The Place Standard is a simple tool to structure a conversation about a place. It helps people to think about both the physical and social aspects of places, and the important relationship between them.
It has 14 themes, each with a main question and further prompts to support conversations, inform the assessment and identify issues for improvement.
This tool has been built using the Place Standard guidance on the Scottish Government website.
Why is place important?
Where we spend our time has an important effect on our lives and our wellbeing. Improving the quality of places and the opportunities we have access to can help to tackle inequalities.
Understanding what is good about a place now, and what could be better, can help us make good decisions and allow us to target resources where they are needed most. Global health challenges, including the climate emergency, mean it is more important than ever for us to think about how we can make our places more sustainable, for both people and the environment, now and for the future.
The Place Standard tool can support the design and delivery of successful places, creating good-quality places where people want to live. The 14 themes have been carefully chosen based on evidence about their combined influence on our health and wellbeing.
What is the purpose of the Place Standard tool?
The tool is a way of assessing places – whether the place is well-established, undergoing change, or is still being planned, the tool can help to identify the strengths of the place and where improvements may be needed. Research shows that the way a place functions, looks and feels can influence our health and wellbeing.
We can begin to understand this by asking:
- How does this place make me feel?
- What do I need to live my life?
- Can I access what I need locally?
- What makes this place good now?
- How could it be better in the future?
Local knowledge and a shared understanding of a place help people to make good decisions and target resources. The tool allows you to assess and re-assess a place in a consistent way over time to see if improvements have been made as well as to identify any new areas for improvement.
How to use the tool
The tool uses a 1 to 7 scoring system, where 1 means there is a lot of room for improvement and 7 means there is very little improvement needed.
Capture the scores and key points from each theme.
For each theme you should also record:
- What is good now?
- How could we make it better in the future?
There may be instances where the question does not seem relevant to you or where you feel you do not have enough information to answer. In these cases it may help if you think about the place from the point of view of others, or think about the area as part of a larger place.
Key principles for the assessment
Think about your place now and in the future – what could change and what impact would that have on your place?
Think about your place in different contexts, for example time of day, day of the week, seasons or weather conditions. Think about your place from your own perspective but also from the point of view of others that may be different to you, for example people that are disabled/nondisabled, hearing/ vision impaired, older/ younger.
- You DO need to answer all of the main questions for all themes – capture the score and key points.
- You DO NOT need to answer every ‘think about’ question – these are prompts that may or may not be appropriate in your place.
- You MAY want to think about other things that are not included but are important in your place and add your own questions.
