Community Health Partnerships (CHP) is supporting gardening and biodiversity projects across Bradford, helping transform outdoor spaces around CHP health centres into greener, more welcoming community spaces that promote health, wellbeing, and environmental sustainability.
At Westbourne Green Community Health Care Centre, in Manningham, a community garden project has been revitalised following site clearance, adding artwork, and planting activity during 2025. The site clearance was provided free of charge via Bradford
and Airedale Estates Partnership Ltd (LIFTCo) who own the building.
The garden, developed in partnership with local teams, supports social prescribing activity from local GP teams.
The garden project will have more volunteers on site from April, offering local people opportunities to connect with nature, improve wellbeing, and build social connections.
Alongside gardening projects, 24 bird boxes have been installed across several Bradford healthcare sites, including Westbourne Green Community Health Care Centre, Hillside Bridge Health Care Centre, Low Moor Medical Centre and Thornbury Medical Centre. Designed specifically for small native birds, such as blue tits and great tits, the boxes provide safe nesting spaces and help strengthen local biodiversity across the CHP estate.
CHP is also supporting the creation of a Staff welfare garden at Haworth Medical Practice, providing an outdoor space for rest and recovery. Two picnic benches have already been installed, supported by the CHP Green Fund with further improvements planned, including planters.
CHP’s modern, accessible healthcare buildings sit at the heart of local communities across Bradford, providing spaces that support both healthcare services and wider community benefits. Through gardening and biodiversity projects delivered across its sites, CHP is helping to create greener, more welcoming environments that support health, wellbeing and connection to nature.
Our community health sites are an important part of local neighbourhoods. By investing in greener outdoor spaces and supporting community gardens enhances wellbeing for patients, volunteers, and visitors. Installing 24 bird boxes across our Bradford sites is a small but significant step in supporting urban biodiversity. Enhancing green areas across our sites benefits local people and helps protect and encourage biodiversity.
CHP’s Buildings at the Heart of the Community Initiative
These projects form part of CHP’s wider commitment to placing buildings at the heart of the communities they serve. Through its Buildings at the Heart of the Community initiative, CHP enables local charities, community groups and health partners to make use of space within its healthcare buildings to deliver health and wellbeing activities. By opening up NHS buildings as community assets, CHP helps create accessible venues that support social prescribing, volunteering, and community-led initiatives.
Read more about Buildings at the Heart
Through its Green Fund 2025-26, CHP invests in local initiatives that enhance biodiversity, supports gardening projects to improve staff and patient wellbeing, and create more welcoming healthcare environments.
The Green Fund plays a really important role in helping us transform CHP sites into healthier, more resilient places. By investing in greener outdoor areas and supporting local biodiversity, we’re not only enhancing the wellbeing of patients, colleagues, and communities, CHP are also contributing to a more sustainable NHS estate for the future.
Gardening and green space projects have been shown to support both physical and mental health, encourage social connection, as well as improving the local environment, especially in areas with limited local outdoor green space. By working closely with tenants, NHS organisations, social prescribing teams, local volunteers and partners, CHP is helping to ensure that healthcare buildings play an active role in supporting healthier, greener communities.
The CHP Green Fund is a joint project between the CHP Sustainability and the Social Value teams.
Read: CHP Social Value Results 2024-2025: CHP generates £59m in social value (June 2025)
CHP's commitment to sustainability
Community Health Partnerships teams actively support biodiversity projects across its healthcare facilities. CHP has supported many gardening projects across our buildings, including raised beds, courtyard gardens, vegetable and fruit growing, and wildflower meadows. These initiatives not only enhance the environment but also foster community engagement and support social prescribing activities.
Operations and Relationship Managers are working with local organisations and tenants to enhance biodiversity and create sustainable environments that benefit patients, staff, volunteers, and the environment.
Contact the Sustainability Team at CHP
If you are a tenant, an ICS or Trust partner, and want to know more about how CHP can support your sustainability plans, please contact your local CHP Property and Operations team or our CHP Sustainability team.
If any tenants have questions about Sustainability at CHP or any other net zero projects please contact the Sustainability team via sustainability@communityhealthpartnerships.co.uk and copy in the ORM for your building.
Sustainability at CHP
As part of the NHS family, CHP supports the NHS ambition to deliver the world’s first net zero health system. Sustainable Facilities are one of our five strategic aims and Sustainability is one of our four corporate social responsibility pillars. Aligning with the NHS target of achieving Net Zero Carbon by 2040, the team at CHP are committed to achieve Net Zero Carbon for the LIFT estate by 2040 and 2030 for our corporate functions.
Recent Garden Projects at CHP Buildings
CHP Tenant Hub
The hub covers information for CHP tenants on health and safety, sustainability, facilities management including HardFM, and SoftFM, leases, charges and billing.
In addition there is information on bookable rooms and filming at our premises.
