We are pleased to announce that Station to Station Business Improvement District has received funding to work with West Norwood and Tulse Hill’s local businesses and communities to reimagine how businesses can prioritise health and wellbeing.
We were chosen by Design Council amongst six other organisations – which also include local West Norwood businesses Arriva who run our bus garage and Southside Rehabilitation Association who (amongst other things) run the CopyShop on Knights Hill Square – to explore the key issues that face staff wellbeing at work.
Through a co-design process, local businesses and communities will be able to propose solutions to health and wellbeing challenges and highlight changes to support the health of all West Norwood and Tulse Hill’s workers.
We are excited to be partnering with local organisation Bud Leaders to deliver this project, who have been enabling change in Lambeth and further afield since 2014.
‘Reimagining a healthy Tulse Hill & West Norwood’ is a project conceived and borne out of the pandemic.
The nation saw the impact of health inequalities on the population, which were mirrored along our high street and in our business area. This project will begin to address these inequalities by finding collective ways to support the changes that are needed.
Working closely with experts from the Design Council and members of the local business community, our project will focus on finding solutions that result in happier, healthier workers. This could be through financial advice, support with mental and physical health, or simple and cost effective ways that employers can provide better conditions for their staff.
We hope that the providers of the solutions – be it gym membership, counselling, financial advice, support to make diet and lifestyle changes, alternative therapies, access to bike to work scheme – will all be sourced from within the local business community itself.
Neighbours helping neighbours, just as we did in the pandemic.
This programme is funded by, and undertaken in collaboration with Impact on Urban Health as part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, based in Southwark and Lambeth.
Design Council Press Release:
Forward-thinking employers join innovation programme to improve health and wellbeing of vulnerable staff
- Transport for London (TfL)
- TfL Bus Operators (Abellio, Arriva, Go Ahead London, HTC, Metroline, RATP Dev, Stagecoach, Sullivan Buses, Tower Transit, Uno Buses)
- James Glancy Design
- XeroE
- Excellerate Cleaning Services
- Southside Rehabilitation Association
- Station to Station Business Improvement District
New interventions will focus on a range of outcomes – from improving financial wellbeing, and adapting working environments, to enabling better physical or mental health in the workplace. Programme participants will explore, and respond to key issues that affect to employee health and wellbeing – such as pay, working hours and patterns, and sick pay.
Cat Drew, Chief Design Officer at Design Council, said: “We are hugely impressed by the ideas presented by our programme participants, and can’t wait to get started. There are so many benefits to investing in the health and wellbeing of employees. Not only does it make for a happier, safer, healthier workforce – it also leads to better business outcomes. Increased productivity, improved retention rates and reduced sickness, are just some of the benefits that employers get in return. I look forward to sharing their progress and inspiring others employers across the UK.”
Rohan Martyres, Programme Director at Impact on Urban Health said: “The circumstances of people’s work, income and finances impact significantly on their health – for good or bad. Because of this, we’re proud to partner with the Design Council and work with employers across our home in the London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark to find new ways to improve the health and wellbeing of staff at risk.”
Design Council and Impact on Urban Health will be sharing updates throughout the course of this two-year programme.
To find out more about the Employer Health Innovation Fund then please contact ehif@designcouncil.org.uk or call 020 7420 5264.
About Design Council
Design Council’s purpose is to make life better by design. We are an independent charity and the government’s advisor on design. Our vision is a world where the role and value of design is recognised as a fundamental creator of value, enabling happier, healthier and safer lives for all. Through the power of design, we make better places, better products, better processes and better performance.
@designcouncil
About Impact on Urban Health
The places that we grow up, live and work impact how healthy we are. Urban areas, like inner-city London, have some of the most extreme health outcomes. Alongside their vibrancy and diversity sit stark health inequalities.
At Impact on Urban Health, we want to change this. We believe that we can remove obstacles to good health, by making urban areas healthier places for everyone to live.
@ImpUrbanHealth
