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Healthy Places SIG

The Healthy Places Special Interest Group (SIG) has been established to provide a forum for information sharing, collaboration and advocacy on issues surrounding the natural and built environments, urbanisation, and sustainability, with a view to promoting and protecting health and wellbeing across the globe, in the context of the climate emergency and COVID-19 pandemic.

Overarching aim: To increase recognition of the inter-relationship between built and natural environments, inequalities, health and wellbeing, and the application of health considerations in the design and planning of the built environment.

Recent work

In October 2024, the Healthy Places SIG coordinated a response on behalf of FPH on the proposed approach to revising the National Planning Policy Framework to achieve sustainable growth in our planning system. This response focused particularly on the Promoting Healthy and Safe Communities Chapter. Read the consultation here.

In June 2023, the SIG coordinated a response on behalf of the FPH to the Environmental Outcomes Reports (EOR) consultation. The response advocated for population health to be included as a priority outcome in the revised version of the EOR following this consultation and can be found here.

Contact 

The Healthy Places Special Interest Group is chaired by Helen Elsey: helen.elsey@york.ac.uk, Charles Satow: charliesatow@gmail.com and Karen Horrocks: Karen.Horrocks@dhsc.gov.uk. The SIG reports to the Faculty's Health Improvement Committee.

FPH members can join this SIG by logging into their FPH members’ portal account, selecting the ‘Committees/SIGs’ button and choosing the correct SIG. You will then be asked to provide a few details, following which your application will be automatically approved. Further details on FPH membership are available here.

Webinar recordings

SIG Workplan

Vision and aims
  1. Identify members of the wider public health force, elected members and other key decision makers and engage them to promote and develop understanding of the inter-relationship between the environment (built and natural) and health, wellbeing and inequities, with a view to create a shared vision of healthy and resilient cities/places, in line with the World Health Organization Healthy Cities approach.
  2. Strengthen recognition of the relationship between environment and health, and collaborate and advise on appropriate metrics to evaluate health and wellbeing and the impact of interventions in built and natural environments.
  3. Share best practice, knowledge, advice and guidance on approaches to developing and ensuring healthy built and natural environments.
  4. Advise on, and advocate for, a focus on healthy built and natural environments in local, regional and national policies and practice.
  5. Build skills and strengthen capacity within the wider public health workforce by delivering training and learning events
  6. Support and drive improvements in training on Healthy Places for public health registrars.
  7. Create a network of organisations, stakeholders and other SIGs to work collaboratively to support the Healthy Places agenda.

Activity: Forming connections - collaborating with other SIGs and partners on shared workstreams, e.g. Transport, Sustainable Development and Poverty SIGs, ADPH Healthy Places and identifying key players outside FPH (e.g. TCPA) and inviting them to become honorary SIG members. 

Outcome: Multiple perspectives/sectors informing outputs and future work

Target date: March 2025

Named lead: TBC

Progress to date: Have already worked on responses to consultations with other SIGs; attending meetings to inform other SIGs of workplans 

Outputs: Responses to consultation, advocacy, joint webinars, shared resources

Activity: Survey of SIG membership - to understand who our members are, interests within Healthy Places and use this to inform who may be best able to support with future workstreams.

Outcome: List of current members of SIG, with improved understanding of wants/needs around group’s purpose.

Target date: June 2024

Named lead: Shannon K

Progress to date: Agreed on questions to ask SIG members within the survey, to be completed by SIG members in May/June 2024

Outputs: Survey results to be  shared with SIG members

Activity: Follow up survey to understand the key organisations we could align with/collaborate with on future work themes

Outcome: Map out organisations we may wish to connect with moving forwards, in line with SIG member priorities

Target date: September 2024

Named lead: TBC

Progress to date:

Outputs:  Survey results to be shared with SIG members

Activity: Continue to engage with European/Global actors working with Healthy Cities as they arise 

Outcome: Strong networks with those working on healthy places beyond the UK

Target date: March 2025

Named lead: All - particularly co-Chairs

Progress to date: Have already contributed to WHO urban health capacity initiative and several members have links with European networks

Outputs: N/A TBC

Activity: Identify 2 key areas on which to develop webinars/training events, informed by the member survey e.g. high-density apartment living

Outcome: Events held and increased awareness of healthy places issues and potential solutions

Target date: September 2024

Named lead: All SIG members, led by co-Chairs: Tamara Al-Obaidi, Michael Chang

Progress to date:

Outputs: Webinars/training events

Activity: Identify specific  advocacy priorities and how to address them (policy brief/training session/ webinar etc) for upcoming year by

  1. recruit Co-Chair(s) with strong grounding in UK healthy places;
  2. results from survey;
  3. discussion in next SIG meeting

Outcome: PH professional supported to advocate for healthy places as relevant to their place of work

Target date: September 2024

Named lead: All SIG members, led by co-Chairs

Progress to date:

Outputs: Possibly policy brief/training session/ webinar

Activity: Identify a list of actions for our SIG to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in activities and membership, including through four nations involvement and the FPH anti-racist framework.

Outcome: Ensure diverse  representation in the SIG, including from the four nations

Target date: March 2025

Named lead: All SIG

Progress to date: Raising awareness of the SIG through PH networks, including PH registrar community

Outputs: Results of forthcoming survey may support this activity

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