We are pleased to present the final report by the Newham ‘We Are Food Secure 11-19’ team which included our Principal Consultant, Dr Natalie Savona.

Natalie applied her expertise in systems thinking to ‘We Are Food Secure 11-19’, which focused on young people’s food security in the London Borough of Newham. It was part of the Shaping Places for Healthier Lives (SPHL) programme funded by the Health Foundation in collaboration with the Local Government Association.

For SPHL, five local authorities were awarded grants to focus on a particular issue in their area using systems thinking to help improve health and address health inequalities. Natalie worked with the Newham public health team and the Association for Young People’s Health, from the early stages of applying for the SPHL funding to the end of the three-year project. Using not just system mapping but also an overarching systems approach for framing the project, Natalie helped drive and document the process of system change.

As SPHL has drawn to a close, the Newham group has published a series of reports and briefings on the project, including not just a final project report but also some focused papers, for example, on financial incentives in shaping food provision in secondary schools.

Cordis Bright, with PPL, evaluated the SPHL programme, and separately, Natalie was part of the SPHL team in Newham, a role she held from her previous employment at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.