The APPGHG was established to promote and facilitate communication and understanding between representatives of the world of gardening and horticulture and Members of both Houses of Parliament. In February, we were delighted to welcome Baroness Fookes, Lady Blower and Lord Rooker to our gardens in Battersea Park, London.
Thrive CEO Ben Thomas introduced Thrive and our overall purpose, why gardening is good for you and what makes it so unique. He acknowledged that the UK’s current health and social care systems do not always meet the needs of the most vulnerable and too often, dignity, agency, and personal choice are overlooked.
Knowing that care can be better, Ben Thomas advised the APPGHG:
Our deep bond with nature has been weakened, disconnecting people with ill-health and disabilities from a source of care that is essential to their health and wellbeing.
We want to reimagine and demonstrate holistic, person-centred care approaches and believe everyone can improve their health through gardening.
The day’s positive and helpful discussion supports our desire to get STH more widely recognised and utilised. The APPGHG were keen to understand:
- The routes into work within the horticulture sector and challenges faced by STH practitioners.
- The potential for vocational STH programmes and how they could be more widely used to support people into work.
- The Cross Government Green Social Prescribing Test and Learn Programme, its findings and the challenges and benefits of Social Prescribing.
- How STH services are funded and potential models that could be used to enable scale and spread.
- The impact of changes to Employers National Insurance payments on Thrive and other organisations like Thrive.
The promising day included a tour of the gardens and a meet and greet with the client gardeners, practitioners and volunteers.
