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.
Conference agenda
All times are local to the UK (British Summer Time/UTC+1)
09.45 – Join early to listen to the inner workings of a tree with the Deep Wood project.
10.00 – Conference opens
10.15 – Keynote speaker – Jinny Blom
11.00 – Session 1: The impact of green space on health, wellbeing and care amongst communities, staff, patients
- Gareth Howatson – Natural Health Service Co-ordinator, Mersey Forest
- Heather Jones – PhD, RN Nurse educator
- Dr Jordan Tsigarides – Senior Clinical Fellow in Rheumatology (Cambridge University Hospitals) and Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia
12.00 – Break
12.15 – Session 2: The impact on the ground and how to approach practical delivery
- Katie Storey – Assistant Sustainability Manager at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Robert Graham, Head of Bright Charity
- 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
- CSH Senior Nature Recovery Ranger, Lucy Kennedy and colleagues from Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust Graham White and Adam Jackson
13.15 – Lunch break
14.15 – Session 3: Making the case for green space and the value of sharing evidence
- Penny Marno – Senior Specialist (Health), Natural England
- Ian Stenton, Head of Estates Sustainability at NHS England
- 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
15.25 – NHS Forest Awards
16.00 – Close
Tickets are £5 or email info@nhsforest.org to request 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.
A recording will be made available to anyone who has booked a ticket the week following the conference.
Banner image photo: Simon Thurlow Photography