Healthy place shaping - latest news

E-Bike Loan Scheme Enables Underserved Communities to cycle more

OCC’s Healthy Place Shaping team has delivered a successful feasibility study to promote active travel through the use of electric bikes.  The Oxford E-Bike Loan Scheme, funded by the Department for Transport,  demonstrated considerable success in promoting active travel, improving health outcomes, and engaging communities traditionally underserved by cycling initiatives. 

The project enabled residents, including those with long-term health conditions and from ethnically diverse backgrounds, to access e-bikes, thereby increasing their mobility, reducing car usage, and contributing to better physical and mental health. Many participants reported positive experiences with the scheme, particularly in terms of increased fitness, convenience, and savings on travel costs.

However, key challenges emerged, particularly in the sustainability of long-term behaviour change. While many participants enjoyed using the e-bikes, a significant number did not continue cycling after their loan period, as there was no clear exit strategy to support ongoing access to e-bikes or alternative options like traditional bicycles. The project's impact was also constrained by logistical challenges, including the time and resources required to support participants and maintain the e-bikes, as well as issues with equipment care and theft.

E-bike loan scheme summary (docx format, 121 KB)

Publication of Project to Connect Teenage Girls with Nature

Nature connection through engagement with greenspaces plays an important role in promoting well-being. In England, certain groups, such as girls and young women from disadvantaged backgrounds, have limited access to high-quality greenspaces and face other barriers to engaging with nature. 

In 2022, a group consisting of twenty girls and young women (aged 10–16) from East Oxford not-for-profit organisations, academic institutions and public bodies came together to start an initiative called ‘Greenspace & Us’. The girls and young women participated in six three-hour workshops in February to March 2022. 

Using the COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behaviour) approach, we explored the enablers and barriers to girls and young women in Oxford engaging more with nature, which included: increasing equity of access, introducing meaningful co-production, taking safety concerns seriously, making nature normal; promoting the right to play; and increasing the ability to connect with greenspaces.

The outputs of this process were synthesised into the ‘Greenspace & Us Manifesto’, which was crafted collectively. Furthermore, these insights were used to design inclusive park furniture, which was later installed in a local park in East Oxford. 

OCC’s Greenspace and Us project has now been published in Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement.  Vol. 17 No. 1 (2024)  The article outlines the methods, outcomes as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the engagement, co-design and co-production approaches we used in Greenspace & Us. We hope the insights from our project will support more inclusive and equitable design of greenspaces for all.

New Data available to inform Climate Action 

Oxfordshire’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment now includes information and links on the local impact of climate change on health.

The data in the JSNA were used to produce the 2024 Director of Public Health’s Annual Report on climate change and health.  The report emphasised that climate action can have immediate, positive effects on an individual’s and a community’s health and called for every health policy and action to consider the impact on climate and for every climate action to consider the health implications.

Better Housing Better Health: Home Visits Key to Addressing Health in Housing

A recent study by the University of Salford, in collaboration with Oxfordshire County Council and the National Energy Foundation, evaluated the Better Housing Better Health service. This service provides energy advice and support to Oxfordshire residents.

The study, which involved interviews with both service recipients and stakeholders, highlights the crucial role home visits play in addressing the link between housing conditions and health.

Key findings:

• Addressing Complex Needs: The Better Housing Better Health program serves a vital function by tackling the various challenges faced by Oxfordshire residents. Energy inefficiency in homes can exacerbate health issues, and this service offers targeted support to improve living conditions.
• Value of Home Visits: The study emphasizes the importance of home visits. Advisors gain a deeper understanding of a household's specific situation by being present in the home. This personalized approach allows residents to feel valued, listened to, and better understood.
• Part of a Support Ecosystem: Better Housing Better Health complements the existing support network in Oxfordshire. It injects additional resources and, importantly, the expertise to visit residents and provide tailored solutions for their energy needs.
• Future Focus on Energy Challenges: The research suggests a growing need for support related to energy challenges faced by vulnerable individuals and families. While generalized advice is helpful, it has limitations. Future funding should address this growing need by supporting initiatives that directly improve homes and influence landlords, housing providers, and energy suppliers.

This study underscores the importance of tailored support in tackling the complex relationship between housing conditions and health. Home visits, as facilitated by Better Housing Better Health, offer a valuable approach to ensure residents feel valued and receive the specific assistance they need to thrive in healthy homes.

Park and Stride pilot shows how it can support active travel to school

An article published in the Journal of Transport and Health reports how OCC’s Park and Stride intervention encouraged primary school children to walk to school. The pilot showed that interactive wayfinding routes have potential to increase rates, and enhance enjoyment of, active school travel and active travel.  However, they are likely to be insufficient alone to create significant modal shift and may have greater impact if implemented alongside other interventions which encourage active travel. As a place-based intervention they may have additional benefits by encouraging activity along the routes outside of school travel.  For more information see the full article.

Review of community initiatives shows how they can address loneliness and develop social capital

A review of the research literature shows that engagement with community initiatives can provide a formalised route to help people develop connections and counteract limitations in their social networks. However, individuals may be wary about attending community initiatives, needing support and encouragement to do so. Social prescribing link workers are one means of motivating people to access groups, events or organisations that could improve their well-being. Further research is needed to better understand what aspects of community initiatives best support the development of social capital.

For more information see the full article.

Publication of two ‘how to’ guides to promote community growing

Just in time for the growing season, OCC’s healthy place shaping team and its partners have published two ‘how to guides’ to encourage communities to create local growing spaces.

The Edible Streets Guide produced by Oxford Brookes University and based on a pilot street in Barton, describes how communities can transform the space on the pavement outside your front door or the grass verge you pass every day on your way to work.  

These empty, unloved spaces can become thriving places where neighbourhoods come together to grow plants and food.  The Guide aims to provide tips and practical advice to help turn ideas for local growing projects in Oxfordshire into reality.

Advice on creating growing spaces at a larger scale is now available through a ‘Community Garden Playbook’ which public health commissioned Tila Rodriguez-Past, the Garden Officer of the Bridge Street Community Garden in Banbury, to produce.  

The guide captures the Garden's transformation across the seasons, hoping to inspire others to consider doing the same in their community. It talks you through examples and stories collected from the Garden, offering practical suggestions and tips as well as more thoughtful and creative perspectives to consider when starting your community garden journey.  

The Playbook will support the creation of two new community gardens in Blackbird Leys and Berinsfield which are being developed by the healthy place shaping team and the Community Action Group Network.

Transforming publicly accessible land into growing space can green the local environment, create opportunities to improve health and well-being, promote climate action and help build strong communities.

Planting up the edible street in Malford Road, Oxford