NatureMind 2025
We’re just back from the Nature Mind Conference in Burnley, hosted by the University of Central Lancashire and Mind Over Mountains. We always enjoy this event, this year’s focus was on green (and blue) social prescribing.
If you’re new to the term, green social prescribing connects people with nature-based activities to support health and wellbeing. It often involves healthcare professionals referring patients to community groups or sessions in natural settings, parks, woodlands, gardens, waterways.
On paper, it feels like a no-brainer: a low-cost, community-led way to boost wellbeing and help people reconnect with their local environment.
Of course, there’s always debate about whether time in nature should be medicalised at all, a fair question. But in a system where many public services have been quietly dismantled, green social prescribing is often one of the few remaining ways to facilitate access, especially for those who need it most.
As Dr William Bird put it in his keynote, the benefits of nature for health are no longer in question. We know it works. We’ve known about it for decades. But knowing isn’t the same as embedding, and much of the day circled around a central tension - How do we scale up without losing what makes these interventions meaningful, relational, and local?
Professor Chris Dayson echoed this in his evaluation findings. We need outcomes, yes but we also need to be honest about what’s getting in the way: fragmented funding, short-term pilots, and systems that still default to pathologising people, rather than supporting their flourishing.
As ever, the conference did a brilliant job of showcasing local projects, sharing real-world stories, and creating space for conversations. It was inspiring, but this year, the undercurrent of funding anxiety was harder to ignore. Too many projects are paused, shelved, or slowly winding down. Not because they failed, but because short-term funding cycles make long-term planning near impossible.
So once again, we left with a head full of ideas, and a reminder that incredible things are happening in small pockets across the UK. But without systems-level support, they stay as pockets.
We were proud to contribute, running workshops and joining discussions throughout the day. Andrew also took part in a roundtable on the role of play in adult wellbeing, a lively conversation sparked by growing recognition that play is not just for children. With calls to protect children’s right to play written into law, should we also be pushing for adults to be included in that conversation?
Huge thanks to Richard Whall, UCLan, and Mind Over Mountains for bringing it all together. As always, we came away feeling hopeful.
