For many people living in South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD), staying healthy can be difficult due to existing locational disadvantages. Reliance on cars, limited active transport options, exposure to urban heat and fewer leafy open spaces contribute to below average liveability scores.
Substantial population growth is projected to occur in SWSLHD over the next 20 years, driven by urban development in priority growth areas. The way this growth is managed will have a significant influence on the health of the SWSLHD community, with preventable conditions including obesity, diabetes, psychological distress, injuries, heat exhaustion all amenable to improvements through the built environment.
Addressing health problems through urban planning
The Healthy Places team was formed in 2017 as part of Population Health, in response to the health problems that could be addressed by influencing the local urban planning, placemaking and transport systems in south western Sydney.
SWSLHD is the first LHD in NSW to lead a program that is specifically focused on building the capability of built environment practitioners and policy makers. As a result, health outcomes are increasingly being factored into local urban planning and placemaking instruments, policies, and projects across the south western SYdney local government area. The program (as a whole) is delivered through:
- co-funded healthy urban planning and place-making partnerships with councils
- demonstration projects such as Healthy Streets (HS)
- applied research projects with the Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation
- strategic planning, advocacy and stakeholder management.
Collaboration with local council
Key stakeholders were consulted in the negotiation of Health in Planning Partnership memoranda of understandings (MOUs) with Wollondilly, Campbelltown and Liverpool councils. The team also worked closely with the Western Sydney Health Alliance (WSHA) in 2019, to facilitate a co-design workshop for determining priority action areas for the WSHA strategic plan that includes healthy urban planning and placemaking objectives for the Western Parkland Councils.
Healthy Places led the development of the first Healthy Environments Strategy 2022 – 2027 for the district in consultation with the Healthy Built Environment Strategic Coordination Group, later endorsed by the chief executive.
Successful training of built environment practitioners
The SWSLHD Healthy Environments Strategy 2022 -2027 includes a program logic with proxy measures for successful outcomes that are based on indicators such as the number of built environment stakeholders integrating health outcomes into planning, design and building instrument, allocation of transport works budgeting funds for safe walking and cycling options, and the number of local planning and policy controls that measure environmental sustainability outcomes relevant to human health. Through the Healthy Places team, results to date include:
- partnerships with four councils delivering outputs/outcomes against MOU objectives with a further MOU for a fifth council in the pipeline
- over 65 built environment practitioners completed the Healthy Streets course for accreditation (community of practice established)
- Healthy Places consulted on Australian revision of the Healthy Streets Design Check tools
- Healthy Streets demonstration projects implemented with four councils 2022-23.
Healthy Places has plans for further projects to implement the objectives in the SWSLHD Healthy Environments Strategy 2022 -2027. Lessons from the program have been shared with other LHDs who are interested in adopting aspects of the partnership model and receiving Healthy Streets training. The Healthy Streets approach has been adopted by Transport for NSW’s Movement & Place Framework,with an increasing number of transport consultants having now completed the training to meet Healthy Streets requirements in council’s tender specifications. The team is pursuing regional healthy urban planning partnership opportunities with state agencies.
