The agreement was ratified at Barking Town Hall, where Council Leader Cllr Dominic Twomey, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Health Integration and Housing Cllr Maureen Worby, and Chief Executive Fiona Taylor were joined by Queen Mary University of London’s Vice Principal for Health, Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, Acting Vice Principal for Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Dan Todman, and Professor Arunthathi Mahendran, Director of the SHAPE Institute for Health. 

SHAPE Health brings together Queen Mary’s world-class researchers and educators with the expert knowledge, creativity and lived experience of our Barking and Dagenham residents and local authority partners.  The name SHAPE Health describes how the SHAPE disciplines (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy) are blended together with health sciences and healthcare to develop novel insights and pioneering solutions that support healthier, more connected lives across our communities. 

This pioneering collaboration, between Queen Mary and Barking and Dagenham council, will develop education and research-backed solutions to address the health and healthcare challenges facing local  residents. It coincides with the borough’s selection as one of just 43 areas across England to join the first wave of the NHS’s National Neighbourhood Health Programme - an initiative designed to shift care into communities and strengthen early intervention.

Long-term inequalities are often common to different communities in B&D whether they have lived in the borough for 50 or 5 years - what we thought were intergenerational inequalities are in fact place-based inequalities because we see the same inequalities in the lives of new residents to the borough. Through the SHAPE Institute’s trans-disciplinary expertise and collaboration with our residents we want to understand why this is the case and how we can address the issues.

Councillor Dominic Twomey, Leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, said: "Pioneering new research like this starts here in Barking and Dagenham.

“This is a truly groundbreaking partnership- one that brings together world-class academic expertise with the lived experience of our communities. 

“By working with Queen Mary University of London, we’re unlocking the kind of insight we need to tackle the deep health inequalities in our borough. Their trans-disciplinary approach - linking health with housing, employment, education, and social care - will help us understand the full picture of what it means to ‘be well’. Together, we’re not just improving services - we’re reimagining how society supports health from the ground up".

Professor Arunthathi Mahendran, Director of the SHAPE Institute for Health, said:

“At SHAPE Health we are developing a transdisciplinary approach.  This is where colleagues from the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and Healthcare disciplines work closely with our community partners to reimagine health through the everyday lives and experiences of our East London residents and neighbourhoods.  We believe that health is about possibility: the chance to live a life that feels rich, connected and purposeful.” 

This ‘Intellectual Partnership’ aligns with the Government’s national 10-year plan and positions Barking and Dagenham as a trailblazer in place-based health innovation.