Major driver of health inequalities in your area of work

Inequal access to high-quality housing which results in a number of negative health outcomes, alongside other negative impacts stemming from a poor-quality built environment, including lack of green/blue space, lack of access to active travel, and poor provision of healthy food options.

Target groups

People living in deprived areas

Intervention

Putting Health into Place.

Description

The ‘Putting Health into Place’ series of publications shares the learning from the NHS Healthy New Towns programme and provides assistance for professionals seeking to prioritise health and wellbeing when designing, delivering and managing new places. The guidance provided captures the learning from the programme’s demonstrator sites in ten principles illustrated with case studies, ‘lessons learned’ and clear actions for councils, developers and the NHS.

Putting Health into Place divided into and Exec Summary and three core publications.

1. Plan, Assess and Involve (Principles 1-3): Covers planning ahead collectively, integrating health into local planning policy, understanding local needs and assets and community engagement
2. Design, Deliver and Manage (Principles 4-8): Covers the key elements of developing healthy places including neighbourhood and home design, active travel and green infrastructure
3. Develop and Provide Healthcare (Principles 9-10): Covers developing preventative and integrated care and health and wellbeing centres for new places

Evidence

• Encouraging healthier ‘out of home’ food provision Public Health England (2017)
• Everybody active, every day: framework for physical activity Public Health England (2018)
• My Community Locality (2017)
• Active Design: Planning for health and wellbeing through sport and physical activity Sport England (2015)
• Creating health promoting environments TCPA (2017)
• Creating healthy places Design Council (2018)
• Healthy High Streets: good place making in an urban setting Public Health England (2018)
• Healthy Streets for London Transport for London (2017)
• Pedestrians First: Tools for a Walkable City Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (2018)
• Securing constructive collaboration and consensus for planning healthy developments TCPA (2018)
• Spatial Planning for Health: An evidence resource for planning and designing healthier places Public Health England (2017)
• TCPA Practical Guides – Guide 8: Creating health promoting environments TCPA (2017)
• The Routledge Handbook of Planning for Health and Well-Being Taylor & Francis Barton et al (2015)
• Building the Foundations: Tackling Obesity through Planning and Development TCPA & LGA (2016)
• Health in all policies: a manual for local government LGA (2016)
• Childhood Obesity – a plan for action: Chapter 2 DHSC (2018)

Guidance for Commissioners

The Healthy New Towns Programme was launched in 2015 to explore how the development of new places could provide an opportunity to create healthier and connected communities with integrated and high-quality services.

The Programme worked with 10 demonstrator sites chosen in March 2016 from over 100 applicants to help do this. The sites explored the ‘how-to’ of healthy place-making, and worked with the NHS, Public Health England, the Town and Country Planning Association, The King’s Fund, The Young Foundation and PA Consulting to draw out their key lessons to share with others in the Putting Health into Place publications. This was supported by a Steering Group comprised of experts drawn from health, local authorities, government, planning, development and academia.