Title Author Description Resources
20 years of the Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (WHIASU) and the evolution of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) in Wales Michael Fletcher, Kathryn Ashton, Laura Evans, Cheryl Williams, Abigail Malcolm, Catrin Lyddon, Lee Parry-Williams, Nerys Edmonds, Liz Green The 20th anniversary of WHIASU marks two decades of advancing HIA as a vital tool for healthier decision-making and reducing health inequalities in Wales. Established in 2004, WHIASU has led the way in enabling the integration of HIA into policy at local, regional and national levels. The timeline highlights key milestones, documents, and publications in WHIASU’s history and the practice of HIA in Wales. Looking ahead, WHIASU will continue to champion HIA and Health in All Policies (HiAP), supporting public bodies in implementing upcoming HIA regulations under the Public Health Act (Wales) Act 2017. View resource
Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and Local Development Plans (LDPs): A Toolkit for Practice Liz Green, Lee Parry-Williams, Edwin Huckle Please download Adobe Acrobat Reader before opening this resource in order for full functionality.

Public Health Wales has created a practical Health Impact Assessment (HIA) toolkit that will enable planers to easily integrate health into their development plans for the future. Designed to help further the collaboration between planning and public health sectors in Wales the resource aims to maximise positive health and wellbeing outcomes through land use planning policies that create healthy, equitable and cohesive communities.
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Health Impact Assessment (HIA) Overview (2020) Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (WHIASU) Provides an overview on a Health Impact Assessment (HIA). View resource
Health Impact Assessment (HIA): Frequently Asked Questions WHIASU have created this document which looks to answer your Health Impact Assessment (HIA) questions, including looking at the benefits, what it involves and when to carry out a HIA, alongside other questions. Alongside our other resources, it can help to further your understanding of HIA. View webpage
Health Impact Assessment A practical guide Chloe Chadderton, Eva Elliott, Liz Green, Julia Lester, Gareth Williams The Welsh HIA Guide is a comprehensive and practical toolkit for practitioners and those who may have an interest in using the process as part of their work. View resource
Health Impact Assessment workshop template / record sheet (2020 – Interactive) Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (WHIASU) To be used as an electronic form only. Used to identify and record the populations groups and Wider Determinants of Health and Well-being impacts. View resource
Mental Well-being Impact Assessment: A toolkit for well-being Cooke, A., Friedli, L., Coggins, T., Edmonds, N., Michaelson, J., O’Hara, K., Snowden, L., Stansfield, J., Steuer, N., Scott-Samuel, A. This MWIA toolkit for well-being provides an evidence based framework for improving well-being through commissioning processes, project and service design and delivery, community engagement and impact assessment. It enables people and organisations to assess and improve a policy, programme, service or project to ensure it has a maximum equitable impact on people’s mental well-being, and to identify ways to measure those impacts. View resource
Mental Wellbeing Checklist: A toolkit for wellbeing Anthea Cooke, Lynne Friedli, Tony Coggins, Nerys Edmonds, Juliet Michaelson, Kate O’Hara, Lynn Snowden, Jude Stansfield, Nicola Steuer, Alex Scott-Samuel This checklist provides a quick framework to help people consider mental well-being in more detail when commissioning, delivering or developing a policy, strategy, service or initiative. View resource
Planning and Enabling Healthy Environments: Case Studies Tom Johnson, Liz Green Public Health Wales have published a suite of documents that will help inform and enable healthier future environments including strategies to help stem the rise in obesity in Wales. View resource
Planning and Enabling Healthy Environments: Supplementary Planning Guidance Tom Johnson, Liz Green Public Health Wales have published a suite of documents that will help inform and enable healthier future environments including strategies to help stem the rise in obesity in Wales. View resource
