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

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