We provide a quarterly round-up on the organisation’s multi-sector policy influencing activity along with relevant updates from across public affairs.
Nature access postcards
William with Baroness Hayman at the DEFRA offices
Following the change in government, we refreshed our benefits of access to nature postcards which we presented to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Baroness Hayman at the DEFRA offices. Baroness Hayman’s ministerial responsibilities include nature access. We have sent copies of the postcards to all relevant Secretaries of State and Ministers, with a request to meet with their team to discuss them further. They will also be distributed digitally to other parliamentarians and key stakeholders. We will also be publishing the digital postcards weekly across our social media channels, so make sure you are following us on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Instagram.
The postcards align with the government’s ‘Five missions,’ indicating evidence where nature can support on national issues taking a cross-departmental approach.
Department of Health & Social Care
- Address type 2 diabetes
- Prevent hypertension
- Improve mental health
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
- Build communities
- Tackle health inequalities
Department for Education
- Increase academic attainment
- Boost children’s wellbeing
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
- Create a sustainable future
Department for Work & Pensions
- Reduce long-term sickness
Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
- Enhance climate resilience
His Majesty’s Treasury
- Save on healthcare spend
If you haven’t yet received the postcards in digital format and would like to, please get in touch and we will forward them to you via email.
Party Conferences
Our Director, Katherine Knight attended Labour Party Conference in Liverpool on behalf of Intelligent Health. Katherine attended fringe events discussing placemaking, public health and putting children and young people’s voices at the heart of future decision making.
Events
There’s been plenty of event appearances for the Intelligent Health team across sectors and across Europe (!) during this time.
Theo addresses the Innovation Summit in Paris
Selected by Sport England, our Head of Programmes, Jenny Cottrell and Business Development & Partnerships Manager, Theo Bird were invited to speak at the Sports4All Innovation Summit during the Paralympics in Paris. Jenny and Theo shared information on the national work delivered with Sport England and places using Beat the Street as a transformational tool to improve population health and place at scale.
Katherine also spoke at the Western Gateway, which focused on growth in the West of England and Wales, on a nature panel sponsored by AtkinsRealis to discuss how being connected to nature is vital to our health and happiness as humans and how the urban environment matters. This included exploring how the solution is in all of us working together to create places and communities that thrive.
The Intelligent Health stand with our nature access postcards at the Western Gateway
Our Head of Insight, Steve Rose and William represented Intelligent Health at Walk21 in Portugal. They presented on ‘Inclusive preventative pathways to health: Impact of Beat the Street on tackling inequality of physical activity and life satisfaction outcomes.’ This involved discussing Beat the Street as a walking intervention that gets people active and specifically focused on tackling inequality and getting better results for people who have higher rates of baseline inactivity. They utilised a large sample of participant data gathered since 2022. They also showed the audience the BTS Featherstone ‘Trainspotting’ video, which was very well received!
Walk 21 in Lisbon, Portugal
Other arrangements of note included: William presenting new data on building resilience to reduce health inequalities at the NHS Long Term Plan, attending a Sport England parliamentary roundtable and the parliamentary sport and physical activity reception and participating in the Natural England strategy development consultation.
Consultation responses
In September, we submitted evidence to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s review into the National Planning Policy Framework. We convened with our Advisory Panel Member, Julia Thrift from the TCPA to align messaging and our key points were:
- Committing to public health as a priority within the planning system
- Enabling built environments where children are encouraged to play to support tackle childhood obesity
- Reiterating our policy calls in our Routes to Roots manifesto, creating more walkable places
- Including children and young people’s voices in the planning process
You can read our response in full here.
We have also submitted evidence to the Play Commission’s consultation ‘Reimagining children’s play’ at the end of October, this will be published on our website in due course.
Should anyone wish to collaborate on future calls for evidence, please contact us via communications@intelligenthealth.co.uk
We will continue to provide relevant political updates throughout the year, if you have not done so already, please sign up to our Partner Newsletter to receive quarterly policy round-ups directly to your inbox.
