We continue to work amid very challenging circumstances, including the continuing impacts of the pandemic, intense pressures on clinical staff, and the impact of the cost-of-living crisis. However, NIHR ARC South London’s work is making a difference in peoples’ lives in our local communities, nationally and internationally, and I feel very proud of what we are achieving.

This year marked the halfway point in the 15 NIHR ARCs' funding programme, with a campaign sharing the impact our applied research is already having on communities and services across England. You can read about this impact on Twitter under #ARCimpacts. This includes work by ARC South London researchers introducing a new model of care for children in Lambeth and Southwark and research ensuring high-quality care for all women before, during and after pregnancy.

NIHR have given a strong vote of support for the work of the ARCs by extending our funding for a further 18 months until March 2026. As well as enabling us to deliver greater impact for health and social care, this extension is a tribute to all the ARCs and to all our collaborators, particularly including patients and service users, and public and community partners who play such an important role in this work, and we have recently enhanced our Involvement Strategy, which is now embedded throughout our ARC.

In early 2023 we will need to plan carefully about how to make the most of this extension period for the benefit of local people and communities in south London. In the last year, the architecture of the NHS has fundamentally changed. We need to adapt to this new shape, and to maintain and strengthen our good working relationships with colleagues in the NHS and in social care - we know that trusting relationships are the basis for strong collaboration. As part of this planning, we are currently evaluating how our ARC addresses issues related to multiple long-term conditions and health inequalities, and I look forward to using these findings soon as we plan ahead.

I wish you all a peaceful and restorative period of rest in the coming weeks, and I look forward to our continuing collaboration in 2023.

Professor Sir Graham Thornicroft

Professor Sir Graham Thornicroft, Director, NIHR ARC South London