitors progress with implementing the EDI framework and actions identified through EIAs. Since June 2022, a total of 25 EDI Check and Challenge Sessions have taken place across all Thrive LDN’s areas of work. The EDI framework and approach has also supported the work we do with:

• Supporting Thrive LDN’s partners, such as London’s integrated care systems and local organisations, to understand how they can build equality and equity into their strategic and operational processes and practices.

• Supporting coalition building with community and voluntary organisations to reflect the diversity of London.

• Utilising the above approach to bring equity to organisational processes and practices that seek to improve the mental health and wellbeing of London’s diverse population.

• Supporting organisations to become inclusive employers.

• Enabling partners to informally self-assess their progress on the equality improvement journey and determine where and how they need to improve.

Supporting the next generation of Londoners

Young Londoners and CYP practitioners have been supported through Thrive LDN training, grants, festivals, webinars, and participatory research demonstrating how young Londoners are full of creative potential. As well as these activities, Thrive LDN has pushed for investment in young people’s mental health services, advocated for young people’s voices to be heard through the i-Thrive framework, and supported young Londoners bereaved by violence. Moving forward, the focus on prevention will aim to tackle some of the societal causes of poor mental ill-health caused by isolation of young people from their friends and anxiety about their future.

The Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) programme trained 119 new Youth MHFA Instructors and delivered Youth MHFA training to more than 4,000 education staff, across every London borough. The YMHFA training was found to be effective by the Institute of Education at UCL. At the London-wide level, the results of the evaluation showed statistically significant effectiveness across six themes. Those themes include perceived knowledge and awareness of mental health conditions, implementing mental health first aid to assist students in developing self-help strategies or seeking professional support, ongoing evidence-based practice, young people’s mental health literacy and self-efficacy in maintaining good mental health and collective whole school efficacy, including parents/carers, in giving guidance around mental health. The evaluation also showed that the implementation of the YMHFA training is effective at a whole-school level across multiple settings. The impact, if any, of COVID-19 pandemic during YMHFA implementation over lockdown was also considered and findings suggest there was a perceived impact of an increase in young people’s mental health literacy during and after lockdown. The results of the evaluation are being prepared for publication.

To realise the Mayor’s goal of rolling out mental health first aid training across London’s schools, Thrive LDN projects have trained more than 4,000 staff have been trained in Youth Mental Health First Aid and 11 booster sessions were delivered in 2022/23.  

In 2019/20, the Young London Inspired grants scheme awarded 32 grants to voluntary and community organisations to create volunteering and social action opportunities for young Londoners at greater risk of poor mental health. A 2020 evaluation of the projects showed 63% of young people reporting improved wellbeing.

Over the last year, a participatory action research project around emotional support for young people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds has been developed. In partnership with Toynbee Hall, 12 young peer researchers have been trained across 11 workshops resulting in a total of 39 interviews being conducted. Those interviews will be co-analysed with the peer researchers, which will inform a national survey, followed by the dissemination of the findings and toolkits and the identification of actionable areas for change.

Thrive LDN in partnership with Good Thinking have produced two guides to help Londoners look out for other people who may be struggling with their mental health. The guides contain a series of practical tips and ideas on starting a conversation, which were developed by Thrive LDN in collaboration with pupils and teachers at St Mary’s RC Primary School, Wimbledon.

We have put art and cultural activity in the heart of the programmes we deliver for young Londoners. In early 2020 we worked with young Londoners to develop, record and launch the Act On podcast which focused on issues facing young Londoners’ lives, such as inequality, the challenges of social media and the positive impact of participating in live music and cultural activities. Our delivery of citywide activity, such as World Mental Health Day, has provided the opportunity to showcase young local talent from across this city. We have facilitated public-facing success for the young Londoners involved in these mental health events.

We continue this work into exploring the benefits of creative health with our partnership with the GLA Culture team who worked with Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Chisenhale Gallery and artist the vacuum cleaner to create an action plan to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. The 2.8 Million Minds manifesto puts young people at the heart of their mental health and asks how arts and culture can create change in how mental health care is designed, delivered and funded.  In 2022, three groups of young people presented this manifesto for young Londoners to the Houses of Parliament, which was subsequently shortlisted for the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance Collective Power Award in partnership with Ideas Alliance and Lived Experience Network. An 2023 evaluation of the project by Amanda Parker Associates showed participants reported an increased sense of confidence, new skills, playing a part in important ideas and having their voices heard.

Contributing to the Mayor’s push for better young people’s mental health services and increased investment, Thrive LDN routinely engages with the Department for Health and Social Care and submitted a response to the Government’s call for evidence for the new 10-year plan to improve mental health.  

