Accreditation level one: Foundation
Level one: Foundation of Nature Towns and Cities accreditation helps you set your vision, build cross-sector partnerships and think strategically about green infrastructure. There are three sections, each with supporting resources to help you. Find out about the suggested steps to take, expected deliverables and how to evidence your work.
Apply for accreditation level one: Foundation
Setting your vision
Bring partners and stakeholders together to create a clear, ambitious vision. Reflect on existing plans or visions that might be held by separate organisations and consider the big challenges and opportunities you want to address in the medium to long-term.
Expand the arrows to find out what evidence you need to submit for each section, and to learn about the top tips and resources available.
This needs to include:
- your ambition for the town or city
- the big challenges the place needs to address
- the opportunities and rationale for transformation
- the support of key sponsors, champions and leaders within your organisation and other key bodies
- how you have secured long-term, cross-party support for the vision.
This needs to include:
- which relevant people and groups from the community, businesses and partner organisations were involved
- the methods you used to engage with these groups, in particular children and young people
- how effective the engagement was
- how the insights gathered have fed into the vision.
- Identify potential supporters for green infrastructure politically and non-politically, internally and externally. Secure an official endorsement e.g. piece to camera or written commitment in support of the vision
- Think about how the big challenges in your place link to corporate priorities e.g. net zero, health and wellbeing, youth skills and employability, economic growth, active travel, climate resilience
- Consider how you will engage with people inclusively across the partnership e.g. through surveys, public meetings, online platforms, citizen panels. Our visioning guide has lots of suggestions too
- Include children and young people through schools and youth groups. Take a look at our guide to creating green spaces and places with young people for more ideas
- Review relevant public engagement outputs across different departments e.g. on climate, health, nature, travel
- Consider developing a theory of change with inputs, key activities and outputs to clearly articulate the change you wish to see and how you are going to achieve it
- Socialise the vision to get cross-party buy-in. This will be key to governance planning and can often happen as decision-making processes are agreed within the partnership
- Use Natural England’s principles for engaging people with nature. These principles cover targeting, understanding communities, co-design and co-development, evaluation and sustainability.
Building strong, cross-sector partnerships
Build on your partnerships and create new ones with a broad range of stakeholders, to help bring your shared vision to life. Reflect on how existing partners fit into the bigger picture, bring in new partners to enhance your capabilities and formalise how you will work together.
This will need to include details of:
- the scale at which they are working e.g. local, regional, national
- short summary of each partner’s role in bringing the vision to life
- which are formalised partnerships and how this works (include links to partnership agreements or Memorandum of Understanding where appropriate).
This will need to include details of:
- how the framework was co-designed
- the roles and responsibilities of each partner, including how you will all work together on town or city-wide challenges and opportunities
- governance across the partnership e.g. steering groups, boards
- the process for reviewing the partnership as it evolves.
- Take a look at our local authority guide to partnership working for people and nature
- Identify current and potential partners from across your place (health, travel, biodiversity, climate, natural heritage, transport, highways, community groups, police, universities, utilities companies, landowners, businesses)
- Find out what already exists in terms of community provision and activities and think about how you can support and enhance it
- Think about who you will work with to develop the vision – strategic partners, delivery partners, communities and the public, landowners/managers
- Think holistically about the benefits of the transformation e.g. health and wellbeing, active travel, physical activity and play, community empowerment, pride in place, culture, heritage, nature and biodiversity, climate adaptation and resilience
- Co-design a framework for partnership working and decision making – e.g. regular forums, a cross-sector steering group or board
- Formalise partnerships where appropriate or consider addendums to existing partnership agreements for Nature Towns and Cities
- Plan for the evolution of the partnership through ongoing review and how you could bring in new partners in the future
- Consider your approach to delivering with communities through co-stewardship models e.g. volunteering programmes, asset transfer, co-management of spaces.
Thinking strategically about green infrastructure
Create a plan that outlines how you will strategically develop and manage green and blue infrastructure to deliver environmental, social and economic benefits. Consider how it can improve quality of life for residents, and address challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss and public health.
This needs to include:
- analysis of data e.g. GI mapping, environmental equity mapping
- objectives and targets relating to the distinct challenges and opportunities of the town or city
- how Natural England’s GI Principles and Standards have been applied
- how the GI strategy has been co-designed with the partnership and communities
- links to existing relevant strategies and policies
- consideration for skills, training and development of staff and volunteers across the partnership to deliver the strategy
- consideration for how the strategy will be funded and governed.
This will need to include details of:
- how proposals have been developed from the strategy and how they were informed by the vision, community engagement and co-design with partners
- a high-level timeline of delivery
- a method of prioritisation
- who is responsible for each action.
This needs to include:
- your overall approach to measuring progress against your strategy
- desired outcomes and goals
- outcome indicators to measure progress towards the outcomes/goals.
- Use the guidance and tools available as part of Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework to pull together evidence across all three steps above
- Look at our tutorial video showing how to use the Framework’s Mapping Database
- Watch our video on how to use the Tree Equity Score UK tool to map the benefits of urban trees for people and nature in your place, and spot opportunities to improve
- Think about how GI could be integrated into existing strategies and policies.
Level two: Advanced
There are two levels to accreditation. Level two: Advanced signals readiness for investment, with projects lined up ready for funding and delivery.
To apply for Advanced level, all applicants must first become Advanced level accredited.
