Community outreach improving women’s and girls’ health in Lambeth
Women and girls across Lambeth are benefiting from a series of outreach initiatives designed to give them the support and information needed to manage their health confidently.
The project is part of NHS South East London and King’s Health Partners Women’s and Girls’ Health Programme and focuses on four key areas: heavy menstrual bleeding, contraception, pre-conception and menopause.
Health and Wellbeing Bus
The Lambeth Together Health and Wellbeing Bus has been central to the effort, supporting Health Champions to have conversations on women’s health with local residents. Factsheets and simple prompts were developed to make discussions easier, and these were embedded into Vital 5 health checks. The team also received bespoke training from clinician specialists to support their understanding of women’s health topics.
So far, the bus has hosted almost 500 conversations with women and girls across the borough, including eight dedicated women’s health events. Topics ranged from menopause (45%), contraception (18%), general women’s health topics (17%), heavy menstrual bleeding (14%) and pre-pregnancy health (4%).
Feedback shows women can feel unheard in GP consultations and often put up with symptoms because they’ve been normalised. Residents have particularly valued peer support and workshops delivered by Hills, Brook and Dales Primary Care Network (HBD PCN).
Community education sessions
Four education sessions have been organised by the Adult Social Prescribing team and Health Equity Champion for HBD PCN, covering a range of women’s and girls’ health topics
The first two sessions were well attended by residents who praised the discussions and learnt useful information about perimenopause, menopause and heavy menstrual bleeding.
Upcoming sessions will focus on:
- Contraception and sexual health – Tuesday 9 December 2025, West Norwood
- Pre-pregnancy health – Tuesday 17 March 2026, central Brixton
Supporting local organisations
Up to £5,000 has been awarded to ten voluntary and community sector organisations to develop projects that:
- raise awareness and understanding of women’s and girls’ health issues across Lambeth
- build trust and help residents get care that’s culturally sensitive
- empower local people to shape healthcare services
- support staff and volunteers to better respond to women’s health needs
More details about the organisations and projects can be found below:
- Black Prince Trust: online workshops on each key health area, alongside in-person events, targeted to Muslim women and teenage girls
- Beth Centre: conversation cafés for women involved with the criminal justice system, and providing health information at local food banks
- Sister2Sister: expansion of regular menopause online sessions, by running in-person workshops which are open to all, with a particular focus on Black women, and involve creative activities
- Girls United: integrating menstrual health learning into football training for girls 8 -16, tackling stigma and promoting physical activity and confidence managing menstrual health
- Milk Honey Bees: training health champions and providing health education sessions for Black girls aged 13 – 18, blending art, peer support and reproductive health education
- Carers4Carers: tailored wellbeing sessions at the gym for unpaid carers aged 40-65
- Molly Huggins Trust: resident-led design of wellbeing sessions covering mental health, reproductive health and self-care for women from diverse backgrounds
- Lambeth Hospital: introducing screening for menstrual and menopause health in psychiatric inpatient care, and training staff to be women’s health ambassadors
- Baytree Centre: running sessions for diverse women, embedding menopause education within ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and community learning
- High Trees: workshops for young women and adults focused on women’s health topics
Each organisation will report back on the impact of their project early next year.
Learn more about where and when the Lambeth Together Health and Wellbeing Bus is available here. More information about managing a range of women’s and girls’ health conditions and where to find local services is available on our website.