Community practice launch
Tuesday 14 October
Community practice launch
13.15 - 13.45
Community of Practice launch event: Embedding health in local authority decision-making
Sem Lee
Founder, Director, OURI Labs, United Kingdom
Sem Lee is an urban strategist and social entrepreneur with over 11 years’ experience managing sustainability, communications, and design projects. Sem founded OURI Labs in response to the pressing need to understand how to link public health and urban planning. OURI Labs is a health innovation research lab committed to shaping healthy and equitable cities that better serve communities and the planet. The practice specialises in participatory research, evaluation, and design, bridging urban planning policy and public health. Key organisations they have collaborated with include Health Innovation North East North Cumbria, Greater London Authority, University College London (Bartlett), and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.
Shaun Andrews
Director of UK planning strategy, Prior + Partners, United Kingdom
Shaun is a senior urban planner and Director of UK Planning at Prior + Partners. He draws on his extensive experience in both the private and public sectors, with Shaun’s expertise spanning the delivery of complex regeneration projects including new communities, formulating strategic planning documents, and crafting masterplans that shape the future of neighbourhoods and urban centres.
Shaun is passionate about championing built environment principles and practices that prioritise the creation of healthy communities and places. He is a co-author of ‘The Healthy City’ on behalf of Key Cities, which seeks to embrace the full potential of our urban landscapes to ‘create health’. A Planning Expert to the Government’s High Streets Task Force,
Shaun is also collaborating with the Quality of Life Foundation to advise the Local Government Association on a holistic resource for councils to understand and leverage their powers in promoting public health through planning.
Matthew Morgan
Co-founder, Director, Quality of Life Foundation, United Kingdom
Matthew Morgan is the Director and co-Founder of the Quality of Life Foundation. He is responsible for setting strategy with the Board of Trustees, overseeing the Foundation’s commercial services and delivering lasting impact with the Quality of Life team, itself focused on highlighting the impact of the built environment on people’s lived experience.
With over 20 years’ experience in writing and communications, Matthew has previously worked with architects, engineers and developers; in book and magazine publishing; and with charities and start-ups. He is a participant on a number of advisory boards and chairs a multi-stakeholder group that advises on community engagement as part of the UKRI-funded CCQOL (Community Consultation for Quality of Life) project.
A published author and mental health advocate, Matthew is particularly interested in how communities are formed and their effects on people’s physical, social and psychological wellbeing, an interest he developed while growing up in an intentional community in Kent.
Amber Nyoni
Strategic planning and public health lead, Essex County Council, UK
Amber Nyoni is a dedicated public health professional who champions equitable health outcomes for all. She holds a master's in population health from University College London, with a focus on health and wellbeing in the built environment, and an undergraduate degree in environmental and public health from Middlesex University. Amber is a registered public health practitioner with UKPHR.
Amber's professional journey has contributed to her passion for the intersection of health and the built environment. She has worked in roles supporting a health-in-all-policies approach across various disciplines, including town planning, which led to the development of the Essex Livewell Development Accreditation for Housebuilders.
Currently, as a strategic planning and public health lead at Essex County Council, Amber supports the integration of public health and town planning to address and embed the wider determinants of health into planning processes. Her role involves providing public health expertise on health impact assessments for strategic planning applications and building capabilities and capacity within Essex. Amber is also currently a member of the Urban Land Institute Health Leaders Network for Cohort 8.
Amber's commitment to creating healthy and sustainable communities has been a driving force in both her professional and academic pursuits.
Community of Practice launch event: Embedding health in local authority decision-making
Abstract Copy
The integration of health considerations into strategic planning remains fragmented across local authorities, despite growing recognition of planning’s role in addressing health inequalities. Following the Summer Forum 2025 on “Planning Health and Wellbeing in a Changing Landscape,” a critical need emerged for sustained collaboration between public health systems, planning practitioners and the private sector.Our presentation announces the formal launch of the Community of Practice for Public Health and Strategic Planning, developed by the Health and Wellbeing in Planning Network, OURI Labs, Prior & Partners, Quality of Life Foundation, and Optimal Cities.
Building on insights from the invite-only Summer Forum, which explored health impact assessments, skills adaptation, and policy implementation tools, the Community of Practice creates a structured platform for knowledge exchange, best practice sharing, and collaborative problem-solving across sectors.
The Community establishes regular engagement mechanisms between local authority practitioners and private-sector partners, facilitating the systematic embedding of health considerations in strategic planning processes.
This initiative represents a step towards institutionalising health-informed planning practice that is adaptable for all, creating sustainable networks that can drive the transition from reactive healthcare to proactive health creation through better placemaking, improved cross-sector collaboration and strategic planning decisions.
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