Forest Healthcare's St Anne's Care Centre Opens New Garden With Support From London Clean Air Initiative
03/26/2025, Borehamwood WD6 1EP // PRODIGY: Feature Story //
As part of community-wide efforts to improve air quality in London, St Anne's Care Centre, part of the Forest Healthcare group, has celebrated the opening of its new garden space, marking the event with residents, friends, family, care teams and community leaders.
The private, high-quality nursing centre, based in Islington, renovated its garden and patio spaces and added raised beds, green lawns, shaded spaces, and shrubbery. It successfully secured funding through Islington Council to improve the sensory and relaxation experience for residents and combat pollution levels in the city.
Evidence Highlighting the Benefits of Gardens in Residential Care Spaces
Nature, gardens, flowers, and wildlife are well-known to be valuable tools in the residential care sector, whether as a pathway to better health owing to fresh air and sunlight or as a space to relax—with the benefits of vitamin D, which is vital to supporting healthy teeth, bones, and muscles.
There are ample case studies that also show the importance of friendly, bright, welcoming and comfortable gardens within the routines of a care setting, where friends and family can visit and enjoy afternoon tea on the patio, garden parties and barbecues are hosted in the summer, and there is no sense of confinement for those who may need support with mobility.
Care homes often prioritise communal gardens, where residents who are mobile and enjoy gardening can do as much or as little as they would like. Pruning, tending to kitchen gardens, filling bird feeders, and picking planting schemes have been recognised as significantly beneficial therapies following studies by the University of Exeter Medical School.
This found that using gardens as a sensory space could encourage physical activity, promote relaxation, reduce stress and agitation, and even stimulate memories and cognition in dementia sufferers, given the link between sensory environments and memory.
St Anne's, a private nursing centre that offers 24/7 medical cover and nursing care, and commonly operates a waiting list due to demand, took the opportunity to inject fresh energy, colour and beauty into its garden for the benefit of all residents and visitors, while simultaneously contributing to the scheme to counter notoriously high pollution levels in central London.
The DEFRA-Funded Islington Clear Air Initiative
Islington Council worked in partnership with selected organisations and residential facilities in the borough as part of a pioneering scheme that seeks to make a marked impact on the effects of air pollution on public health, particularly for vulnerable older adults and care home residents with varied health and welfare needs.
Aiming over the long term to meet more ambitious air pollution targets published by the World Health Organisation in 2021, the council introduced an audit system and tailored guidance to help care homes transform their outdoor spaces, maximising the use of their grounds.
St Anne's, based on the tree-lined Durham Road, already offered several patio spaces and gardens but jumped at the opportunity, with funding assistance from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to revitalise urban care home gardens. They introduced new planting and greenery to reduce exposure to air pollution and optimise cleaner air, alongside integrating added-value community services such as AirText alerts that notify the centre when air pollution is high, and windows should remain closed.
Celebrating the Newly Transformed Gardens at St Anne's Care Centre
Amanda Scott, Chief Executive Officer of Forest Healthcare said, ' It was fantastic to welcome everybody to spend time in our revamped grounds and patios, and to listen to feedback from residents and families, alongside our dedicated care and nursing teams who were delighted with the colour schemes, textured sensory planting, and diverse spaces created for relaxation.
We purpose-designed the space to mimic the needs, requests, and wishes of our wonderful residents. It has shady reading spaces to keep cool in the summer and level lawns for accessibility, something we'll be very grateful to take advantage of during the warmer weather. The space also brings the centre community together for shared celebrations, occasions, and events.
As care professionals, we recognise the huge significance of air quality on the health of everyone, but especially children and older adults, and are proud to have played a small part in delivering a cleaner Islington for all as we work toward a more environmentally friendly future.'
St Anne's Care Centre is a private nursing residential care space based in Islington and focuses on delivering outstanding care and enhancing the quality of life of all residents. It is part of the Forest Healthcare group, which manages 13 specialist centres across London, Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
Forest Healthcare is an established care provider dedicated to consistently delivering an outstanding quality of life to the residents they serve. With a network of care centres across South-East England, Forest Healthcare specialises in catering to a wide range of care requirements, including; residential, nursing, dementia and specialist care. The organisation's mission is to provide a family feel to the exceptional care they deliver by valuing, respecting and caring for each and every person who lives and works at Forest Healthcare.
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