Barriers and facilitators for implementing the Health Impact Assessment policy for Urban Planning Developments: A case study

This paper discusses the implementation of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Health Impact Assessment (HIA) Policy and presents the results of a process evaluation aimed to assess its implementation and gain understanding on the benefits and challenges brought by the HIA Policy. Following a case study approach, a process evaluation was undertaken comprising in-depth interviews with Public Health and Development Management and focus groups with consultants, who conducted HIAs. Submitted HIAs (64) were reviewed and analytically assessed against key criteria. The HIA implementation was internally evaluated as part of a capacity building programme. The evaluation showed that whilst there was a consensus on the importance of embedding health considerations in developments and that a good partnership had been developed between health and planning teams, several barriers to effective implementation existed. These included: lack of capacity to carry out the HIA among planners, lack of national policy levers and other mechanisms to integrate HIA into planning, lack of community engagement by developers and problems carrying out monitoring and evaluation. The evaluation underscored the need to strengthen the partnership between Health and Planning while improving the HIA process and better integrating health in planning policies at local, regional, and national levels.