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Cranbrook worked to become a showcase development through an exciting national programme intended to put health at the heart of new communities.

East Devon District Council is proud to have led this bid, working with a team of partners. The programme attracted 114 applications in September 2015. The final ten including Cranbrook were chosen at an event in February 2016 judged by a national panel of experts.  

Cranbrook has an unusually young population with three times the England average of 0-4 year olds and a high proportion in the 25-39 age group. This offers ideal opportunities to explore innovative approaches to health and wellbeing.

The priority workstreams for Cranbrook’s activities for the first year of the programme in 16/17:

  1. creating opportunities for healthy schooling
  2. exploring new models of care
  3. encouraging physical activity
  4. creating imaginative health messaging
  5. influencing development of a healthy built environment

To achieve this we developed activities and explored new ideas. We worked closely with a wide range of partners to ensure that Cranbrook residents see real benefits from being part of this programme. Partners include Cranbrook's Town Council, schools, Devon County Council, the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, the South West Academic Health Science Network, technology companies and national experts from NHS England.

Some of the local projects supported and delivered to meet these priorities though the Healthy New Town programme throughout the first year include:

  1. Brain-in-Hand  app licences for the Cranbrook Education Campus
  2. Art & Drama therapist sessions in the Education Campus
  3. Sherborne Movement  sessions at St Martin’s primary school
  4. Healthy food awareness for invited families: "Cranbake" cooking together and eating together at classes delivered by Project Food (formerly HALFF) at the Education Campus
  5. Oral hygiene awareness training by Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise CIC for teachers to run brushing clubs initially for Reception children at the Education Campus
  6. Live digital radio broadcast by Sound Communities from the Education Campus for students to explore their understanding of health issues relevant to them and share their messages with school, families and community
  7. Contributing healthy messages for Cranbrook Education Campus “thought for the week”
  8. Safe online health information skills training using recommended sites, to community champions in Cranbrook’s Library
  9. Supporting mental wellbeing through purchase of Reading Agency's Reading Well Mood-Boosting and Books-on-Prescription book collections for the Education Campus  and Cranbrook Library
  10. Catering support for monthly Mocktail Bar - alcohol-free evening for residents run by teenagers, volunteers and partners
  11. Premier League Kicks  at the Education Campus on Saturday evenings
  12. Signage advising shared pavement-use by pedestrians and cyclists
  13. Review of evidence from academic literature for successful health messaging activities, to inform what might work well in Cranbrook's community.

Some of the substantial work progressing over the year 16/17 in addition to above projects includes:

  1. Planning activities and consultation work e.g. with Space Syntax to inform master plan and development management process
  2. Planning Cranbrook’s health and wellbeing centre
  3. Developing Cranbrook’s health and wellbeing strategy
  4. Many activities encouraging physical activity via other funding streams
  5. Linking with regional and national campaigns e.g. One Small Step, Better Health (formerly One You), Making Every Contact Count.

Key milestones achieved in the programme's first year:

March 2017: Funding from NHS England will continue for the second phase of Cranbrook’s healthy new town programme in 2017/18. Following direction from NHS England, the programme will concentrate on developing new care models. Therefore the lead role will move from East Devon District Council to Devon County Council

January 2017: Working with partners to finalise and submit delivery plan to NHS England for activities by the five priority workstreams from April 17

January 2017: Involving residents in a live Facebook Hour discussion, at the mocktail bar, and with a free healthy Saturday morning breakfast

December 2016: Presenting outline delivery plans to an expert panel in London and presenting progress update to Cranbrook Town Council

November 2016: Working with partners to identify a framework for delivering the programme, by thinking about resources / activities / outputs and outcomes

October 2016: Identifying ideas to progress priorities with stakeholders and partners at creative facilitation day at the Met Office

September - November 2016: Working with local planning team and national Healthy New Towns team to agree local support package for Cranbrook's built environment

July 16, September 16, November 16, December 16, January 17: Learning from and sharing with national team and other selected sites at networking events in London, Manchester, Darlington, Bicester, Cambridge

July 2016 onwards: Contributing to health infrastructure activities and potential research opportunities

July – August 2016: Deciding priorities at stock-take event and follow-up meetings with key partners

May – June 2016: Carrying out self-assessment process as base-line for national Healthy New Towns team

April 2016 onwards: Delivering awareness-raising presentations to various organisations

April – May 2016: Setting up governance arrangements and local Healthy New Town delivery team

March 2016: ten selected sites announced

February 2016: Pitching final-round bid to dragons’ den at King’s Fund event in London

December 2015 – August 2016: Providing support to the authors of Cranbrook’s health and wellbeing strategy and writing the strategy's executive summary

September 2015:  submitting first-round bid

July 2015 onwards: Preparing our bid and building our network of contacts interested in supporting the Healthy New Towns programme.  

NHS England announced the ten selected developments on 1st March 2016. NHS England work with the ten sites via a series of workshops. Find out more about the Healthy New Towns programme.

Cranbrook Healthy New Town programme, phase two and shared learning.