Local Plans and policies – including neighbourhood plans – should be informed by good evidence, including evidence about the health of the local community. However, planners and neighbourhood planning groups are often unsure where to find relevant public health evidence, or how to use it. The TCPA and UWE (University of the West of England) were commissioned by Public Health England to create a suite of resources to help find and use health evidence in planning.
The guides were informed by workshops held with councils and communities in North Yorkshire, Hull, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.
The introductory report, ‘Getting Research into Practice: a resource for local authorities on planning healthier places‘ can be downloaded from Public Health England’s website here.
In addition, the TCPA, working with UWE and the local councils, has produced four detailed guides showing how to find and use health evidence to create specific planning resources, which can be downloaded below.
For information about how these resources were created, the research methodology used, and findings and recommendations that came out of the research, see the UWE website here.
Resources
Developing a healthy planning principles framework
Explains how to find and use health evidence to create a healthy planning principles framework. It is based on the context in North Yorkshire, the City of York, and East Riding, but sets out how other councils can find and use their own evidence to create their own locally specific healthy planning principles framework.
Guide to creating a technical research paper on ageing well
Explains how to find and use health evidence to create a technical research paper on ageing well. It is based on the context in Worcestershire, but sets out how other councils can find and use local evidence to create their own locally specific technical research paper on ageing well.
Embedding health and wellbeing in neighbourhood plans
This guide for neighbourhood planning groups explains how to find and use health evidence to embed health and wellbeing in neighbourhood plans. It is based on the context in Gloucestershire, but explains how neighbourhood planning groups anywhere can find out about the health of their community and use this evidence to help shape their neighbourhood plans.
Framework for a healthy places supplementary planning document (SPD)
Explains how to find and use health evidence to create a 'health' SPD. It is based on the context in Hull, but sets out how other councils can find and use their own evidence to create their own locally specific healthy places SPD.
