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New CSH Nature Recovery Rangers to boost NHS green spaces

We’re very pleased to announce a new expansion of our Nature Recovery Rangers programme this spring. The project will see CSH partner with nine NHS trusts across England to transform green spaces at healthcare sites. The Healthy by Nature project aims to boost both wellbeing and local biodiversity through ranger-led landscaping and nature-based activities.

Generously funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, this project follows a successful pilot programme that has already demonstrated the important relationship between nature and healthcare. The project will place dedicated Nature Recovery Rangers at nine NHS trusts, taking in 39 sites throughout England. It is estimated the project has the potential to benefit more than 86,000 community members by connecting them with natural environments at NHS facilities.

“Our pilot project showed that bringing nature and healthcare together creates remarkable benefits for everyone involved,” explained Liz Rees, Green Space for Health Director at the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare. “Over 90% of pilot participants reported improved wellbeing and agreed that the programme made their area a better place to live.”

CSH’s Green Space for Health team, who also manage the NHS Forest project that has planted more than 133,000 trees across hundreds of NHS sites, will lead the project. Their expertise in developing healthcare green space will be instrumental in the programme’s success.

The expanded programme focuses on delivering community-led green space activities specifically designed to address local needs. These activities will be particularly valuable for hospital patients, staff and frequent visitors who might otherwise have limited opportunities to experience nature. The initiative prioritises accessibility and inclusion, ensuring that everyone can benefit from these green spaces regardless of their physical abilities or healthcare needs.

Key features of the Healthy by Nature project include nature-based activities designed with accessibility and inclusion at their core, specialist support for participants with additional needs and a strategic focus on areas with currently limited access to green space. The programme will also create opportunities for social prescribing, allowing healthcare professionals to refer patients to nature-based activities as part of their treatment plans.

The innovative project also aligns with the NHS’s commitment to tackling climate change and improving biodiversity, demonstrating how healthcare settings can lead by example in community-based environmental action. By transforming hospital grounds into thriving ecosystems, the project creates multiple benefits: improving patient recovery environments and potentially cutting recovery time, supporting staff wellbeing, enhancing community spaces to support preventative healthcare and contributing to local biodiversity goals and ecosystem services.

The Healthy by Nature project will begin activities in June 2025, with each participating site announcing its own programme of events. Sites will join in two cohorts, with NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust (in collaboration with Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust), and Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust starting in 2025. Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust/King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, and Tameside Glossop and Stockport Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust will follow in 2026.

The project plans to recruit its first cohort of rangers very soon. For more information about Healthy by Nature or to get involved with this new initiative, visit nhsforest.org or contact info@nhsforest.org.