NHS Forest Conference 2026
Nature at the Heart of Sustainable Healthcare
This year the NHS Forest Conference will be examining evidence and experience of the impact green spaces have on healthcare sites. Making nature available to patients and staff has a positive impact, but sometimes healthcare teams can lack the hard evidence to take to policy makers and senior leaders to make change happen. Our speakers all have experience of how to make the case for nature and health and will be sharing their invaluable knowledge at this year’s conference.
The day will include three sessions alongside a keynote and the annual NHS Forest Awards:
- Impact on health, wellbeing and care – communities, staff, patients
- Impact on the ground – practical delivery
- Making the case – sharing evidence, investment and the future
We are very pleased to be welcoming Dr Radha Modgil back as the chair again this year.
Our keynote speaker will be Jinny Blom. Jinny trained and practised as a transpersonal psychologist and psychotherapist, working for many years in mental health. She is now an award-winning garden designer and Artist in Residence for Chelsea & Westminster Hospital.
Speakers include:
- Gareth Howatson – Natural Health Service Co-ordinator, Mersey Forest
- Dr Jordan Tsigarides – Senior Clinical Fellow in Rheumatology (Cambridge University Hospitals) and Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia
- Graham Pike – Lead Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) nurse and Deputy Director of IPC at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, as well as coordinator for the Infection Prevention Society sustainability group
- Isabela Souza – Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) consultant for the Healthy by Nature programme will be speaking with CSH Nature Recovery Ranger Dr Duika Burges Watson
- Ian Stenton, Head of Estates Sustainability at NHS England
- Heather Jones – PhD, RN Nurse educator
- Penny Marno – Senior Specialist (Health), Natural England
- Katie Storey – Assistant Sustainability Manager at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
- Robert Graham, Head of Bright Charity
- CSH Senior Nature Recovery Ranger, Lucy Kennedy and colleagues from Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust Graham White and Adam Jackson
Tickets are £5 or email info@nhsforest.org for a free ticket. Money raised from the tickets supports CSH’s Green Space for Health programme so please consider buying a ticket if you can.
Banner image photo: Simon Thurlow Photography