Healthy Environments

Policy and Planning for Healthy Environments

There are numerous opportunities to influence policy and planning to promote healthy environments. These range from commenting on Federal and state-level discussion papers; providing feedback on council social and environmental plans; working in partnership with other government agencies such as Housing and Family and Community Services; working with communities to research and present on issues of importance to them, to advocating for recognition and action on structural issues such as food insecurity and for the preservation of agricultural land in the Sydney basin.

Fairfield Health Partnership

The Fairfield Health Partnership is a formal collaboration between Population Health-Health Promotion in South Western Sydney Local Health District and Fairfield City Council (FCC). Its goal is to undertake collaborative action which will improve the health and well-being of Fairfield's communities.

The Partnership provides a structure and opportunities for:

• Joint planning
• Development of collaborative initiatives
• Sharing of information
• Gathering and using data on health trends and emerging issues
• Adding value to existing initiatives.

Key outcomes have included:

• A jointly funded project officer
• Integration of health into FCC policies
• Improvements in infrastructure that create healthy environments
• Joint activities addressing priority health issues
• Increased capacity for FCC to attract funds to improve health.