We are an innovation centre for healthy ageing and regeneration, based in Barking, north east London. Our mission is to work with, learn from and support our East London community to live happier, healthier lives.

We were co-founded in 2013 by London Borough of Barking & Dagenham (LBBD) and North-East London Foundation Trust (NELFT). We are now an independent community interest company, with an independent board which includes our co-founding partners. We also have a Community Board to help hold us to our mission and ensure we are making a difference in our community.

We pursue our mission by working as an innovation partner to East London’s health and care system. Our focus is people, not profit!

We do research, innovation and development work to strengthen health and the determinants of health. This work is always in partnership with local people and local health and care partners. Our work is of local benefit and national significance, attracting ideas and investment to East London. Over time, we aim to establish East London as a destination for health and care innovation. We want to show that health and care can make East London a better place to grow old.

Our values are a fundamental part of who we are and they shape the work we do and how we do it.

Our population of East London faces a number of challenges. The population of East London has poor heath, relative to London and to the UK. In Barking and Dagenham our black community develops long-term health conditions nine years earlier than their non-black neighbours.

By 2025 the boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Havering are projected to have more than 30,000 people over 65 with long-term illness.

We also face a number of demographic changes. We have the highest birth rate in London. And a huge number of young people, including the greatest proportion of 0-16 year-olds in the UK. The proportion of the population identifying as coming from black minority ethnic backgrounds increased from 15% to 50% between 2001 and 2011, while those identifying as white British reduced from 79% to 49%.

However we have so many assets in our community. Barking and Dagenham is London’s growth opportunity. With potential for 50,000 new homes and 20,000 new jobs, and with developments such as Crossrail the borough will become even more connected, attracting more investment and industry.

This is why we do what we do – working to improve health, inequalities and the environment – for our East London community. We aim to deliver measurable improvements in healthy ageing for our local population and act as a catalyst for regenerating one of London’s most deprived regions. Central to our vision is a commitment to work in partnership with the local community so that their specific needs drive the programme of work.

We develop and spread solutions for healthy ageing and regeneration, in partnership with East London’s health and care system. We focus on:

Research
Data and analytics
Supporting and enabling academic research

Innovation
Innovation research
Real-world testing and development
Innovation facilitation and support

Development & Education
Developing and testing learning and training
Developing and testing new roles
Supporting local people into and through health and care careers

In practice, these offers are rarely perfectly distinct. It is about combining these offers in the right way and combining the work in the right way with health and care partners.