healthscotland.com

HEN encourages multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working to address issues around the environment and health. It takes a broad definition of the environment and its influences on health. This page outlines its approach, remit, functions and membership.

Quick links on this page:

Scope
Approach
Organisation
Remit
Functions
Membership and reach

Scope

The healthy environment network recognises that health is the result of a complex interaction of a number of factors, including the physical, social and economic environments in which individuals live and work. The physical environment exerts its influence on health directly, indirectly and in association with other factors.

One of the underlying principles of the Network is the recognition of sustainability of the environment as a way of protecting the health of future generations and the need to take a long-term view.

back to top

Approach

HEN provides a forum for a largely informal interface between organisations and professions whose activities have the capacity to change and preserve the environment in the interests of human health. It encourages multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working to address issues around the environment and health.

It shows the value of this approach by supporting demonstration projects or conducting or commissioning analyses of problem issues which require collaboration between different agencies.

HEN offers an independent multi-disciplinary response to events, policy initiatives and directives that might influence the physical environment and thus health.

back to top

Organisation

HEN has been set up under the auspices of NHS Health Scotland, which provides administrative and facilitative support to the Network and its subgroups. Such support is accountable via the management structures of NHS Scotland. The Network and its subgroups recognise their responsibility to the public health community in Scotland.

back to top

Remit

HEN promotes understanding of environmental influences on health, and how these can be addressed. It aims to foster mutual understanding and shared purpose between organisations and professions through a series of seminars and workshops, using the insights gained to tackle problems directly.

It identifies, selects and prioritises areas which impact on health, and works on them by forming short life working groups with specific outcomes and endpoints.

back to top

Functions

HEN acts as a forum for the exchange of information between member organisations and professions and fulfils the following functions:

• it works to obtain wider recognition for the role that the environment plays in determining the health of the population, and develops practical strategies for improving health through the environment;
• it brings a broad perspective (that of the whole of the community whose work impinges on the environment) to issues affecting the health of the population.
• it develops and strengthens practice, by encouraging working across traditional boundaries;
• it works to improve education and communication about and within Public Health;
• it contributes to national policy developments by:

1. acting as a sounding board for cross-cutting issues on the environment and health,
2. facilitating the provision of advice on the environment and health,
3. facilitating the distribution of consultation documents;
4. it communicates scientific issues and comments on the relative risk of competing exposures;
5. it acts as advocates for research on the environment and health and identifying gaps in the knowledge or evidence base.

back to top

Membership and reach

The Network is inclusive, recognising the wide range of professions and organisations that have the capacity to influence the environment in this way. It draws on expertise within and beyond the Network to nurture the development of specialist subgroups, which will address challenges within specific aspects of the physical environment.

Please note that some organisations are represented by more than one Network member:

Caledonian University, Centre for Research on Indoor Climate & Health
Clackmannanshire Council, Development and Environmental Services
Community Woodlands Association
Consultants in Public Health Medicine, Communicable Diseases and Environmental Health Network
Cycling Scotland
East Dunbartonshire Community Health Partnership
Edinburgh City Council, Department of Environmental and Consumer Services
Food Standards Agency Scotland
Forestry Commission Scotland
Forward Scotland
Friends of the Earth, Scotland
Glasgow Centre for Population Health
Glasgow University, PEACH Unit
Greenspace Scotland
Health Impact Assessment Network
Health Protection Agency
Health Protection Scotland
Macaulay Land Use Research Institute
Medical Research Council Social and Public Health Sciences Unit
Napier University, School of Community Health
National Society for Clean Air and Environmental Protection
NFU Scotland
NHS Fife
NHS Greater Glasgow
NHS Health Scotland
NHS Lanarkshire
NHS Lothian
Public Health Infection Control Nurse Network
Reforesting Scotland
Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland
Royal Town Planning Institute
SAC Veterinary Services
Scotland and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research
Scottish Association for Public Transport
Scottish Consumer Council
Scottish Ecological Design Association
Scottish Environment Link
Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department
Scottish Executive Health Department
Scottish Microbiology Association
Scottish Natural Heritage
Scottish Water
Society of Chief Officers, Environmental Health
Sustainable Scotland Network
Sustrans Scotland
UHI Millennium Institute, Faculty of Health
University of Aberdeen, Centre for Advanced Studies in Nursing
University of Dundee, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
University of Edinburgh School of Social and Political Studies
University of Glasgow, Public Health and Health Policy Section
University of Strathclyde, Environmental Health
WWF Scotland

back to top