Reuniting planning and health: tackling the implementation gaps in evidence, governance and knowledge

There is increasing scientific evidence on what is now referred as the "social determinants of health" and on the need to understand the root causes of inequities. The imperative for action at local, national and even international level is higher on political agendas than ever to address social, economic, environmental aspects of our lives and examine policies that can affect our health.

The built environment and the way in which we design and build our communities is one key area identified by research as a "social determinant of health". Evidence shows now that the places where we spend our lives can have a profound impact on pour physical, mental, social, environmental and economic well being. Modern city planning in the Northern hemisphere was born towards the end of the 19th century: the establishment of urban sewage system and carefully designed street drainage as well as the design of public spaces and buildings emerged out of the need to address rapid and chaotic urbanisation and industrialisation and in particular to protect health, to promote sanitation and quality ambient air, and to prevent infestation. Yet, while public health and planning seem to be naturally complementary, the two professions that can contribute to the making of healthy sustainable communities, city planners and public health practitioners have developed in different paths along the 20th century with different epistemologies, governance and policies priorities and remit. Today, the lack of a shared knowledge base is impeding the reuniting of planning and health and the systematic consideration of health impact of planning decisions.

This seminar series will aim to offer a forum for academics and practitioners very active in this new field of research and practice to discuss the obstacles to reuniting planning and health and identifying workable and economically viable solutions. Three interlinked core themes of the seminar series have been identified by research as key to facilitate healthy planning:
1. Public health evidence for spatial planning: who should supply health evidence to planners and what should be the coverage, scale and presentation of public health evidence to meet the needs of
spatial planning?
2. The governance of health and planning: what are the key features of governance and policies to ensure the reuniting of health and planning priorities?
3. The development of a shared knowledge base through training and professional development: what type of training should be made available to future generations of healthy planners and communities, who should deliver it?

The series will bring together international academics and stakeholders to discuss these issues and identify solutions. Fora and research based projects do not usually give the opportunity for practitioners to inform research agenda from its inception. The series is built to ensure users' involvement for the whole duration of the project. While the debate aims to stimulate the sharing of international good practice and identifying future research agenda, it also aims to inform policy development in the UK and in Europe through the involvement of UK and European stakeholders and officers managing three programmes linked to the building of healthy communities, including WHO Healthy Cities, Public Health England's Healthy People-Healthy Places and the UK government's capacity building Big Local programme.

The overarching aim of the seminar series is therefore to identify how public health can inform planning practice by providing a foundation for innovative collaboration and effective communication between public health and planning academics, practitioners, policy-makers and educationists. Through debate and discussion, the seminar series will provide opportunity to move beyond existing silos and begin to establish strategies for policy integration and transdisciplinary field of healthy planning which can serve government and research agendas

Below is the list of the main beneficiaries of the research and how they will benefit:

1. The investigators' immediate professional circle carrying out similar research: the seminar series will provide a forum for researchers to meet key practice stakeholders in the field and address the implementation gap in areas covered.

2. Local authorities in England: with the reintegration of public health responsibilities at local authority level, development of healthy planning agenda, health becoming a material consideration to planning application. They will help shape the seminar series agenda, exchange good practice. The seminar series will support capacity building. Dissemination will be through key health and planning networks already in place such as UK WHO healthy cities network, and integration of research findings in continuous professional development events and to which the PI and team have been associated in the past.

3.110 cities across Europe are participating the WHO Healthy Cities programme. They will benefit in the same way as English local authorities, but within a European setting. The WHO Collaborating Centre for healthy urban environment supports WHO Healthy Cities through training. It has also evaluated the progress of the programme towards the reuniting of health and planning. Evaluation of Phase 5 of the Healthy Cities programme has reinforced the fact that lack of suitable evidence, governance arrangement and training can be key barriers to the reuniting of health and planning despite the wealth of evidence demonstrating a strong link between built environment and health and wellbeing. The seminar series will offer a platform for programme managers and evaluators of phase 5 to debate and discuss the implementation gap in the field with international researchers, local authorities and other stakeholders.

4. Professional bodies, government agencies with a "healthy communities": including for instance Public Health England (PHE), executive agency of the Department of Health responsible for improving health and addressing inequalities. PHE will be involved in the seminar series from its inception. The findings of the research will inform PHE's guidance and future priorities. The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) is the professional body for the planning profession and accreditation body for planning courses. RTPI will be involved in steering the seminar series agenda and research questions to ensure that it suits the needs of planning practice. The RTPI will support the dissemination of research findings via its website and involvement in practice publications. The principal applicant is negotiating links with the RTPI website promoting policy, instruments and training towards the reuniting of health and planning. The Faculty of Public Health (FPH) is the standard setting body for specialists in public health in the United Kingdom and is the accreditation body for public health courses. Like the RTPI, it supports the reuniting of planning and health and the development of a shared knowledge base. It will also be involved in shaping the seminar series detailed programme so it supports the realisation of its ambitions.

7. Private sector: consultancies involved in working across public health, sustainability and planning They are key stakeholders which have developed tools and advise local authorities. Ben Cave Associates for instance has been approached to contribute to seminars, discussing good practice, tools supporting health impact assessment of planning projects, programmes or policies and training needs.

8. Social entreprises and charities involved in community and urban regeneration and capacity building. They are also indirect beneficiaries of the seminar series, for instance through the Big Local agenda which aims to empower local communities in 150 areas around England. RENAISI Ltd has been approached. It will work to implement BIG Local and deliver capacity building.