Natural England

Natural England has launched its health campaign, the first of its four national campaigns to reconnect people with the natural environment.

Natural England's health campaign will encourage:

• More people to get more health benefit from regular contact with the natural environment wherever they live.
• Health professionals to make more use of the natural environment as part of the total health care they give to their patients.
• Professionals who manage public open spaces to improve the amount and quality of green space near where people live.

Natural England will do this by building a coalition of environmental, educational, scientific, health and community organisations to bring the environment to the forefront of the health agenda.

Helen Phillips, Natural England’s Chief Executive, said: "Prevention is better than cure, but up to 97 per cent of NHS spend goes on treating people after they have become ill. We are working with the NHS to plan ways in which the environment is used as a 'natural' health service that gets, and keeps, more people healthy."

Dr Fiona Adshead, the Government’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said: "I welcome Natural England's commitment to encourage and enable people to make use of the country's outdoor space for physical activity."

Dr William Bird, Natural England’s health adviser, added: "Increasing evidence suggests that both physical and mental health are improved through contact with nature. Yet people are having less contact with nature than at any other time in the past. This has to change!"

Natural England is working closely with the BBC and over 300 other partners to help deliver Breathing Places, a campaign to mobilise more than a million people, who are not currently active in the environment sector, to get involved at thousands of wildlife friendly green spaces across the country.

Liz Cleaver, Controller of Learning at the BBC stressed the importance of Natural England’s health campaign. She said: “These two campaigns now provide the public with the opportunity for people to get outside and to get actively involved with nature close to where they live. That’s great for wildlife – but it’s also fantastic for everyone’s health and well being."