Key information
Decision type: Assistant Director
Directorate: Communities & Skills
Reference code: ADD2680
Date signed:
Date published:
Decision by: Jazz Bhogal, Assistant Director of Health, Education and Youth
Executive summary
As part of the Mayor’s Mental Health Mission, he promised to “work with communities, empowering them to improve their wellbeing, with support mechanisms that meet their needs, on their own terms”. Approval is now sought to provide funding for further promotion and sign-posting work to children and young Londoners for the Good Thinking website. This work is intended to ensure more young people can access the mental health and wellbeing support they need through the NHS-approved wellbeing tools on the Good Thinking website. This work builds on the Mayor’s investment in the creation of Good Thinking resources in 2020.
Decision
That the Assistant Director of Health, Children and Young Londoners approves expenditure of £26,000 to deliver further promotion and signposting to children and young people of the Good Thinking wellbeing resources.
Part 1: Non-confidential facts and advice
1.1. Under the Mayor’s ten-year London Health Inequalities Strategy (HIS) 2018-28 (published October 2018), there are visions and aims for Londoners’ mental health:
• Healthy Children – every London child has a healthy start in life
• Healthy Minds – all Londoners share in a city with the best mental health in the world
• Healthy Places – all Londoners benefit from an environment and economy that promotes good mental and physical health
• Healthy Communities – all of London’s diverse communities are healthy and thriving
• Healthy Living – the healthy choice is the easy choice for all Londoners.
1.2. In this Strategy, the Mayor has also committed to supporting and promoting the pan-London digital mental health and wellbeing service Good Thinking.
• Good Thinking was developed by the NHS and local government to improve the emotional wellbeing of Londoners through the provision of a free bank of digital resources to support mental health and wellbeing. It is now managed by Healthy London Partnership.
• Under MD2650 the Health Team Work Programme awarded a grant of £70,000 to Good Thinking to enable them to extend their London resources to young Londoners, based on insight work and providing free to use apps and services.
• This grant in 2020-21 allowed Good Thinking to expand its resources and create content aimed specifically at young people.
• The expenditure proposed in this decision will be provided in accordance with the GLA's contracts & funding code.
2.1. The Mayor wants to support Londoners’ mental health and wellbeing – including responding to challenges such as the cost of living crisis. This free digital mental health support is an important way of reducing inequalities by offering support which may otherwise have a cost attached.
• The Mayor wants more Londoners to be empowered, enabled and encouraged to take action to support their own and others wellbeing.
• The free apps and self-assessments are the most used resources on Good Thinking. These resources will help to create a change in culture where Londoners feel better equipped to support each other and have greater capacity to cope with uncertainty and adversity
• Given Good Thinking’s users increased five-fold during the pandemic, the current cost-of-living crisis is an important time to support the Good Thinking team to reach more children and young Londoners.
• The £26,000 grant will allow this work to be better promoted and signposted to the young people at whom these resources are aimed. Specific work includes:
o conducting a general review of children and young people’s resources to create a well-rounded campaign pushing the CYP offer – alongside review, refresh and creation of landing pages for parents and carers/education professionals.
o creating content around feedback and insights, allowing users to share positive views and experiences as an encouragement to new users.
o creating an animation aimed specifically at children and young people which pulls together concisely the Good Thinking offer. This animation will sit on the homepage, be part of the principal communications toolkit and be used as a launchpad for the campaign.
o creating a clear landing page for resources for education professionals centred around talking about mental health with quick guides to looking out for the signs of mental ill health.
o running a webinar to launch the new children and young Londoners animation alongside the refreshed offer. This event will be targeted towards experts in CYP mental health.
o launching a digital marketing campaign, including paid search and boosted social media posts.
Expected outcome
2.2. Through the increased comms and events, this grant will increase the number of young people from across London who are either aware of or using the free wellbeing services on Good Thinking.
2.3. This will support the Mayor’s aim of “Healthy Minds – all Londoners share in a city with the best mental health in the world” under his Health Inequalities Strategy.
3.1. Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Equality Act), as a public authority the Mayor must have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and any conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act; and to advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations, between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
3.2. The work of Good Thinking is intersectional with targeted sections for faith and belief communities, LGBTQ+ communities as well as black and international students.
3.3. The focus on tackling the stigma associated with mental ill health will impact positively the health of those with protected characteristics.
3.4. Every person residing in London will be able to use the website without discrimination or cost.
3.5. The importance of supporting children and young people’s physical and mental health was highlighted in the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy. The support being sought for Good Thinking outlined above speaks directly to this need.
4.1. Key Risks and Issues
4.2. Links to Mayoral Strategies and priorities
• This grant would support the delivery of the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy, a statutory duty under the GLA Act 1999.
4.3. Impact Assessments and Consultations
• No impact assessments have been conducted with regards to this grant as extensive work took place in 2017 to consult on the London Health Inequalities Strategy.
• Consultation with Londoners and stakeholders on the London Health Inequalities Strategy took place in 2017, and a comprehensive report to the Mayor was compiled and is published here: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/the_mayor_of_londons_heal….
4.4. There are no known conflicts of interest to note for any of those involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision.
5.1. Approval is sought for the expenditure of £26,000 in 2023-24 financial year to deliver further promotion and signposting to children and young people of the Good Thinking wellbeing resources.
5.2. This expenditure will be funded from the Mission Development (MH&W) budget and there is sufficient budget to meet this expenditure of £26,000 within this budget.
5.3. The award of funding to delivery partners will be subject to satisfactory financial due diligence.
6.1. Timetable for delivery:
Signed decision document
ADD2680 Good Thinking