Abstract:A local plan is a statutory policy document that supports urban development decisions across a local government area in England. Local plans are reported to need more specific requirements for development proposals regarding wider health determinants to address potential health outcomes and health inequalities. This study reviews the integration of Health in Local Plans of seven local planning authorities through documentary analysis methods. A review framework was formulated based on health and planning liter… Show more
“…There are recent local plans review in England which will act as useful reference points in future analysis. The most relevant ones include a health-focused content review of local plans in England and Wales conducted by the Town and Country Planning Association in 2018 as part of its review into the state of the union between spatial planning and public health [9] and a health-focused sample comparative review of local plans in England in 2022 as a specific study to inform a local authority's preparation of their local plan review process [10]. Otherwise undertaking policy reviews of local plans for health has been limited apart those reviews with a specific purpose to find whether something exists or not, such as whether there are policies on managing hot food takeaways [11] or on older people housing provision [12].…”
IntroductionEach local authority in England is required to create a statutory local plan that sets out their land use priorities as the basis of decision-making on urban development. Only recently has there been an explicit recognition the local plan is capable of being a legal determinant of and important public policy intervention in influencing population physical and mental health and wellbeing. But there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of whether and how local plans have integrated wider determinants of health. The objective of this research is to identify and understand the state of current local plans in relation to health by undertaking a census.Methods and analysisThe review for England will involve a census of all local plans, and content and thematic analyses of a sample of local plans. This is subject to developing a review framework as the basis for gathering findings using a combination of query functions in PDF documents and data presentation in Excel, supported latterly by the computerassisted qualitative data analysis software, NVivo. The review framework will include a range of search parameters for identifying explicit health references across specified policy topics and wider determinants of health indicators as they relate to spatial planning based on an established evidence publication. A sampling strategy identifies inclusion and exclusion criteria to focus on local plans in England used in planning decision making. Results will be collected in qualitative and quantitative data formats. The results will be synthesised and discussed using a combination of qualitative data analytical strategies.Ethics and disseminationThe review is desktop based using publicly available policy documents on local authority websites, so ethics approval is not required. The results of the review will be reported in journal articles and for policy makers to improve national and local policy development.
“…There are recent local plans review in England which will act as useful reference points in future analysis. The most relevant ones include a health-focused content review of local plans in England and Wales conducted by the Town and Country Planning Association in 2018 as part of its review into the state of the union between spatial planning and public health [9] and a health-focused sample comparative review of local plans in England in 2022 as a specific study to inform a local authority's preparation of their local plan review process [10]. Otherwise undertaking policy reviews of local plans for health has been limited apart those reviews with a specific purpose to find whether something exists or not, such as whether there are policies on managing hot food takeaways [11] or on older people housing provision [12].…”
IntroductionEach local authority in England is required to create a statutory local plan that sets out their land use priorities as the basis of decision-making on urban development. Only recently has there been an explicit recognition the local plan is capable of being a legal determinant of and important public policy intervention in influencing population physical and mental health and wellbeing. But there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of whether and how local plans have integrated wider determinants of health. The objective of this research is to identify and understand the state of current local plans in relation to health by undertaking a census.Methods and analysisThe review for England will involve a census of all local plans, and content and thematic analyses of a sample of local plans. This is subject to developing a review framework as the basis for gathering findings using a combination of query functions in PDF documents and data presentation in Excel, supported latterly by the computerassisted qualitative data analysis software, NVivo. The review framework will include a range of search parameters for identifying explicit health references across specified policy topics and wider determinants of health indicators as they relate to spatial planning based on an established evidence publication. A sampling strategy identifies inclusion and exclusion criteria to focus on local plans in England used in planning decision making. Results will be collected in qualitative and quantitative data formats. The results will be synthesised and discussed using a combination of qualitative data analytical strategies.Ethics and disseminationThe review is desktop based using publicly available policy documents on local authority websites, so ethics approval is not required. The results of the review will be reported in journal articles and for policy makers to improve national and local policy development.
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