About Belfast Healthy Cities

Belfast Healthy Cities is a partnership organisation committed to improving the health and wellbeing of people who live and work in Belfast.

Our goal is to shape and develop healthy public policy and practice that is delivered through partner organisations. We also aim to introduce new concepts and ways of working, through our participation in the WHO European Healthy Cities Network.
We work closely with decision makers in government Departments and the public sector as well as the voluntary and community sectors.

Belfast is a leading member of the World Health Organization (WHO) European Healthy Cities Network, which currently has 70 member cities across Europe. Our programmes are determined by the overarching themes and requirements for a WHO Healthy City, but are developed within a local context. The core areas of work in the current Phase IV (2003-2008) of the Network are:

• Healthy ageing
• Health impact assessment
• Healthy urban planning
• Active living/physical activity

Phase IV is supported by the Belfast Declaration.

The Healthy Cities approach to health and health development has become more and more recognised in the city as well as regionally. The committed and focused work of Belfast Healthy Cities in testing new approaches has provided legitimacy for new policy development and initiatives at community, city and government level.

The main role of Belfast Healthy Cities is to work with organisations to facilitate change, and develop tools, strategies and ways of working which demonstrate the benefits of the approach and which organisations can integrate into their own practice to improve the population’s health.

The Healthy Cities approach:

The Healthy Cities approach seeks to put health high on the political and social agenda and to build a strong movement for public health at the local level. Strong emphasis is given to equity, participatory governance, intersectoral collaboration and action to address the social determinants of health.

Healthy Cities is a dynamic approach and the Healthy Cities programme in Europe and in Belfast has evolved over five year phases, with each Phase giving special attention to priority themes.

Successful implementation of the Healthy Cities approach requires innovative action to address all aspects of health and living conditions and extensive networking across Europe and beyond. This implies:

This approach, promoted by Healthy Cities across Europe, has become increasingly recognised as central to improving public health. It was a key influence on Northern Ireland’s public health strategy Investing for Health, ( link to IfH) which aims to add years to life and reduce inequalities in health by addressing the wider determinants of health.

What is a Healthy City?

A healthy city is one that is continually creating and improving the physical and social environments and expanding the community resources that enable people to support each other, lead a healthy and active daily life and develop to their maximum potential.
A healthy city is one which gives health priority and aims to improve it. It does not need to have a particular health status, but it does need commitment to improving health and a structure for doing this. The Healthy Cities approach emphasises joined up, intersectoral planning and working to achieve improved health for all. It also stresses the importance of tackling inequalities and providing the same opportunities to all citizens.

Qualities of a Healthy City

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a healthy city ultimately as one which has a range of qualities or characteristics:

• a clean, safe physical environment of a high quality (including housing quality)
• an ecosystem that is stable now and sustainable in the long term
• a strong mutually supportive and non-exploitative community
• a high degree of participation in and control by the citizens over the decisions affecting their lives, health and well-being
• the meeting of basic needs (food, water, shelter, income, safety and work) for all the city's people
• access by the people to a wide variety of experiences and resources, with the chance for a wide variety of contact, interaction and communication
• a diverse, vital and innovative economy
• the encouragement of connectedness with the past, with the cultural and biological heritage of city dwellers and with other groups and individuals
• the encouragement of connectedness with the past, with the cultural and biological heritage of city dwellers and with other groups and individuals
• a form that is compatible with and enhances the preceding characteristics
• an optimum level of appropriate public health and sickness care services, accessible to all
• high health status (high levels of positive health and low levels of disease

History of Belfast Healthy Cities

Belfast Healthy Cities' approach emphasises partnership and intersectoral collaboration as key to health development and addressing inequalities in health. The city of Belfast was one of the first cities designated to the WHO European Healthy Cities Network in 1987 and Belfast Healthy Cities, established that year, was the first partnership organisation within the city.

One of our central roles is to continue to facilitate joint planning and working between organisations, within programmes as well as at a strategic level.

