Greener, healthier Islington

What Islington will look and feel like for residents

• Islington’s neighbourhoods and estates will look and feel greener, more attractive, cleaner, people-friendly and have less busy roads. They will be inviting for residents and businesses to enjoy and take care of, having been created by the community.
  
• Islington will be a proud low carbon, low waste, low energy borough created by a shared effort between the council, residents, community organisations, large and small businesses, and borough partners.
  
• Healthy neighbourhoods will mean that more residents will be more physically active, confident to walk and cycle, enjoy local parks and make use of local and accessible leisure facilities.
  
• People feel safe, connected and included when requesting advice and support from health and care services.
  
• Health and care services will be accessible and meet the needs of our diverse communities.
  
• Access to information and support both online and in person will be far more efficient and accessible.
  
• Residents are passionate and proud about actively participating in making Islington’s neighbourhoods the greenest and most sustainable in London.
  
• Residents and organisations bring to life local public spaces with local events, children’s activities and community.

What we are doing to get there

Read the full strategy for more on what we are doing, but this includes:

• delivering net zero carbon by 2030
• integrating health and care to provide seamless support to those who need it.

Here are some of the programmes we've launched to help us get there.  

Parks for Health programme

This programme aims to ensure our communities spend more time enjoying our parks and green spaces - leading to improved health and wellbeing and reduced health inequalities and that our parks are recognised as exemplar spaces for health and mental well-being. The objectives are to invest in our parks and workforce and working with the voluntary and community sector (VCS), health partners and residents.

Assistive technology

Within Adult Social Care, we have been working closely with colleagues from across the council to review and transform the current telecare offer with the aim of:

• enhancing the quality of life for people with care and support needs
• delaying, reducing, or preventing the need for care and support and reducing hospital admissions through the provision of assistive technology
• ensuring residents have a positive experience of assistive technology
• using assistive technology to help safeguard and protect adults from harm.

Since going live in January 2022, the Assistive Technology (AT) service has seen record numbers of activity. Between January 2022 and November 2022, we received a record number of referrals into the service (807), installed technology into 476 residents' homes, and supported 90 residents with a safe hospital discharge.

A key part of the new service is innovation and how we use innovative technologies. Over the past year we have worked with Brain in Hand who provide a self-management support system for people with mental health and learning disability needs and we will be introducing a new range of technology to support residents to lead independent lives, in their own home, while supporting our NHS colleagues with early discharge.

Shared Lives

Shared Lives is a service that offers residents who have care and support needs the opportunity to live in the community and can be an alternative to residential care. The scheme matches people, often with a learning disability, who need care and support, with an approved carer in the community who will share their home, family, and community life to provide ongoing support. Shared Lives has been operational in Islington for some time and is a well-established service.

Over the last year we have worked hard to expand this service.

• We have developed a targeted media campaign to tell people about the excellent work the scheme has delivered and types of support it provides.
• We implemented a digital platform that helps us attract more carers called Shared Lives Plus.

We have seen the number of new carers double over the last year, which allows us to support more people. We have also started using Shared Lives in more creative ways, as an alternative to day opportunities, working with residents aged 16+. We aim to expand the team so that we can start to support older residents and people with mental health needs.