A Health and Wellbeing Statement
aims to ensure that health and health disparities are considered in
decision making, it will contain an assessment of the health
implications of the project and set out how positive outcomes for health
have been taken into account and how any negative consequences have been
avoided or minimized.
But what is a Health and Wellbeing Statement, and what information
does it include.
Health and Wellbeing Statement
Chapters
A Health and Wellbeing Statement
will have a fairly typical report layout, with subject specific
cahpters:
Scope and Priorities: This chapter defines the boundaries of the
statement, specifying which aspects of health and wellbeing will be
addressed and prioritized.
Key Principles and Values: This chapter outlines the core
beliefs and guiding principles that will underpin all health and
wellbeing initiatives.
Action Plan: This chapter details the specific actions,
strategies, and initiatives that will be implemented to achieve the
stated goals. It may include timelines, responsibilities, and
resource allocation.
Monitoring and Evaluation: This chapter describes the mechanisms
for tracking progress, measuring outcomes, and evaluating the
effectiveness of the health and wellbeing initiatives.
Communication and Engagement: This chapter outlines how the
organization will communicate the health and wellbeing statement to
employees, stakeholders, and the wider community. It may also
describe strategies for engaging employees in health and wellbeing
initiatives.
Healthy Places
A healthy place is one which supports and promotes healthy behaviors
and environments and a reduction in health inequalities for people of
all ages. It will provide the community with opportunities to improve
their physical and mental health, and support community engagement and
wellbeing. But what are the practical measures that should be
considered?
Enhanced and Optimised Nature
Prioritise nature so that diverse ecosystems can flourish to ensure a
healthy natural environment that supports and enhances biodiversity.
Design
Good design promotes quality of life for the occupants and users of
buildings. This includes function – buildings should be easy to use. It
also includes comfort, safety, security, amenity, privacy, accessibility
and adaptability.
Well designed homes and buildings are efficient and cost effective to
run. They help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by incorporating
features that encourage sustainable lifestyles. They have good
ventilation, avoid overheating, minimise sound pollution and have good
air quality, while providing comfort and personal control for their
users.
Well-designed homes and communal areas within buildings provide a
good standard and quality of internal space. This includes room sizes,
floor-to-ceiling heights, internal and external storage, sunlight,
daylight and ventilation. The quality of internal space needs careful
consideration in higher density developments, particularly for family
accommodation, where access, privacy, daylight and external amenity
space are also important.
Where a need is identified, Local Plans may adopt the Nationally
Described Space Standards and those for accessibility and water.
Good Examples of Mitigation
There are numerous measures that can be implemented to increase
health and well being of occupants:
Living spaces stack to manage noise transmission
External apartment balconies provide space for planting and a
table and chairs
Trees provide shading, screening and additional privacy
Integrated internal storage (i.e. wardrobes) and desk space
Bin/external storage is located within the front garden space
Open plan living area connects directly to external amenity
space, as well as providing integrated storage
Homes have direct access to a well overlooked communal space
with planting and informal seating areas
Private external space incorporates planting, storage, a clothes
line and an outdoor entertaining area
Planting along the front boundary provides greenery
House frontages are carefully designed with generous windows from
habitable rooms, visible and attractive front doors and planting to act
as buffer between the pavement and window.
Negative Health and Wellbeing Impacts from Poor Design and Layout
There are a number of bad design choices that can be made:
Locating play areas directly in front of people’s homes where
they may become a source of tension due to potential for noise and
nuisance.
Creating the potential for future conflict if residential uses
and commercial premises are not combined thoughtfully.
Not considering how the layout of a development could be
designed to improve connectivity across the wider neighbourhood.
Thinking about development sites in isolation from their
surroundings. For example, bus only routes (or bus plugs) can be
used to connect a new development to an existing development and
create a more viable bus service without creating a ‘rat run’ for
cars.
Developments that create homes for one market segment unless the
development is very small.
Using exterior features that enable people to easily identify
market sale from rented/shared ownership homes, such as the
treatment of garages or entrances.
Reducing the level of parking provision for rented/shared
ownership homes.
Using the lack of local character as a justification for further
nondescript or placeless development.
Too many identical or similar house types (where there is no
benefit to the overall architectural integrity of the scheme from
repetition).
Leaving an assessment of whether there are any views into and
from the site that merit a design response until late in the design
process.
Not carefully thinking about what balancing lagoons (swales)
will look like and how people could enjoy them as attractive
features within an open space network. Careful thought in the design
process can eliminate the need for fenced off lagoons that are both
unsightly and unwelcoming.
Streets that lack successful spatial enclosure by exceeding
recommended height to width ratios.
Over reliance on in front of plot parking that tends to create
over wide streets dominated by parked cars and driveways unless
there is sufficient space to use strong and extensive landscaping to
compensate the lack of built form enclosure.
Homes that back on to the street or offer a blank elevation to
the street.
Layouts that separate homes and facilities from the car, unless
the scheme incorporates secure underground car parking.
Minimise steps and level changes to make them as easy as
possible for pushchairs and wheelchairs.
Large rear parking courts. When parking courts are less private,
they offer greater opportunity for thieves, vandals and those who
should not be parking there.
Informal or left over grassed areas that offer no public or
private use or value and do little or nothing to support
biodiversity.
Avoid creating small fenced play areas set within a larger area
of open space where the main expense is the cost of fencing.
Landscaping that is cheap, of poor quality, poorly located and
inappropriate for its location. Low growing shrubs rarely survive
well in places where people are likely to accidentally walk over
them (such as besides parking bays).
Bin and recycling stores that detract from the quality of the
street scene.
Locating bin and recycling stores in places that are
inconvenient for residents, or they might find it easier to leave
their bin and containers on the street.
Designing garages that are impractical or uncomfortable to use.
Cycle storage that is not secure or is difficult to access.
Walking Distances
A development within walking distance of key features will have
healthier residents (provided infrastructure is connected and pleasant
to use):