Rapid Health Impact Assessment BRAND Project – Rhyl
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Rapid Health Impact Assessment BRAND Project – Rhyl Denbighshire County Council March 2010 Acknowledgements Thank you to all the stakeholders and facilitators who gave their time to attend and contribute to the participatory stakeholder workshop. ii Contents 1.0 Introduction 4 1.1 Health Impact Assessment 4 1.2 The BRAND Project 5 1.3 Policy Context 7 1.4 Community Profile 8 1.5 Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit 9 2.0 Methodology 10 2.1 Why a ‘Rapid’ HIA? 10 2.2 Participatory Stakeholder Workshop 10 2.2.1 The workshop 10 2.2.2 Participants 10 2.2.3 Format of the day 10 2.3 Producing the Report 11 3.0 The Rapid Health Impact Assessment 11 3.1 Identifying potentially affected groups 11 3.2 Impacts upon health of the local population 12 3.3 Summary of impacts 13 3.4 Key Issues 19 3.5 Summary of Recommendations 19 4.0 Conclusion 20 5.0 Next Steps 20 REFERENCES 21 APPENDICES 22 iii 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Health Impact Assessment Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a process which supports organisations to assess the potential consequences of their decisions on people’s health and well-being. The Welsh Assembly Government is committed to developing its use as a key part of its strategy to improve health and reduce inequalities (Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit, 2009; Secretary of State for Wales, 1998) Health impact assessment provides a systematic yet flexible and practical framework that can be used to consider the wider effects of local and national policies or initiatives and how they, in turn, may affect people’s health. Health impact assessment works best when it involves people and organisations who can contribute different kinds of relevant knowledge and insight. The information is then used to build in measures to maximise opportunities for health and to minimise any risks. It also provides a way of addressing the inequalities in health that continue to persist in Wales. The systematic approach uses the wider or social determinants of health (Figure 1) as a framework for appraisal and leads to realistic recommendations. The Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (WHIASU) was established to support the process in Wales and provide advice and guidance for those who wish to undertake HIA’s. Figure 1: Wider determinants of health (Source: Dalgren and Whitehead, 1991) 4 1.2 The BRAND Project BRAND is a three year project 75% funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the EU's Ireland-Wales 2007 - 2013 Interreg IVA programme. This programme is an EU community initiative that aims to strengthen economic and social cohesion by promoting international and cross-border co-operation. The partners are: Denbighshire County Council, Wales Isle of Anglesey County Council, Wales Kildare County Council, Ireland Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Ireland. The Lead Partner is Denbighshire County Council. The project came about as the towns of Rhyl, Holyhead, Athy, and Dún Laoghaire have undergone physical/capital scheme regeneration works, but have difficulties with the way in which they are perceived by 4 different sectors: Residents Businesses The tourism & hospitality sector External opinion formers This affects community regeneration adversely. The aim of BRAND is therefore: • To develop and test a method of place re-branding re-engaging communities. • To create a toolkit of the methodology developed and make this available to other areas as a template for community regeneration. Activities include: • Carrying out a brand audit, including an exercise of ‘raking’ both the strengths and image contamination factors in each of the 4 towns. • Delivering brand action plans and changing perceptions from negative to positive. To do this needs community engagement helped by a place-branding expert. The following groups will be created:- • Joint steering group to manage project risk • A local stakeholder group in each of the 4 towns to engage a variety of stakeholders • Joint stakeholders' forum to engage 4 local stakeholder groups • Project officer team to manage and deliver the project The integrated management structure is: - 1 project support officer in each town 5 - 1 overall project coordinator - 1 project assistant. In the partnership each of the 4 local authorities will lead on one programme within the project, as follows: • Denbighshire CC: Monitoring and Evaluation of the project to safeguard against project drift and ensuring project targets are met. • Anglesey CC: Ambassador Programme which is envisaged as e.g. workshops for local groups to assist them becoming positive voices for their area. • Kildare CC: Toolkit which charts the project and the creation of the methodology in a way which is user friendly to those outside the project. • Dún Laoghaire - Rathdown CC: Virtual branding which is envisaged as exploring new ways to chart the project progress and engage with the stakeholder groups including the youth sector using IT. Audience/target groups • Project partners • Residents • Businesses • The tourism & hospitality sector • External opinion formers. Goals/objectives The project has the specific aim of producing a methodology by which communities can be engaged with re-branding their towns. A successful methodology will be constructed (Toolkit), which charts the exercise of town re-branding for each of the four towns, boosting competition, image and community well being. The 4 objectives are:- 1. Identifying and developing the brand of each town This is a major objective of the project, as the concept of identity is fundamental in developing a positive image of a place. Identity is critical, as it brings general cohesion and unity to a cause within a community. 