Planning for Better Health and Wellbeing in Wales TCPA, WHIASU and Public Health Wales This Briefing was prompted by the duty placed on public bodies by the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 to contribute to achieving national well-being goals, and by the strengthening the planned planning system, again with a requirement to contribute to well-being goals, instituted by the Planning (Wales) Act 2015. These legislative changes provided a timely opportunity to develop practical guidance for both planning and public health practitioners and policy-makers, to help them take health and well-being considerations into account when drawing up local well-being plans and Local Development Plans and when making decisions on planning applications. View resource
Population Groups and Health and Wellbeing Determinants Checklist (2020) Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (WHIASU) This checklist is for use during a HIA Screening and Appraisal in order to identify the population groups who could be more impacted than others by a policy/project/proposal and to consider the potential impacts in the context of the wider determinants of health and well-being. View resource
Putting the Spotlight on Health, Well-being and Equity Using Health Impact Assessment: Case Studies from Public Bodies in Wales Mark Drane, Liz Green, Kathryn Ashton, Michael Fletcher, Sumina Azam This publication focuses on the use of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) by public bodies in Wales as a process that can support policymakers and those involved in decision taking to maximise well-being benefits, minimise harm to health, and avoid widening health inequalities. It also supports public bodies in meeting duties under the Public Health (Wales) Act (2017). View resource
Quality Assurance Review Framework for Health Impact Assessment (HIA) Liz Green, Lee Parry-Williams, Nerys Edmonds, With contribution from Steinthora Jonsdottir This Quality Assurance (QA) Review Framework is a critical appraisal tool for HIA. It sets out to ensure that HIA practice in Wales continues to reflect the important values, standards and approaches that have underpinned the development of HIA practice in the country to date. It has been developed as a suite of 3 separate documents. This first document outlines the methodology and provides guidance on how to use the QA review framework. View resource
Quality Assurance Review Framework for Health Impact Assessment (HIA) – Complete Liz Green, Lee Parry-Williams, Nerys Edmonds This document has combined the three separate QA documents (below) into one. View resource
Quality Assurance Review Framework for Health Impact Assessment (HIA) (2020 – Interactive) Liz Green, Lee Parry-Williams, Nerys Edmonds, With contribution from Steinthora Jonsdottir To be used as an electronic form only. This Quality Assurance Review Framework is a critical appraisal tool for HIA. It sets out to ensure that HIA practice in Wales continues to reflect the important values, standards and approaches that have underpinned the development of HIA practice in the country to date. The Framework has been written to support and guide individuals and organisations to undertake a quality assurance review of a Health Impact Assessment and has been designed as a standalone document. It aims to provide guidance for both commissioners and reviewers of HIAs. View resource
Quality Assurance Review Framework for HIA – Appendix 1 – Review Criteria Matrix Green L, Parry Williams L, Edmonds N Appendix 1 is the Review Criteria Matrix. This is presented in a tabulated format to aid recording of the review findings and provide feedback to the commissioners/authors of the HIA. View resource
Quality Assurance Review Framework for HIA – Appendix 2 – Explanatory Notes Green L, Parry Williams L, Edmonds N This document provides additional guidance to inform completion of key review criteria. View resource
Recreational Public Open Space SPG (Final) (Denbighshire County Council) This document is one of a series of Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) notes amplifying Denbighshire Local Development Plan 2006 –2021 (LDP) policies in a format which aims to guide the process, design and quality of new development. English available only. View resource
Sample Workshop Presentation Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (WHIASU) Relates to the LDP guidance View resource
Scoping Checklist WHIASU A tool for scoping a HIA View resource
Scoping template – determining the governance, process,objectives and focus for the HIA (2020 – Interactive) Wales Health Impact Assessment Unit (WHIASU) To be used as an electronic form only. Scoping determines the project management, governance, process, objectives, focus and scale of the assessment to be undertaken. It will identify a range of elements including the terms of reference, roles and responsibilities, stakeholder involvement, the scale/type of assessment and evidence required. View resource
Screening Record Sheet WHIASU A tool for Screening in HIA View resource