Integrating health in Local Plans: An impact evaluation

Bird, Emma; Hanss, Katharine; Le Gouais, Anna; Kidger, Judi

Abstract

Aim: This research sought to improve the systematic integration of health in Local Plan policies, as part of the TRUUD (Tackling the Root causes Upstream of Unhealthy Urban Development) project.

Background: Local Plans are used by local planning authorities in England to set out a vision for the future development of an area. For planning policy to have a meaningful impact on promoting health and wellbeing and reducing health inequalities, there is a need to better integrate and prioritise health in Local Plans.

Methodology: A framework to review how health is addressed in Local Plans was co-produced with a local government partner and applied to the Local Plans from seven local planning authorities across England. The review was followed-up with an evaluation to understand the impact of using the framework on the partner local authority’s emerging Local Plan, and to explore how it could be translated into transferable and sustainable guidance for stakeholders working in a local authority context. Data collected from a range of sources (interviews with planning policy and public health practitioners and elected cabinet members and embedded researcher fieldnotes) were analysed using Framework Analysis.

Results: Examples of health-specific policy language were identified across all seven Local Plans, however, greater coherence regarding health requirements and improved transparency about how content was shaped by local health and wellbeing priorities is needed. The evaluation highlighted multiple positive impacts of the review, including changes to draft Local Plan content. Barriers to translation of the framework and challenges associated with implementing recommendations into practice included local authority competing priorities and resource constraints, and the complexity of the planning system.

Conclusions: This research highlights the benefits of undertaking a review of Local Plan health integration, in identifying opportunities to share and strengthen planning requirements regarding health and wellbeing.

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: South West Public Health Scientific Conference
• Start Date: Mar 19, 2024
• End Date: Mar 19, 2024
• Deposit Date: Apr 3, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 4, 2024
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11877569