CONTEXT 183 : MARCH 2025 19 WELLBEING and HERITAGE has an opportunity to work closely with health and voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector (VCFSE) partners to ensure that the value of heritage and the historic environment is recognised. As we get better at this, it will be easy to see how planning decisions themselves, and related archaeological conditions, can be directly linked to preventative health/protective factors and targeted interventions to address local inequalities. Over the coming year at Historic England we will be producing, among other things, new guidance for social prescribing link workers to ensure that they see the benefits of heritage and understand how the historic environment can be a catalyst for transformation. We will provide further information (working with the sector on the powerful benefits of interventions aimed at mental health and loneliness) and producing advice, in partnership with the Museum of London and Greater London Archaeology Service, on embedding this into planning conditions in London. Alongside these practical steps we will also publish a revised Wellbeing and Heritage Strategy, and a review of wellbeing and heritage evidence to help us (and, we hope, help others) set strategic direction and research priorities for the next three years. Dancers from About Time Dance Company and girls from Carr Hill school at Kirkham Futures (Photo: Jenny Reeves, About Time Dance Company) Linda Monckton is head of wellbeing in the policy development department at Historic England. Desi Gradinarova is senior policy advisor for wellbeing and heritage at Historic England, and the national lead for the historic environment at the National Academy of Social Prescribing. References 1 Gradinarova, Desi (2022) Heritage and Social Prescribing, Historic England, Research Report 71/2022. ² Constitution of the World Health Organisation (adopted at the international Health Conference 1946 and entered into force in 1948). ³ Colwill, Thomas (2024) Heritage Capital and Wellbeing: examining the relationship between heritage density and life satisfaction, Historic England Research Report 18/2024. ⁴ Egorov, Andrey et al (eds) (2016) Urban Green Spaces and Health: a review of evidence, World Health Organisation (WHO/EURO:20163352-43111-60341). ⁵ Historic England (2023) Heritage Counts: heritage and society: ‘Historic places and healthy lifestyles’. ⁶ WWCfW (2018) ‘Parks for People: the role of historic public parks for wellbeing’, What Works Centre for Wellbeing. ⁷ Nolan, C. (2019) ‘Prehistoric Landscapes as a Source of Ontological Security for the Present Day’, Heritage and Society, Vol. 12, Issue 1. ⁸ Chalmers, Leigh, et al (2024) Project Rejuvenate: evaluating pilots for heritage and archaeology-led wellbeing programmes for young people, Historic England Research report 77/2024. ⁹ Pattison, Julie, et al (2023) ‘Volunteering on heritage at risk sites and wellbeing: a qualitative interview study’ in Health Expectations, Vol. 26, Issue 6, December 2023 (Open Access). 1⁰ Drysdale, L. (2018) Human Henge Evaluation Report, The Restoration Trust. 11 There are various examples here, but one heritage – and culturally-led one is the Well-City Project in Salisbury by Wessex Archaeology. Historic England funded the first heritage social prescriber in Great Yarmouth as a place-based health orientated pilot: Heritage Linkworker Project: final evaluation report; The Restoration Trust, February 2024, produced by Make an Impact CIC. 1² Clarke, Jessie (2024) Heritage and Loneliness, Historic England Research Report 84/2024. 1³ Sofaer, Joanna and Gallou, Eirini (2022) Places of Joy: the role of heritage during the COVID-19 pandemic, Historic England and the University of Southampton. 1⁴ NASP (2024) The economic impact of social prescribing on health service use and costs: examples of local evaluations in practice, National Academy of Social Prescribing, November. 1⁵ Collections such as those found in Historic England Research publications: Monckton, L. (ed) (2022) ‘Special issue on wellbeing and heritage’, Historic England Research, Issue 20, and research reviews such as Gradinarova, Desi (2022) Heritage and Social Prescribing, Historic England, Research Report 71/2022. 1⁶ Williamson, Toby and Cyhlarova, Eva (2024) ‘Kirkham Futures: Kirkham High Street Heritage Action Zone: final evaluation report of the heritage, health and wellbeing programme’ (Phoenix Rising), May. 1⁷ Fahy, K., Alexiou, A., Mason, K. et al (2023) ‘Inequalities in local government spending on cultural, environmental and planning services: a time-trend analysis in England, Scotland and Wales’, BMC Public Health 23. 1⁸ NASP (2024) Envisaging a Social Prescribing Fund in England, National Academy of Social Prescribing, December.
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