Centralising health in national spatial planning frameworks: insights from Ireland

ABSTRACT

This article examines attempts to embed health within national spatial planning, drawing on a case study of Ireland. We chart how national planning frameworks have shifted from a focus on spatial coordination of health-care provision towards a Health-in-All-Policies approach to centralise healthy places within Ireland’s recent National Planning Framework.

KEYWORDS:

• Spatial planning
• healthy places
• policy integration

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge that this work was supported by the Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) and the Health Service Executive (Ireland): Project Code: 2015-HW-MS-6. We also wish to thank the three anonymous referees and the editor for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) and Health Services Executive (Ireland): [Grant Number 2015-HW-MS-6].

Notes on contributors

Mark Scott

Mark Scott is Professor of Planning at University College Dublin.

Mick Lennon

Mick Lennon is Lecturer in Planning & Environmental Policy at University College Dublin.

Owen Douglas

Owen Douglas is a Research Fellow in Planning at University College Dublin.