Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity
Leveraging our international network to help Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity find their place in the world
IN SUMMARY
What we did: The first stakeholder audit for the Charity to understand how Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity could best engage its partners and influencers and the role they could play globally in urban health.
We engaged regional, national and international stakeholders, including the SK global healthcare network to understand perceptions of Guys and St Thomas Charity and increase the scope and potential of their important work.
Outcome: A benchmark for the future which identified clear stakeholder needs, greater potential and enhanced relationships. Opportunities to support the urban health agenda, both nationally and internationally, a report and action plan to support the future strategy.
THE AMBITION
Guy’s and St Thomas’ worked with SK to engage stakeholders in order to understand the role they could play in urban health and deeply understand perceptions and potential.
THE NEED
A stakeholder audit to understand perceptions and potential. Particularly in relation to their childhood obesity and health and care for people living with long-term conditions programmes.
To understanding how best to engage and the diversity of stakeholders they connect with - to influence policy and practice, share and build on emerging learning and progress.
NB. Work of this nature relies on effective relationships with stakeholders - from the programmes and communities they support to national and international experts and influencers.
WHAT WE DID
The impact and value of building relationships and learning from all stakeholders - new and old - is essential for charities who are investing significantly in communities. Relationships enhance the potential of important work, bringing new learnings and providing important opportunities for sharing learnings for the benefit of society.
SK helped Guys and St Thomas’ Charity identify the issues where there was greatest need and they could have most impact. This included a quantitative and qualitative audit.
Led by our team of expert facilitators and researchers, we carried out engagement with stakeholders and tapped into our own extensive network to connect Guys and St Thomas’ to thought leaders, including Michael Marmot, Director of UCL Institute of Health Equity; international and national policy makers, including Jo Ivey Boufford from the International Society for Urban Health; stakeholders from Lambeth and Southwark, the WHO, academics from institutions such as Dell Medical School in the US and leading organisations including Nordic Novisk Bloomberg and Arup (City Resilience Experts). For the first time Guys and St Thomas’ gained insight from broad range of international stakeholders.
We explored the potential and needs to support the urban health agenda, exceeding expectations by uncovering a significant appetite to engage and work with the charity around the world.
Our work culminated in a co-creation workshop, to identify the priorities emerging from the findings and action plan for moving new and exciting plans forward straight away.
WHAT WAS SPECIAL
This was the first stakeholder engagement exercise in the history of Guys and St Thomas’. Engaging the diversity of individuals in depth, allowed the Charity to understand the potential at every level. Uncovering significant appetite to engage and work with the charity around the world.
CONTEXT
Guys and St Thomas Charity has supported communities in Lambeth and Southwark by tackling urban health for over 500 years and is committed to creating long-term strategies that have impact in these areas and where knowledge is shared to deliver greater impact. They are an independent urban health foundation, tackling complex health issues that are prevalent locally but also relevant to other urban areas across the UK and internationally. Addressing urban health is one of the most critical healthcare issues of our time, with the UN predicting that by 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity is committed to taking a place-based approach to addressing urban health including a small number of complex health challenges at a time. Often committing to initiatives for 10 years to ensure they can support communities to achieve real and lasting change and sharing insights and learnings across the UK and around the world.
Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has been supporting communities in Lambeth, Southwark and beyond for over 400 years. With unrivalled knowledge and reach of the communities they serve.
We enjoyed working with the SK team. We selected them because they stretched our brief; expanding our thinking and helping us to get the most out of the project.
They were always prepared and clear and introduced us to some excellent stakeholders in the urban health space.
They also ran a really helpful workshop as part of the final presentation to help us take forward the insights and identify tangible next steps.
- Gayle Willis, Director of Communications, Guys & St Thomas Charity
THE OUTCOME
Working together with Guys and St Thomas’, we created a benchmark for the future which identified clear stakeholder needs and the greater potential and enhanced relationships. Significantly our deep-level engagement identified gaps and opportunities in the urban health agenda, both nationally and internationally. We ended with a clear plan to take the learning forward. This is currently being implemented under the Charity's 10-year plan.