Old Kent Road Family Zone: A Community-Led Approach to Tackling Health Inequalities: London Borough of Southwark

The Old Kent Road Family Zone (OKRFZ) is a groundbreaking community-led initiative transforming how local government addresses health inequalities in one of London's most under resourced areas. Facilitated by Surrey Square Primary School (part of the Big Education Trust) and funded by Impact on Urban Health, the zone operates on a radical principle: working 'with' communities rather than 'for' or 'to' them. By placing children, families and residents at the heart of decision-making, OKRFZ is creating sustainable, systemic change that tackles the root causes of poor health and wellbeing.

Over 450 community members now engage with the zone monthly. Services provide volunteering opportunities, as well as paid employment to eight local residents. Partnerships have been established with twenty businesses and organisations. The initiative demonstrates how schools can become powerful catalysts for community transformation when equipped with appropriate support and resources.

The Old Kent Road area in Southwark faces multiple, intersecting challenges that profoundly impact children's health and development. Families in the area experience significant health and social inequalities, including being stuck in insecure and unsafe housing; being forced into precarious, low-paid work; and being excluded from safe play spaces.

Surrey Square Primary School places wellbeing at the heart of its work, understanding that if children’s emotional and physical needs aren’t met, they won’t be able to access the curriculum and achieve their full potential. As children live within families and communities, their wellbeing - including access to safe housing, nutritious food, and spaces to socialise and play - is seen as crucial by the school too.

The community also faced a deeper challenge: residents consistently reported feeling judged, stereotyped and stigmatised simply because of where they lived. Previous interventions had been done 'to' the community rather than 'with' them, resulting in mistrust and disengagement. The area needed an approach that recognised existing community strengths and empowered residents to co-create their own solutions.

Against this backdrop, the Old Kent Road regeneration programme presented both opportunities and risks, making it essential to ensure local families could benefit from and shape the area's future development.

Community Governance and Co-design

OKRFZ established a Community Board as its core governance mechanism, bringing together parents and representatives from local organisations including Burgess Sports, Pembroke House, Community Cycleworks, Southwark Law Centre, Citizens UK, Edible Rotherhithe and PACT (Parents and Children Together). The board meets every half term and operates with clear terms of reference, ensuring decisions are made by community members themselves rather than imposed from outside.

The approach begins with a focus on relationships: building, maintaining and deepening them over time. It also centres extensive community listening. The content and themes emerging from this are brought to the board, which works to understand root causes before co-designing a continuous pipeline of preventative services and projects.

Four Strands of Recovery

The zone's strategy is underpinned by four recovery principles that inform all work:

Self-efficacy: building confidence and agency within the community

Gratitude: recognising and celebrating existing strengths

Connectedness: strengthening relationships between individuals and organisations

Hope: creating a positive vision for the future

These principles represent a deliberate shift away from deficit-based approaches that focus on (often assumed or prejudiced) problems, toward asset-based strategies that recognise community expertise and potential.

Partnership Working

Surrey Square Primary School acts as the facilitator and anchor institution, using its unique position to convene partners across sectors. The partnership with Impact on Urban Health, part of Guy's & St Thomas' Foundation, provides five years of core funding (from 2022) alongside strategic support. The zone has developed strong collaborative relationships with local government, health services, businesses and the voluntary sector.

As Tiffany Barone, former OKRFZ Coordinator and Old Kent Road community member, explains: "Our Family Zone is a bridge between communities and pillars of society. We got the NHS in because people couldn't get GP appointments and also the council to discuss housing repairs and problems with mold. It takes time to build trust and it couldn't be done without the school. The school is the vital link."

Key partners include Peabody, Caring Family Foundation, Felix Food Foundation, Chefs in Schools, Edible Rotherhithe, Notaro and Lendlease, each contributing according to their strengths and resources.

Early Action Projects

Following the seed funding phase in 2022-23, OKRFZ implemented several practical interventions:

• A Saturday Marketplace hosted at the school once a month, providing affordable access to food and goods while creating social connection
• A Friday youth club open to both primary and secondary school students, addressing the lack of safe spaces for young people
• A Community Restaurant with an on-site creche, which addresses isolation and offers a free fine-dining experience that many local families would not normally be able to afford
• Various other activities focused on improving the social, economic and physical environment of the area 

All projects are designed by the community in response to community-identified needs and are continuously adapted based on feedback and learning.

Shifting Power and Building Capacity

A central objective is transferring power from external institutions to the community itself. The zone prioritises building local confidence, capacity and capabilities so that the OKRFZ partnership can 'own' its learning and development. This includes employing community members in paid roles, ensuring those with lived experience shape and deliver services.

Community Engagement and Participation

The scale of community engagement demonstrates the zone's success in building trust and relevance. More than 450 community members now participate in OKRFZ activities every month, representing significant reach in the local area. Partnerships with twenty local organisations have been established, creating a robust network of support that extends well beyond what the school could provide alone. These partnerships enable coordinated, wrap-around support for families.

Changing the Narrative

One of OKRFZ's most significant impacts has been challenging stereotypes and stigma. By focusing on celebration and existing strengths rather than deficits, the zone is changing how the area is perceived both internally and externally. Community members report feeling more valued and less judged, with the listening exercises validating their experiences and expertise. The zone is demonstrating that solutions to complex challenges often already exist within communities themselves, countering the assumption that external 'experts' must provide all answers.

