Getting Research Into Practice (GRIP2)

Project details

Full project title:  Getting Research Into Practice (GRIP2)

Duration: July 2019 - January 2021

Funder: Public Health England (PHE)

Project Leader for SPE: Dr Danielle Sinnett

Other UWE Bristol researchers:

• Dr Miriam Ricci
• Hannah Hickman
• Janet Ige
• Adam Sheppard
• Nick Croft
• Dr Laurence Carmichael
• Dr Paul Pilkington

Research partner/collaborator: Town and Country Planning Association  

Project summary

The Getting Research Into Practice 2 (GRIP2) project was commissioned by Public Health England (PHE) and delivered in collaboration with the Town and Country Planning Association. The project had two aims:

1. To facilitate the implementation of health evidence set out in key PHE publications by directly engaging with local and regional policy makers, and practitioners across place-making professions and communities.
2. To provide evidence-informed resources to assist local authorities in developing planning policies to improve health and wellbeing.

Following the publication of Spatial Planning for Health in 2017, PHE commissioned a further research project, Getting Research into Practice (GRIP). This sought to explore the use of the principles set out in Spatial Planning for Health, and the challenges of applying these in local planning policy and decision making. The findings informed the basis of this second phase of Getting Research into Practice (GRIP2).

Key outputs

1. A national guidance document: Getting Research into Practice: A resource for local authorities on planning healthier places.
   
   
2. Four detailed guides showing how to find and use health evidence to create specific planning resources:
   
   
   • Framework for a healthy places supplementary planning document (SPD) (PDF)
   • Developing a healthy planning principles framework (PDF)
   • Guide to creating a technical research paper on ageing well (PDF)
   • Guide to embedding health and wellbeing in neighbourhood plans (PDF)
     
     
3. A research report that presents the findings from the workshops.

Key findings

We found that across the four locations examined there is a genuine recognition of the ongoing need to develop places that improve health and wellbeing outcomes and reduce health inequalities.

The research report provides a series of recommendations, for example:

• Tailored local evidence with specific objectives and audiences in mind could be provided to allow planning policies and decisions to be made more effectively and robustly.
• All stakeholders could develop a shared understanding of the role of planning in improving population health and reducing health inequalities.
• Make best use of public health evidence, including that generated by communities, to help planners use their powers more effectively.
• Ensure that health inequalities, and their relationship with the built environment, are well understood and explained in planning policies.
• Support the creation of an effective evidence base which can be applied within a planning context, including through monitoring and evaluation of planning policies.

The resources provided above provide detailed guidance towards achieving some of these recommendations and are a valuable resource for planning and public health teams.

Project contact

For further information on the project, please contact Dr Danielle Sinnett.