As our programme concludes in March 2026, we are sharing some highlights of how our work has helped to improve services, inform policy, create better understanding in different areas of health and care, and support a culture of more inclusive research.
Download: Celebrating six years of NIHR ARC South London, a PDF document which captures our legacy
Our research has tackled real-world health and care challenges. In particular, we have aimed to:
This includes work designed to take pressure off hospitals through better community care, innovative solutions to prevent illness and harnessing digital innovation.
Our research has translated evidence into lasting improvements in patient care. Read more about our research impact.
Image below: some of the team who co-developed the Healthy Eating & Active Lifestyles for Diabetes programme
Around 8% of babies in the UK are born prematurely - higher than elsewhere in Europe. There are also major disparities in maternal health outcomes for women belonging to ethnic minorities and those living in disadvantaged areas.
Our maternity researchers explored how health outcomes for women and babies at risk of complications could be improved. They examined models of midwifery continuity of care, where the same midwife or small team of midwives provide care for a woman during her pregnancy, birth and after birth.
They found that women receiving continuity of care were:
Their findings have informed key national and international guidance, including DHSC’s Safer Maternity Care, NICE intrapartum guidance, WHO antenatal and midwifery-care recommendations, and the NHS Long Term Plan.
They have also supported community-based continuity models for women at greatest risk, including those from minority ethnic groups. They worked with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and the Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP) a community-based midwifery model of care.
Their research showed that the LEAP model significantly reduced preterm birth and birth by caesarean birth when compared with those receiving usual maternity care in Lambeth (24.3% vs 38.0%). This includes emergency caesarean deliveries (15.2% vs 22.5%).
Up to one in four women experience mental illness during pregnancy and suicide is the leading cause of death among new mothers.
We investigated ‘near misses’ in maternal mental health and informed the development of the Maternal Mental Health Service (MMHS) programme - a model integrating maternity care with specialist psychological support.
We co-designed and tested a new model of care for children with long-term conditions in Lambeth and Southwark, connecting community, primary and specialist services.
Our researchers gathered evidence on effective treatments for breathlessness, including non-drug interventions. This work led to one of the UK’s first integrated breathlessness services for advanced illness, combining physical, psychological and social care.
Our researchers worked with the Health Innovation Network South London to develop a new online programme specially designed to support adults of African and Caribbean heritage living with type 2 diabetes.
HEAL-D Online is now available across south London and is being piloted in other parts of the country.
We evaluated Alcohol Assertive Outreach Treatment (AAOT), a community-based approach for people with serious alcohol addiction who rarely access traditional services. Our trial shaped national implementation across multiple high-need areas.
Involving patients, service users, carers and members of the public has been central to our research and its impacts. From the start, we brought lived experience into every stage of our work, from shaping research priorities and co-designing studies to interpreting findings and influencing implementation.
Guided by a collaboratively developed Involvement Strategy, we created inclusive structures such as the Involvement Advisory Group, the Public Research Panel and the Involvement Learning Network to strengthen participation and share good practice across our areas of research.
We held a wide range of public events to engage local people and communities around our work, including our annual Active Involvement in Research events, Knowledge Exchange Events and Inside Research seminars.
These events, alongside ongoing collaboration between public contributors and researchers, have helped ensure our research is relevant to local communities and grounded in real-world experience.
Our maternity and perinatal mental health theme has consistently championed public involvement, establishing an inclusive culture, embedding their work in the community and working in partnership with women to improve services and lives.
Image above: Public involvement members, peer and academic researchers, and ARC South London’s maternity theme leads share insights and call for change at multiple public events
Evidence shows there are major disparities in maternal health outcomes for women belonging to ethnic minorities. Our maternity researchers brought together a diverse patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) Network and Advisory Group to inform their research addressing these disparities. They have provided advice, modelled good practice in PPIE and provided training on PPIE and co-production.
Together, researchers and PPIE members, have co-written blogs, papers, reports and presentations sharing learning and experiences of healthcare and public involvement and successfully showcased their work at popular events.
PPIE is about empowering those very people who are at the heart of research in healthcare by giving them a voice
ARC South London led the NIHR-funded Mental Health Implementation Network (MHIN), which brought together service users, local communities, health and care providers, commissioners and other stakeholders to deliver evidence-based improvements in mental health services across England.
Patient and public involvement (PPI) members have been central to the MHIN’s three core projects:
The work I do now is about making sure the system can support people with severe mental illness to be able to make a meaningful contribution using their experience. Mental illness does not have to be a burden. It can be an experience that people can flourish from
Alongside our structured involvement programmes, ARC South London has supported more informal, community-focused engagement with our research, designed to welcome people from all backgrounds and with a range of lived experiences.
