Seven Pillars of Wellbeing: creating and sustaining healthy places through integrated planning and implementation.

Prof Peter Roberts AoU, vice chairman of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and former chair of the Town and Country Planning Association’s Reuniting Health with Planning Project, is set to speak at Congress on the principles of creating healthy places that offer a high level of wellbeing.

The seven principles (or pillars) that are outlined will be illustrated by reference to case studies of good practice. Reference will also be made to policies and systems of governance that are aimed at providing spatial and sectoral integration, such as the community planning approach pioneered in Scotland and now implemented in Northern Ireland.

The seven ‘pillars’ which provide the core of Prof Roberts’ talk are:

• Collaboration and co-operation across sectors and neighbourhoods
• Engagement and empowerment including formal partnership and citizen involvement
• The social dimension and determinants of health and wellbeing
• Economic regeneration and its relationship to health and wellbeing
• The importance of design, spatial arrangement and quality housing
• The need to consider places as a whole rather than ‘silo’ activities
• The role of integrated planning and place management in delivering health and wellbeing

Learn more about how the pillars impact on our towns and cities through case studies undertaken as part of the TCPA’s Reuniting Health with Planning Project, the Northern Ireland Building Successful Communities Programme and a range of other examples, including the European Union Health Partnership.