Health Impact Assessments: Insights and Advice

We know that Health Impact Assessments can be a valuable tool to influence the health of communities across many generations. As part of our work with the Local Government Association and Office of Health Improvement and Disparities we’ve created a series of films on HIAs. For everyone involved in development and planning, the aim of these films is to give helpful practical illustrations of how HIAs are being embedded in local policies and used in practice.

In these films you’ll hear from health and planning professionals from a selection of local authorities who have demonstrated positive adoption of HIA policies, a civil servant, an elected representative and planning consultants about their experiences and recommendations.

To accompany the films Ed Kirton-Darling from our law intervention has written a blog, Health for development decision making: the role of Health Impact Assessment, and you can find some of the resources mentioned in the films at the end of this page.

We would like to thank council officers at Darlington, Doncaster, Luton, Tower Hamlets and Wakefield, the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities, Iceni Projects, RPS Group and the Local Government Association for their contributions.

Ed Kirton-Darling welcomes you to the series and some of our contributors outline why HIAs are important.

David Nelson, James Hewitt and Victoria Cooling at Darlington Borough Council discuss examples around promoting job creation and getting health assessment included early in the process.

Emma Wilson at the City of Doncaster Council talks about the importance of thinking through the lifetime of homes and the populations that might move through them.

Chimeme Egbutah, Public Health Service Manager (Health Inequalities) at Luton Borough Council talks through how they made an impact with HIAs at the Marsh Farm development.

Johnny Lui, Spatial Planning and Health Manager from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets explains how they looked back at past HIAs and made adjustments to policies for monitoring and engagement of vulnerable groups.

John Wilcox and Brendan Aikman from Wakefield Council give examples of how they are changing the culture towards HIAs as a tool for good.

Andy Netherton, Programme Manager (Housing, Planning and Environments for Health) gives five key themes for consideration for an effective HIA.

We talk to Katy Field, Associate Director at Iceni Projects and Ryngan Pyper, Planning and Health Manager at RPS Group for their perspective on what makes a good process for their clients and how to build trust.

Cllr David Fothergill, Chair of the LGA Community Wellbeing Board explains why he sees HIAs as vital for better environments and how officers can support elected members to promote their benefits.