Activities such as our Tea Dance event in Catford (pictured below), annual Dementia Community Research Network involvement events brought research conversations into familiar, social settings, often combining interactive elements such as group singing with relaxed opportunities to explore research topics. These events helped build relationships, spark curiosity and ensure local voices shaped research in meaningful ways.
Engaging with patients, service users, public and community contributors through peer-research methods – in which people with direct lived experience of the issue being studied help to shape, conduct and lead the research – is increasingly recognised as an important way of making research more impactful and inclusive.
ARC South London researchers have supported peer research in several projects:
A study exploring whether Covid‐19 exacerbated ethnic health inequalities in adults with serious mental and physical health conditions, worked closely with a team of peer researchers. It produced two papers and a powerful short film ‘A Life Less Safe’, based on the insights from the qualitative study, which interviewed 32 participants.
Image below: the film was screened to a full-house at the Ritzy cinema, Brixton
Maternity researchers worked with peer researchers on a project where people are trained to use photography as a research methodology to gain a deeper understanding of their lives and feel empowered.
Participants were encouraged to ‘speak’ through photographs, to connect with others in their community and advocate for change.
Dr Josephine Ocloo led a study with peer researchers to understand how ‘research cafes’ - informal spaces where diverse communities can talk about their experiences of health and care - can help to increase diversity in research. As part of the project, peer researchers and university researchers interviewed voluntary organisation leads, health researchers and public members to understand the key issues for equity and diversity in research and identify what actions are needed to develop peer research methods.
Their involvement in this way is intended to shift power in the knowledge production process to be more equitable and to enhance the quality of research by providing insight, knowledge and lived expertise
ARC South London offered a diverse range of training and capacity building for health and care practitioners, researchers, managers, policymakers, patients and service users designed to provide the skills to put research evidence into practice.
Implementation science explores strategies to promote the uptake of interventions that have proven effective into routine practice, with the aim of improving health and care.
Working closely with our training and development leads, our researchers led the way in increasing the capacity for implementation science training and expertise, organising events and training attended by hundreds of people from across the world.
We also developed an online module for health and social care practitioners, policymakers and researchers interested in learning more about implementation science, and how it can improve health and social care services.
In 2022, we launched the NIHR ARC South London Applied Research Leadership Academy, a place for health and social care professionals, researchers, public involvement members from across England to come together to develop leadership skills and build their research careers.
• 97% rated their overall experience of the course as ‘Excellent’, ‘Very good’ or ‘Good’
• My experience at the NIHR ARC South London Research Leadership Academy
What I liked most about the Academy was the chance to connect with others at a similar stage, share experiences honestly, and learn from different perspectives. The supportive environment made it easy to reflect on my own leadership style and think more clearly about where I want to take my research
With NIHR funding, we supported social care practitioners to develop skills and knowledge to use research to inform and improve services.
We worked with Kingston University, and the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce to provide training and support to 11 social care practitioners.
We supported innovative social care research projects including:
The benefits extend beyond the researcher, as the community gains immensely from research like this, being developed to support and improve care for those who need it most
Working closely with colleagues at ARC East of England, we co-led a national NIHR forum for improving palliative and end of life care services in England, bringing together specialist palliative care researchers and clinicians from across England.
The forum helped to generate, share and implement research evidence to improve palliative and end of life care. We helped advance understanding of challenges such as:
The forum also supported collaborative approaches to research, delivering capacity-building workshops and seminars. It continues to inform and respond to national priorities for palliative care research, with a growing focus on improving equity in care outcomes and addressing disparities across different groups of patients.
Our palliative national webinar series featuring insights and discussions with leading experts attracted more than 1,600 people across England to register. Catch up on the webinars.
As ARC South London concludes, we celebrate the lasting impact of our collaborative research. The connections we have forged and the knowledge created together will continue to shape better health and care services for years to come.
Whatever the future holds, I deeply value my years at ARC South London. Patient, service user, carer and public contributors, community partners and fellow staff in the ARC and connected organisations, have helped me reflect and grow. I do not intend to hover around passively, hoping somehow that public health and wellbeing will improve of their own accord, but rather to work with others in some way, in seeking a more just and compassionate world
I am positive that the expertise, impact and learning developed at ARC South London will continue to inform policy, influence services and be evident in our future work, wherever we are based
Thank you to everyone involved for your commitment to research that supports a healthier and more equitable future for people in south London and beyond.
While ARC South London will be concluding, a new opportunity for applied health, public health and social care research bringing together partners from across London has been announced by the NIHR. Members of the ARC South London have helped to develop a collaborative proposal with colleagues at UCL, Imperial and universities across London.
If successful, the NIHR Pan-London ARC will start in July 2026. Find out more.