The Bromley by Bow Centre [1] is a charity in Tower Hamlets, East London. Over the past 30 years it has transformed the lives of people who come from some of the most deprived communities in the UK. It has achieved this by a providing a distinctive, holistic and easily accessible range of integrated services in one place. Since 1997 it has worked jointly with the Bromley by Bow Health Partnership to create a new and unique model of delivery, which has a holistic primary care operation at its core, and it was the first Healthy Living Centre in the UK [2]. It has a significant track record of developing and sharing innovative practice both nationally and internationally . It has also contributed to a number of national policy initiatives, including the development of the national Sure Start and Children’s Centre programme [3], and runs ‘family learning’ programmes for parents who are speakers of other languages to support their literacy skills and encourage them to be more involved in their children’s learning [4].