Our neighbourhoods and communities can be designed and shaped so that they promote and protect health. Healthy places and healthy communities help create healthy people. However, this does not happen by default.
The places where we live are affected by local and national plans and policies. Health in All Policies is about shaping plans and policies to ensure that the health impacts on our communities are considered in decision making. This approach is about working together to reach shared goals, boost health and wellbeing and prevent harmful health effects, especially for people most at risk.
The most common diseases in Aotearoa New Zealand are largely preventable. The biggest impact on our health over a lifetime is not from the healthcare services available to us. Our health is heavily influenced by the social, economic, and built environments we live in — often called the wider determinants of health. By tackling root causes and strengthening the wider determinants, we can make it easier for people to become and stay healthy.
Health in All Policies focuses on building strong partnerships and collaboration between health, local government, central government agencies, and iwi, hapū and communities to address the factors outside the health system that create disease. It works best when a combination of elements is in place:
National Public Health Service is exploring options and approaches with local government for working within a Health in All Policies framework. We have a strong focus on collaboration and having early input into policy development. Health in All Policies advisors aim to support environments that promote health in all of our communities, so we can all enjoy good health and wellbeing.
Health in All Policies is an internationally recognised and widely used approach that builds on a long history of collaborative approaches to build healthy public policy. It has been used across Aotearoa New Zealand but is most firmly established in Canterbury | Waitaha.
National Public Health Service's approach to Health in All Policies is guided by the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022, and the Government Policy Statement on Health which support working together across sectors to address the wider determinants of health.
Internationally, the concept of Health in All Policies has been refined in a series of internationally developed statements.
Adelaide Statement II on Health in All Policies – World Health Organization (external link)
Guides and frameworks are available to help make sure health and wellbeing are considered and addressed in plans and policies.
Growing health in all policies webinar series – Vimeo (external link)
Integrated recovery planning guide
Integrated planning guide for a healthy, resilient and sustainable future
Integrated Assessment (external link)
Pandemic supplement: Integrated planning guide for a healthy, sustainable and resilient future
Health in All Policies work in the National Public Health Service
Health in All Policies involvement in policy and plan development in Canterbury
Tools to support a health in all policies approach
Greater Christchurch Partnership (external link)
Waka Toa Ora (Healthy Christchurch) (external link)
Sustainable development goals – World Health Organization (external link)