20-minute neighbourhoods and connected communities

• Written by: Irene Beautyman — — Place and Wellbeing Partnerships Lead, Public Health Scotland
• Published: 10th June 2022

Reflecting on the ALLIANCE and partners' report on 20-minute neighbourhoods, Irene reflects on the importance of connected communities.

Everyone called her gran Munro. Her yellow front door stood on the right of the ground floor hallway to our block with 11 homes. In the early 1970’s, my 7 year old self had no concept of her age. She was small but sturdy with tidy yet wispy white hair. What mattered to me was her door was never locked and we were always welcome.

For every child in our block arriving home from school to find mum still at work or simply bored when “out to play” she was our go to person. Teaching us dominoes when it rained, directing our tent building with blankets outside when the sun shone and ALWAYS supplying red and orange jelly set in old china tea cups. We loved her. As a child with no grandparents of my own around, I loved her more than any.

Each weekend her son would arrive in his car for her “Sunday drive”. She’d look proud as he used his special key to access the front of our block to pick her up. She was a regular in our homes to share a pot of tea and a rock cake. Her careful, considered walk meant she decreasingly left the immediately accessible area around our maisonette block. During that time, we were always willing to run to nearby shops for last minute groceries (a tea cup of jelly always awaited our return). Our mums would check in for more substantial items to pick up when doing their own shop. A shop they did on their way home from work using the bus from the top of our road.

Gran Munro’s ground floor flat was the only one bedroomed flat in our block with ten other 2 and 3 bedroomed family homes. What the grown up Urban Planner in me now calls a variety of housing size. The Council owned 9 blocks like this and in each they allocated the ground floor, accessible flat to a retired individual or couple. Every block of families the opportunity for their own gran Munro providing and benefitting from support.

It gave us our own little neighbourhood that supported mums to work part time. They knew someone was there to look after their child if there was a hiccup getting home. A trusted babysitter to give parents crucial time to themselves. It gave our gran Munro a community that valued her contribution and supported her daily needs.

Reading the Health and Social Care Alliance report on 20-minute neighbourhoods I fall back as much on my own childhood experience as my professional background as an urban planner. We need to focus on the ‘neighbourhood’ part of the term far more than the 20 minutes. Supporting everyone’s access to their neighbourhood is about so much more than how far an individual can walk, wheel or cycle. It includes enabling enhanced social connection that tackles isolation and loneliness and provides a network of support systems. This requires us to deliver an inter-related set of circumstances not just in every place, but for every group in our wonderfully varied communities.

While each neighbourhood is unique, experience tells us the common features every place needs to enable the aspirations behind a 20-minute neighbourhood. Many of them are listed in my reflections above, many more in the Alliance’s report. Scotland’s Place and Wellbeing Outcomes (this link will take you away from our website) give clarity and consistency to all sectors on what these features are. Enabling us to curtail time consuming debate and get on with taking action to deliver them. People are at the heart of the Place and Wellbeing Outcomes. People’s specific needs from their neighbourhood are central to how the Outcomes can be used by everyone to realise the ambition of 20-minute neighbourhoods. An ambition where everyone feels happy, healthy, safe, and included.

My ask for everyone that is part of realising this ambition is to review (this link will take you away from our website) the what, who and why of the Place and Wellbeing Outcomes. What they are, who prepared them, and why they did so. I ask that you look at how we are already using them in the Shaping Places for Wellbeing Programme (this link will take you away from our website). Then, I ask that you to think about how you can take action?

Our opportunity to develop the 20-minute neighbourhood ambition and make it truly transformational for everyone fills the Urban Planner in me with a passion to support action. It also makes my tear ducts prickle as I remember the privilege it was to grow up supported by a just such a place and, of course, gran Munro. Don’t we want everyone to have that sort of privilege?

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