NCS led a project that explored the development of a tool or set of tools that can quantify and value the health and well-being benefits related to the use of the NHS outdoor estate in Scotland. This included surveys and interviews of key personnel in NHS Scotland to inform an understanding of the taxonomy of uses associated with the NHS outdoor estate; the development of a conceptual logic chain of the relationships between natural capital, activities in greenspace, health and well-being benefits and their value; a targeted rapid literature review of the scientific and grey literature to reveal metrics of health and well-being benefits and the value from activities akin to those that occur on the NHS outdoor estate; and a consultation with academic health economists to discuss the appropriateness and robustness of the valuation methods identified in the review, and how NHS Scotland can best approach the valuation of these benefits across the estate and the data required.
The findings emphasised that there is no quick route to valuing the health and well-being benefits of the NHS outdoor estate in a robust way. There may be some quick wins using benefits transfer from other studies for specific organised health activities where there are known numbers of participants, or from very generic recreational activities in specific habitats (such as walking in woodland). Primary studies using surveys will be necessary to quantify and value health and well-being benefits across a range of NHS outdoor estate activities. The most efficient use of resources would be to prioritise certain activities or user groups and run different projects on pilot NHS Health Board sites. The learning can then be applied to other sites and be used in a future valuation toolkit in the medium to long term.