Every planning application in Wales is considered in line with local and/or national planning policy. Public Health Wales (alongside health boards in Wales) is a consultee and is often asked by planners to assess risks of proposed developments and offer public health advice. This ensures that important health issues are taken into account during decision-making processes. Sometimes a Health Impact Assessment might be required; if so, then we work closely with the Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (WHIASU) to ensure a co-ordinated approach is taken to consider and assess wide-ranging health and wellbeing issues.
It is recognised that there is an increasing need for public health professionals to engage in the early planning stages of national and local policy and pre-application stages for major developments. We are working with our partners to increase ‘upstream’ engagement so that we take advantage of opportunities to embed public health as a core consideration in planning policy and practice. We have helped produced a guide for practitioners on integrating public health and planning.