Working at Care City

Care City is a Healthy Ageing Innovation Centre that has been created by local health and social care partners to deliver measurable improvements in health for the population we serve and to act as a catalyst for regenerating one of London’s most deprived regions. Central to our work is a commitment to work in partnership with the local community to ensure that the research, innovation and education we deliver is driven by their needs.

The way we currently deliver health and social care is unsustainable. Demographic pressures, the changing burden of disease and rising patient and public expectations are driving the need to cut costs, integrate and innovate. Care City was set up and is funded by NELFT and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, and today brings together health, social care, and third sector partners from across the system with researchers, education providers, technology experts, small and medium sized companies and social entrepreneurs to develop health and social care delivery and workforce models for the future.

Care City has two focus areas:

1. Healthy ageing
Frail older populations are a growing proportion of our society, with complex and multiple needs, and group for whom the whole system of care interacts. Havering has the distinction of being London’s oldest population and has the highest proportion of the oldest old.

2. Social regeneration
With the highest rates of unemployment in Barking and Dagenham (10%) and the lowest levels of life expectancy in London (77 men, 82 women), and known interrelationships between society, employment and health, we want to ensure our programme of work brings investment and opportunity to regenerate our population