Wellbeing and Mental Health

By addressing the social determinants of health - housing, food security, social connection, access to opportunities - OKRFZ is creating the conditions for improved wellbeing. The approach recognises that children’s mental health cannot be separated from family circumstances and community context. The zone's work aligns with Impact on Urban Health's strategic aim to reframe children's mental health away from individual blame toward socio-economic and political responsibility. By tackling systemic inequities, OKRFZ addresses root causes rather than symptoms.

Systemic Influence

The OKRFZ team is actively codifying their approach and sharing learning so that other communities can adapt the model. As Nicola Noble, former Co-Head Teacher at Surrey Square Primary School (now Deputy CEO of Big Education) and one of the first OKRFZ members, notes: "Our commitment to codifying the work means that we can capture the learnings and hopefully impact the work of other community zones and funders."

This commitment to documentation and knowledge sharing amplifies the zone's impact beyond Southwark. Impact on Urban Health's involvement brings potential for wider influence on how funders and statutory services approach community-led work. The partnership is demonstrating what becomes possible when communities are given resources, trust and decision-making power while showcasing how school communities can support more people to feel healthy and well.

Integration with regeneration

By establishing the zone during the Old Kent Road regeneration programme, OKRFZ ensures that local families' voices are heard in decisions about their area's future. This increases the likelihood that development will benefit existing residents rather than displacing them.

What Worked Well

The Community Board structure has proven effective in ensuring authentic community leadership. By meeting regularly and operating with clear terms of reference, the Board provides accountability while maintaining flexibility to respond to emerging needs. Grounding the initiative in a school has multiple advantages. Schools are trusted community anchors with existing relationships with families. They provide physical space for activities and have insight into children’s wellbeing. Surrey Square Primary School's commitment to prioritising wellbeing over traditional educational outcomes created the cultural foundation for OKRFZ to flourish.

The partnership with Impact on Urban Health demonstrates the value of long-term, flexible funding combined with strategic support. Five years of core funding enables the zone to think beyond short-term projects toward sustainable systemic change. Starting with extensive listening before implementing solutions built trust and ensured interventions were genuinely responsive to community needs. The emphasis on celebrating existing strengths rather than focusing solely on problems created a more positive and empowering dynamic.

Challenges and Adaptations

Building genuine trust after years of communities being 'done to' takes significant time and sustained commitment. The zone has needed to consistently demonstrate that it operates differently from previous initiatives and is therefore trustworthy.

Balancing community aspirations with available resources requires careful management. The Community Board helps navigate these tensions by enabling transparent conversations about priorities and trade-offs.

Maintaining momentum across a five-year programme while responding flexibly to changing community needs requires sophisticated programme management and developmental evaluation support.

Sustainability and spread

OKRFZ's commitment to systemising its approach is essential for sustainability and spread. A developmental evaluation is being undertaken by Dartington Service Design Lab, and will capture learning about what works, for whom and in what circumstances. The initiative faces the challenge of embedding its approaches so deeply that they persist beyond the five-year funding period. Strategies include building local capacity, strengthening partnerships, and influencing policy and practice in Southwark and beyond. Other communities interested in developing family zones can learn from OKRFZ's principles and approach, while adapting to their own local context and strengths. Thanks to a leadership development programme co-funded by London Violence Reduction Unit and Delancey, two further family zones are up and running and working to redefine the relationship between schools, families, and the wider community: KOnnect at Henry Fawcett Primary School in Lambeth and DOCK Family Hub at Redriff Primary School in Rotherhithe, Lambeth. This year, Big Education Trust is taking another ten schools on a similar journey, via their Community Leadership Programme. Find out more here: Family Zones at Big Education.

Key Success Factors

• Community leadership: Genuine power-sharing with residents who have lived experience, not tokenistic consultation
• Asset-based approach: Building on existing community strengths rather than focusing solely on deficits
• Long-term commitment: Five years of core funding enabling sustainable change rather than short-term projects
• Cross-sector partnership: Convening local government, health, education, business and voluntary sectors around shared goals
• School as anchor: Using the school's trusted position to facilitate community engagement and provide physical infrastructure
• Continuous learning: Developmental evaluation and commitment to codifying and sharing learning
• Flexible programming: Responding to community-identified needs rather than imposing predetermined solutions
• Celebration and hope: Deliberately fostering positive narratives and future-focused thinking

For more information about the Old Kent Road Family Zone:

Website: https://oldkentroadfamilyzone.org.uk

Lead organisation: Surrey Square Primary School, London Borough of Southwark

Funder: Impact on Urban Health (Guy's & St Thomas' Foundation)

Website: https://urbanhealth.org.uk

Relevance to Other Councils

This case study offers valuable insights for local authorities seeking to: 

• Address health inequalities through community-led approaches
• Develop family hub models or children's centre provision
• Work more effectively with schools as community anchors
• Implement asset-based community development
• Support communities affected by regeneration programmes
• Shift power from institutions to residents
• Develop place-based approaches to children's mental health and wellbeing
• Build effective cross-sector partnerships around children and families
• Move from deficit-based to strength-based community engagement