Phase I (1988- 1992)

During the early years, Belfast Healthy Cities focused on
· Increasing understanding of the definition of health across the city;
· Emphasising a community participation approach to health development.
· Raising an awareness of inequalities in health
· Developing intersectoral working groups to address issues raised through community participation

Some projects during Phase I were:

• Developing a Home Safety Check Scheme, which was taken over by Belfast City Council in 1990 and continues to operate
• Developing a policy on children’s play, which led to the adoption of a Statement on Play
• A Travellers’ Health project

Phase II (1993 – 1997)

The key goal of the second phase was to work towards developing a city health plan and consult on it widely in the city. Belfast Healthy Cities through a series of partnership groups produced a series of three documents as a basis for consultation, which together provided a picture of health in the city and people’s priorities:

• Towards a City Health Plan: People’s Views
• Towards a City Health Plan: a Discussion document
• Towards a City Health Plan: a statistical profile

In this phase a women’s health policy was also produced.

Phase III (1998-2002)

Phase III moved the European Healthy Cities movement towards a more strategic health development approach. It focused on developing an intersectoral city health development plan, which was intended to promote strategic planning for health across sectors at city level. In Belfast, this process culminated in the publication of the plan Planning for a Healthy City (to be link) in February 2002.

This plan outlined intersectoral, jointly agreed action plans on four themes identified as priorities from extensive consultation, using novel methods such as drama and music. The four themes covered were transport, environment, planning and housing; integrated information; lifelong learning and mental health and young people. The majority of actions were to be implemented as part of the corporate plan of partner agencies.

Planning for a Healthy City was developed using a new strategic planning group method. Strategic planning groups were intersectoral groups with members from organisations with a remit on each theme, and together developed and agreed actions over the period 2000-2001.

During this phase, the Healthy Cities approach received increasing recognition and became a more visible influence in policy, including the public health strategy Investing for Health.

Achieving Impact

Belfast Healthy Cities’ partnership has been at the forefront of establishing strategic partnerships for health development planning in Belfast. Health development remains at the heart of Healthy Cities’ work and provides a way to maintain and build on these partnerships. Above all, as a partnership, we have taken the WHO Healthy Cities’ goals seriously and worked consistently to achieve them locally by testing new ideas for comphrensive approaches to public health. We are recognised as one of the lead cities within the WHO European Healthy Cities Network.

The Healthy Cities pioneering approach can be seen in the regional interdepartmental public health strategy Investing for Health. It also laid the groundwork for the Health Action Zones and the Healthy Living Centres concept and it has been adopted by a wide range of programmes, initiatives and sectors across the city as the need for intersectoral working is recognised to deliver action that brings tangible benefits to addressing health and social issues.

One of our strengths is to continue to provide a platform which can be used to encourage all sectors to focus their work on health and quality of life.

Belfast Healthy Cities Structure

Belfast Healthy Cities is an independent partnership organisation within the city with a specific remit to deliver the priority themes of the WHO European Healthy Cities Network within the local context.

Our key partners and funders include Belfast City Council and the Eastern Health and Social Services Board. Other partners and funders include Northern Ireland Housing Executive, North and West Belfast HSS Trust and South and East Belfast HSS Trust.

2003 International Conference

The World Health Organization selected Belfast to host the 2003 International Healthy Cities Conference. This event attracted over 800 delegates from over 68 countries around the world. The conference is held every five years and marks the official culmination of each phase of the Network. Politicians from represented cities pledged their continued support in the Belfast Declaration, which underpins Phase IV. View Conference Website.

Governance

Formally, Belfast Healthy Cities is a Limited Company with charitable status. We are governed by a Board, elected at the Annual General Meeting which is representative of the public, university, voluntary and community sector.

Membership of Belfast Healthy Cities is open to anyone who signs up to the core values of the partnership and who are then accepted as members by the Board of Directors.

Board of Directors & Staff

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