Professor Adrian Renton

Well London
A new approach to health and wellbeing

Adrian Renton

Professor Adrian Renton and his team at UEL’s Institute for Health and Human Development (IHHD) are instrumental in the development, delivery and evaluation of the world-leading Well London project in conjunction with partners including the London Health Commission, Central YMCA, Arts Council England and London NHS trusts.

The Well London programme, designed by Professor Renton and the London Health Commission, is a £9.46m lottery-funded project that works with community groups, healthcare providers and small businesses in 20 of the most deprived communities in London.

“Essentially, the programme is a coordinated series of community and place-based interventions to improve health and wellbeing within communities in the city. Wellbeing is linked to material circumstances; a community’s capacity to live in a healthy and happy way is constrained by the environment. Well London transforms those communities and environments by supporting local projects that promote mental health and wellbeing, healthy eating, access to open spaces and physical activity” explains Renton.

“We set out to build structures and networks of mutual support by helping people to organise around common problems which affect their health and wellbeing. Often grassroots community groups and small businesses are unaware of the role they play in preventing illness through bringing people together, building social networks and taking action on important issues for their communities.”

Well London interventions include a series of DIY Happiness workshops delivered by the South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust; Central YMCA’s Activate London initiative which increases the range and accessibility of sport to local people; and Groundwork London’s gardening and allotment clubs.

"Well London has shown that if you kick-start the process of letting communities take responsibility and control then you build new friendships, networks and structures of support which are essentially self-sustaining,” says Renton. “These support systems transform people’s attitudes to themselves, to each other and the places that they live in, enabling them to live happier, healthier lives.”

The Wellcome Trust has funded Professor Renton and his team to conduct a scientific evaluation of the Well London project, due to be completed in February 2012. An extensive baseline survey amongst residents in intervention and comparison areas has been completed and the follow-up survey is in progress.