Natural Health Service Consortium is improving health and reducing demand on services

Group photo (L-R) LJMU Professor of Applied Sport and Exercise Science Greg Whyte, Chair of Nature Connected and the Innovation Agency Gideon Ben-Tovim OBE, LJMU Associate Dean Professor Keith George, LJMU Reader at the Physical Activity Exchange Dr Zoe Knowles, Director of The Mersey Forest Team Paul Nolan, Chair of the Cass Foundation Richard Cass, University of Exeter Medical School Senior Research Fellow Dr Ben Wheeler

Pioneering delivery partners gathered at Liverpool John Moores University to showcase the achievements of the Natural Health Service (NaHS) Consortium and offer practical resources for commissioners and practitioners to develop the service across the UK. The NaHS is working with Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Liverpool to create a long-term research programme, a Centre of Excellence for Natural Health Service Research, that is set to influence policy and support for health and wellbeing in green environments.

The NaHS is evidence based and uses academic research to develop programmes and track impact on the community. Academics from the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences (RISES), which is currently celebrating 20 years of cutting-edge research activity, showcased their approach, challenges and achievements, and provided practical resources for commissioners and practitioners to develop the Natural Health Service in their locality. Key findings included how NaHS can offer options for patients who are otherwise big users of NHS services. This can reduce pressure on NHS services, and enables GPs in particular to offer support to some patients for whom there are no other helpful options.

Paul Nolan, Director of The Mersey Forest Team who provide the core functions for the Natural Health Service, said: “The Mersey Forest Team have worked closely with LJMU for nearly 20 years. Over the past eight years we have developed a strong partnership focussed on education health projects. I think the relationship works really well. The Mersey Forest is a living laboratory, as we work with communities, create new woodland and plant new trees there are opportunities to test new ways of working and measure our impact. As a world leading university, LJMU provide us with expertise, robust data and excellent academic papers that not only provide the underpinning evidence base for our future work, but hopefully help to show that impact of LJMU research in society.”

Dr Zoe Knowles, who is based at the LJMU Physical Activity Exchange said: “Liverpool John Moores University, like the Community Forest Trust and The Mersey Forest, have a vision and mission to improve health and wellbeing. Together we have a shared focus on how the natural environment can play a role in achieving that. The Centre of Excellence has been formed around shared principles, values, models and governance and we are proud to be one of the founder members of this Centre providing skills and expertise to ensure robust evaluation of the Natural Health Service portfolio.”

LJMU Associate Dean Professor Keith George and LJMU Professor of Applied Sport and Exercise Science Greg Whyte, represented the Cardiovascular Health Sciences Research Group, explaining the ways in which the NaHS works with academic research to raise awareness that inactivity has the same cardiovascular risk as smoking, but we can make better use of free and natural spaces in our communities.