Our advice, guidance and support is built around four key activities:
- Integrating health and planning policy – integrating health into national, strategic and local planning policy and ensuring the closest possible alignment at both strategic and local level in ways that reflect local circumstances
- Promoting and delivering healthy urban development – ensuring development proposals are identified and assessed at the earliest possible opportunity to maximise the opportunities for improving health and health services and to mitigate any possible adverse impacts on health
- Partnership working and engagement – facilitating engagement between health and planning authorities at all levels and over time to make the most of the opportunities to improve health and reduce health inequalities that aligning the health and planning agendas can bring
- Information and analysis – providing up to date information, analysis, advice and support on health and planning related issues
These activities are closely interlinked.
Planning applications must be decided in accordance with the polices set out in Local Plans – so it is important to have the right policy framework in place if health is to be a consideration.
Equally, to achieve healthy urban development and influence policy, good information about opportunities and impacts is needed along with evidence about the linkages with health outcomes and proactive, ongoing engagement between health organisations and local planning authorities.
To find out more about what we do and how we can help click on the left hand menu.