Healthy University – University of Central Lancashire

In 1995, the University of Central Lancashire became one of the first few universities to establish a Healthy University initiative – now one of the longest-running initiatives of its kind worldwide. This case study details the context, provides an overview of the initiative and uses food as a focus for illustrating how the whole system Healthy University approach has been developed and implemented in practice. It also introduces the UK Healthy Universities Network

National research and development project on healthy universities: final report

This report presents the findings of a National Research and Development Project, undertaken by the Healthy Settings Development Unit at the University of Central Lancashire and funded by the Higher Education Academy Health Sciences and Practice Subject Centre and the Department of Health. The aim of the project was to scope and report on the potential for a national programme on Healthy Universities that could contribute to health, well-being and sustainable development. The project comprised four strands: - Literature Review: A rapid review of relevant academic and policy-related literature conducted in order to clarify theory, scope practice and distil key contextual issues. - HEI-level Research: Comprising an overview audit and follow-up mapping and consultative research, this strand of the project provided an overview of Healthy University activity across English HEIs, generated in-depth data from a purposive sample of universities and explored perspectives on the potential development of a national programme on Healthy Universities. - National-Level Stakeholder Research: Using semi-structured interviews with nine key national stakeholder organisations, this strand of the project mapped current health-related roles and responsibilities and explored views regarding the potential development of a national programme on Healthy Universities. - Joint Action Planning and Reporting: In addition to reporting interim findings at relevant conferences and events, an interactive workshop was held with members of the English National Healthy Universities Network to present findings, validate data, inform the action planning process and secure further buy-in. The project highlighted that higher education offers enormous potential to impact positively on the health and well-being of students, staff and the wider community through education, research, knowledge exchange and institutional practice. It also suggested that investment for health within the sector will further contribute to core agendas such as staff and student recruitment, experience and retention; and institutional and societal productivity and sustainability. The research revealed the richness of activity taking place within HEIs and evidenced a rapid increase in interest in the Healthy University approach, pointing to a growing appreciation of the need for a comprehensive whole system approach that can map and understand interrelationships, interactions and synergies within higher education settings – with regard to different groups of the population, different components of the system and different health issues. There is a clear challenge involved in introducing and integrating ‘health’ within a sector that does not have this as its central aim, is characterised by ‘initiative overload’, is experiencing resource constraints and comprises fiercely autonomous institutions. However, there is also a widening recognition that such a system-based approach has significant added value – offering the potential to address health in a coherent and joined-up way and to forge connections to both health-related targets and core drivers within higher education. The report concludes that there is clear demand for national-level stakeholder organisations to demonstrate leadership through championing and resourcing a Healthy Universities Programme that not only adds value within the higher education sector, but also helps to build consistency of approach across the entire spectrum of education. It issues a number of recommendations with a view to responding to the findings and moving forward

Expert voices for change: Bridging the silos—towards healthy and sustainable settings for the 21st century

The settings approach to health promotion, first advocated in the 1986 Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, was introduced as an expression of the ‘new public health’, generating both acclaim and critical discourse. Reflecting an ecological model, a systems perspective and whole system thinking, the approach has been applied in a wide range of geographical and organisational contexts. This paper reports on a qualitative study undertaken through in-depth interviews with key individuals widely acknowledged to have been the architects and pilots of the settings movement. Exploring the development of the settings approach, policy and practice integration, and connectedness ‘outwards’, ‘upwards’ and ‘beyond health’, it concludes that the settings approach has much to offer—but will only realise its potential impact on the wellbeing of people, places and the planet if it builds bridges between silos and reconfigures itself for the globalised 21st century

Healthy Universities: Concept, Model and Framework for Applying the Healthy Settings Approach within Higher Education in England

As part of a Department of Health funded project, the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) – working with Manchester Metropolitan University – was commissioned by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), to: - articulate a model for Healthy Universities whereby the healthy settings approach is applied within the higher education sector - produce recommendations for the development and operationalisation of a National Healthy Universities Framework for England - to ensure effective co-ordination of initiatives and propose next steps for progressing the Healthy Universities agenda. In fulfilment of these objectives, this report provides a background to Healthy Universities, outlines the project implementation process, presents a model, discusses the key dimensions for consideration in formulating a framework, and makes recommendations for taking things forward

Growing Health in UK Prison Settings

Globally, prisoners tend to come from marginalised and socially disadvantaged sections of society and exhibit a high incidence of ill-health, linked to social exclusion and multiple complex needs. Prisons therefore offer an important opportunity to tackle inequality and injustice, through promoting health, reducing re-offending and facilitating community reintegration. This paper reports on and critically discusses findings from an evaluative research study, which aimed to identify and explore impacts of prisoners’ participation in an innovative social and therapeutic horticultural programme, ‘Greener on the Outside for Prisons’ (GOOP), delivered in prisons in North West England. Focus groups with 16 prisoners and semistructured interviews with six prison staff were conducted at five sites. Presented under three overarching themes (health and wellbeing; skills development, employability and work-preparedness; relationships), findings suggest that engagement with and participation in GOOP were important in: improving positive mental wellbeing, increasing physical activity and increasing knowledge about healthier eating; developing skills and work-readiness; and building relationships and catalysing and strengthening pro-social behaviours, important for good citizenship and effective resettlement. The paper concludes that – in the context of the current UK prison reform agenda and concern about the high incidence of violence, substance misuse, self-harm and suicide – prison-based horticulture can offer multiple benefits and make a significant contribution to the creation of safe, secure, supportive and health-enhancing environments. Furthermore, it contends that by joining up health and justice agendas, programmes such as GOOP have the potential to serve as powerful catalysts for wider systemic change, thereby helping tackle inequalities and social exclusion within societies across the globe

The politics of health promotion: channelling our anger and our hope for the wellbeing of people, place and planet

With the Institute of Health Promotion and Education turning 60, it is timely to reflect on health promotion’s journey. While health promotion can celebrate many advances, much remains to be done. This paper considers the enormous challenges we face and how we might move forward by working not only within, but beyond, the five action areas of the Ottawa Charter: engaging creatively with the opportunities offered by the changing contexts in which we operate, for example in relation to integrated care systems and place-based partnerships; learning from our experience of COVID-19 to ensure joined-up whole system responses that nurture the transformative change necessary to ‘build back better’ for a sustainable and healthy future; and advocating a new economic vision and model that rejects economic growth as an end in itself and refutes the assumption that such growth will automatically result in improved population and planetary health. Health promotion is inherently political. Reflecting on the UK’s current situation – with spiralling child, food and fuel poverty, flatlined/reduced life expectancy, increased inequalities, and the ongoing failure of government to take on powerful vested interests through legislative, regulatory and fiscal measures – we face a crisis. However, a crisis represents not only danger, but also a potential turning point. This should motivate the health promotion workforce to harness and channel its righteous anger; and give space for active hope that we – as citizens, professionals and members of families and communities – can envision, advocate and fight to secure the wellbeing of people, places and the planet

One planet regions: planetary health at the local level

One of the key lessons that can be learnt from the history of public health is that many major public health advances—from clean drinking water to tobacco control—have been led at the local level. As we enter the Anthropocene, and strive to embrace an ecosocial approach that can address the implications for population health of the global ecological changes humans are creating,1 once again much of the leadership and action will need to occur at the local level