Creating healthy places requires breaking down traditional silos between sectors. This was the clear message from participants at the Health and Wellbeing in Planning Network’s second annual Summer Forum, hosted by NHS Property Services.
Bringing together leaders from planning and public health to accelerate the integration of health into place-making, the Network explored one of the most pressing challenges in contemporary place-making: how to effectively integrate health considerations into planning practice.
Why breaking down silos matters
There is a growing recognition that creating healthy places requires breaking down traditional silos between sectors and professions. The diverse attendance demonstrated the breadth of stakeholders and perspectives needed for this agenda.
Five key insights emerged from the day’s intensive discussions:
- Narrative power: success depends on ‘winning hearts and minds’ through compelling narratives and engaging communities and stakeholders.
- Translating evidence: the ability to translate evidence across professional boundaries is one of the biggest tasks in embedding health in planning, requiring dedicated resource, time and collective responsibility to handle evidence with appropriate nuance.
- Cultural differences: planning and public health often operate at different speeds and from different perspectives (art vs. science), while workforce training could be better aligned to develop appropriate skills.
- Private sector engagement: it is crucial that developers and investors are part of the debate about how we tackle health inequities and how the planning system can best harness and empower private sector investment.
- Assessment integration: health impact assessments work best with early engagement and commitment from across the planning system – from policy development to decision-making – but there remains inconsistency in approaches and processes, and between the different types of assessments required in the planning system. Integration without duplication, supported by digital tools and a national method/model could offer a promising path forward.
These insights support and reflect a broader shift happening across the profession. The Association of Directors of Public Health’s publication What Good Local Spatial Planning for Healthy Places Looks Like, reinforces the need for structured, collaborative approaches, particularly around building workforce capacity, establishing clear protocols for health and creating systematic approaches to health integration.
New Community of Practice launch
The Health and Wellbeing in Planning Network will continue to meet through a new Community of Practice to discuss, share and collaborate on health integration within the planning system. The Community of Practice will officially launch at the Healthy City Design Congress on 14 October 2025.
Join us to help build the critical mass needed for healthy places
As the planning system evolves, forums like this are essential for building the shared understanding and momentum needed to create truly healthy places.
The Network is kindly supported by:
Prior + Partners – https://www.priorandpartners.com/
OURI Labs – https://www.ouri-labs.com/
Quality of Life Foundation – https://www.qolf.org/
Optimal Cities – https://optimalcities.com/
Town and Country Planning Association – https://www.tcpa.org.uk/
We are deeply grateful for our supporters and advisory group for the Summer Forum:
Prior + Partners
Essex County Council
Hampshire County Council
Urban Habitats – https://urban-habitats.com/
Quality of Life Foundation
Optimal Cities
OURI Labs
NHS Property Services
Tackling Root Causes Upstream of Unhealthy Urban Development (TRUUD)
This guest blog was written by The Health & Wellbeing in Planning Network.