Thrive LDN also promoted online webinars on taking whole school and college approaches to mental health in which 208 individuals participated from across 28 London boroughs, meaning more young Londoners are better supported in education settings. One participant said “Thank you so much this has given me a lot to share with my school and help them bring this all together.”

Spotlight 4: Empowering London’s local communities

The last eight years have seen public mental health across various scales: huge new investment in local communities taking action as well as city-wide festivals bringing people together to find support and empowerment. In addition, diverse communities have participated in providing insights to steer public mental health in London and individual projects have provided tailored support to neighbourhoods, places, boroughs and ICSs.

Investing in grassroots mental health action

The Right to Thrive initiative has showcased a remarkable commitment to equity in mental health, investing over £580,000 in 62 projects run by grassroots and community-led organisations. This targeted support has directly engaged with intersectional, racialised and marginalised communities at disproportionate risk of poor mental health and wellbeing. A 2023 KCL study concluded that the programme has had significant benefits for the mental health and social wellbeing of people from these communities. These projects, along with emerging partnerships and collaborations since the initiative’s inception have become instrumental in fostering a community-powered approach to mental health.

The Mayor’s recognition of the higher prevalence of mental health issues in Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and amongst LGBTQ+ Londoners aligns with Thrive LDN’s Right to Thrive initiative which has supported almost 8,000 Londoners from those and other communities at disproportionately greater risk of poor mental health

2019/2020: In the inaugural year of Right to Thrive, over 1,200 individuals were engaged through film-based outreach and events.

2020/21/22: The following year, Right to Thrive awarded grants to 23 community and grassroots projects across London. The scheme supported close to 4,000 beneficiaries across 996 activities.

2021/2022: The 2021 Right to Thrive Innovation Fund contributed £120k to support another 14 community organisations, further diversifying the avenues through which mental health and wellbeing were addressed.

• Facilitating podcast production and recording workshops for 15 young Black male adults, run by Storm.

• Enabling 192 women to access a free program of physical activities through Zen W5, run by the Community Association at Queen’s Crescent.

• Assisting 86 deaf individuals in alleviating the impact of multiple lockdowns, with 10 people referred to further tailored support, with the Royal Association for Deaf People.

2022/2023: 13 community projects have been funded to support the mental health and wellbeing of LGBTQIA+ communities, racialised and minoritized communities, Londoners with disability and long-term conditions, and Children & Young People in London. Notable success stories from the last year include the delivery of 72 sessions of counselling in three months by Spectra, a health and wellbeing organisation for LGBTQI+ Londoners and attracting 183 attendees to the Young Company’s performances at Tramshed in Greenwich.

Bringing Londoners together for great mental health

Great Mental Health Day has become a highlight of the London calendar, with annual mental health events taking place on the last Friday in January. In the first year, nearly 10,000 people accessed an interactive map of London on our website to find out about GMHD events and local support services near them.

Now in its third year, most recently for Great Mental Health Day (GMHD) 2024, hundreds of free events and initiatives were held citywide, the majority of which were in-person, including local walks, coffee mornings and workshops.

In 2023, tweets about the day had over 70,000 impressions and 9,500 wellbeing cards were dispatched across London to support those who are less likely to be digitally enabled. 94% rated the GMHD events they attended as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. More than 9 in 10 stated that attending a GMHD event had a positive impact on their mental health or wellbeing. When asked what impact they thought GMHD had on Londoners, respondents told us: ‘Feeling supported, connected and not alone in the struggles they may be facing’, ‘An opportunity to reflect on the importance of well-being and mental health’. The Evening Standard covered the event positively, alongside additional regional media pick up.

In 2019, more than 450 people attended a Young Londoner-led World Mental Health Day Festival at City Hall with over 90% rating the festival as ‘good’, and in 2020 more than 3,000 people engaged with World Mental Health Day festival held exclusively online during the pandemic with content recorded at the Young Vic theatre.

In more recent years, 2021 saw a series of events to mark World Mental Health Day at Rich Mix, including open mic sessions, workshops and panel discussions and in 2022 City Hall once again played host to a one-day festival. Led by a WMHD youth board, the Access All Areas festival featured on BBC London radio and television news bulletins. One of the young organisers said “I have been thinking about my mental health more and bettering myself so I can support those who also suffer with their mental health.”

Thrive LDN has also regularly supported Mental Health Awareness Week & Creativity and Wellbeing Week, with panel discussions, workshops, new social media graphics, vox pops and interviews with young Londoners.

Appendix 1: Delivering the Health Inequalities Implementation Plan

Healthy Minds – All Londoners share in a city with the best mental health in the world

Healthy Communities

Healthy Communities – London’s diverse communities are healthy and thriving