Advancing Care in our Local Trust

We are the charity partner of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, provider of the widest range of mental health care services in the UK. We support positive change at every level of the Trust, and encourage greater collaboration between the Trust and other organisations we fund including King’s College London and the voluntary and community sector.

Our aim is that everyone in south London who needs it can have timely access the mental health care that’s right for them, and families and carers can feel confident in that care. We believe that what we learn here should be shared for the benefit of others beyond our area.

How we support the Trust

We work closely with teams across the organisation to identify where our funding can make the biggest difference. Our funding isn’t aimed at replacing what comes from government: it’s used to enhance it. We enable the Trust’s dedicated staff to implement bright ideas that will improve service users’ experiences of care, both now and in the future.

Between 2021 and 2024, we funded over £20m worth of initiatives across the Trust, including £10m towards the creation of the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People.

We fund through two streams – Everyday Enhancements – fast-turnaround initiatives that deliver rapid improvements – and Transformation – long-term projects that address complex organisational challenges.

Everyday Enhancements

This funding stream supports staff at the Trust to do the best they can right now – whether it’s by improving the spaces where they provide care, running new activities for inpatients, or co-producing and co-delivering community-based support with service users through Trust-wide programmes like the Volunteer Service and Recovery College. We also fund staff conferences, annual staff awards, and staff wellbeing projects.

Change Makers

One popular initiative under this stream is the Change Makers programme available to all staff, through a partnership with the Trust’s Listening into Action team. It provides a total of £125,000 a year in grants of £200 to £2,000 for staff to implement ideas that they feel could rapidly make a real difference.

Transformation

Through our Transformation funding stream, we collaborate with researchers, clinicians and the Trust’s senior leadership to develop, test and implement lasting solutions to complex problems.

From using data to streamline the way care is delivered through the Locating Useful Clinical Information project (LUCI), to addressing inequalities with the involvement of service users and the community with the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF), establishing high-level partnerships,  investing in  modern buildings and equipment, or piloting ambitious new models of care, we support the Trust to create transformational change.