Islington faces highest suicide rate in North London NHS Trust, prompting joint data analysis tool development
Islington has the highest suicide rate within the North London NHS Foundation Trust's five local authorities, prompting the development of a joint data analysis tool to better understand and address the issue.
The stark finding was revealed during a Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee meeting on Thursday, 15 October 2026, where the trust presented its annual performance update. The meeting's agenda and public reports pack can be found here and here respectively.
Carl Milner, Director of Comms, Marketing and Engagement for North London NHS Foundation Trust, and Abdi Ali, Senior Consultant Social Worker, highlighted that while the trust provides care for over 4,200 residents with severe mental illnesses and personality disorders in Islington, the borough stands out with the highest rate of suicides among the five local authorities served by the trust.
In response to this critical issue, a joint tool has been developed with Islington Council's public health colleagues to analyse suicide data. This tool aims to dig deep into those sort of deaths by looking at, for example, the council systems in terms of housing, social care, looking at the trust and GP records.
The purpose is to understand themes, patterns, and what led to these deaths, and to identify any over-representation of particular groups.
We've developed, for example, a joint sort of tool to think about, you know, what we can do to, you know, dig deep into those sort of deaths by looking at, for example, the council systems in terms of housing, social care, looking at the trust and GP records,
explained Abdi Ali.
In a bid to tackle these complex issues, the trust and council are working on improving integration between their services. This includes joint risk forums and support for homeless residents with mental health issues, focusing on integration, sort of joint system kind of sharing, joint kind of intervention and risk assessment.
The expected outcomes for individuals with mental health issues are implied to be better support, particularly for homeless residents, and improved risk management through joint forums. The trust is also working to treat people closer to home and take as many people out of hospital as we possibly can.
The Adult Social Care Accommodation Review also highlights integrated work across departments, with a focus on housing as a determinant of health and the need for integrated work across departments. The expected outcome is to ensure residents have access to the right accommodation at the right time to enable independent, healthy lives.
The development of the suicide data analysis tool represents a crucial step in understanding and mitigating the borough's concerning suicide rates.
The minutes from a previous Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee meeting on 22 September 2026 are available here.