2. Establishing a sustainable cross-border model for urban re-branding (development of a methodology/ toolkit) This will be developed through a coherent methodology, including a forum to allow stakeholders to be engaged. The project intends to cover 4 areas of intervention: residents, businesses, the tourism & hospitality sector and opinion formers. It is crucial to ensure that the cross-border element of the project is kept strong and that the end model is one that is equally complementary to all four towns. 6 3. Developing a community understanding of the need for sustainable development It is crucial to engage with internal stakeholders, as they are ambassadors of the towns, and will be integral in portraying a positive image to external stakeholders. 4. Devising new research and consultation processes Although brand repositioning has been undertaken for cities it has not been explored before in this way for the benefit of communities in partnership in the Ireland-Wales cross border area. The project will seek an external advisor who will assist in providing a common methodology underpinning the project. The results will form a Toolkit which will be used for dissemination purposes. It is hoped this objective will give a model of best practice that can be used by other communities. All four towns share elements of poor/limited self image, misconceived external reputation and have a shared need to improve community well being. The method is built around improving the reputation of the areas thus unifying all stakeholders and improving sustainability. Also, this project seeks to improve the ability of the four communities to create more positive opportunities and develop ‘ambassador thinking’ in the community. A town with a positive self image will become a more sustainable place. Expectations / outputs The outputs of the project will be: Place branding activity and the joint toolkit/methodology. The results will be: Rhyl, Holyhead, Athy and Dun Laoghaire with new and positive place brands Each town to have completed a place branding programme One overall methodology of place branding 6 sub actions/links created between the towns (in areas of health & leisure, heritage and culture) The impact will be: Community revitalisation and increased and sustained socio- economic well-being in the four towns. 1.3 Policy Context Ireland-Wales Programme 2007-2013 (www.irelandwales.ie): The project is compliant to the overall objectives of the programme in that it contributes to the cross-border region’s greater competitiveness and social well-being, through attempting to develop an attractive image to external stakeholders, such as outside investors; and it brings general revitalisation to the economy, by stimulating growth, and contributes to social well-being by restoring a sense pride within internal stakeholders. In addition, the project is specifically compliant with Priority 2, Theme 2 of the Programme (the sustainable regeneration of communities). This is because the project has the aim to 7 ‘renew’ the image of communities, which is a strong element of sustainable regeneration; it is an attempt to regenerate both the internal and external images of communities. North Wales Coast 2016 Action Plan: This Welsh Assembly Government action plan designates part of the North Wales Coast as a Single Regeneration Area (SRA). Although it is not directly funded by the SRA the project in Rhyl is consistent with its aims, especially in the area of Community Cohesion (one of the 6 core themes of the SRA) which "encourages and supports the development of vibrant and self-confident communities" (Welsh Assembly Government, 2009) Denbighshire County Council: The project is consistent with DCC's "A Vision for Denbighshire 2025" 1.4 Community Profile At the time of the 2001 Census (Office of National Statistics), Rhyl had a population of 24,889. Rhyl has long been a popular tourist destination for people all over Wales and North West England. Rhyl is accessible by road, rail, and air via Liverpool Airport and sea via Holyhead. The area had declined dramatically by 1990, but has since improved due to a series of regeneration projects bringing in major investment. However the July 2008 publication of the updated Welsh Indices of Multiple Deprivation confirms that despite all regeneration efforts to date 3 of Rhyls’ 5 wards are within the 5 worst in Wales.