Usher Connects series launches with focus on healthy homes and healthy kids

On 01 May 2025, 100+ delegates from over 50 organisations came together at the Usher Building for the launch of Usher Connects ‒ a new event series designed to spark collaboration across health and social care.

The inaugural event, Healthy Homes, Healthy Kids: Building evidence-based solutions with data, highlighted the critical ‒ yet often under-addressed ‒ role housing plays in children’s health. The session focused on cold, damp homes and the retrofit strategies that aim to improve them, exploring how these environments affect health outcomes and how data-driven, cross-sector solutions can drive meaningful policy change. 

Curated and led by Dr Olivia Swann, Senior Clinical Research Fellow and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Disease, and introduced by Julie Jacko, Usher’s Chief Academic Officer, the event featured expert speakers, lived experience accounts, and dynamic panel discussions. Attendees spanned academic, public, third, and policy sectors — bringing together a uniquely interdisciplinary audience.

Key themes from the day included:

• The urgent need for cross-sector collaboration in tackling housing-related health issues.
• Scotland’s housing crisis is a health crisis ‒ and children are among the hardest hit.
• Retrofitting must be approached with care to maintain good indoor air quality.
• New data linkages between health and housing provide fresh insights ‒ and must be used responsibly.
• Lived experience must remain central to research, design and policy.
• The Parent Group premiered their co-produced animation and powerful personal video stories.

Live illustration by Clare Mills of Listen Think Draw visually captured the day’s discussions ‒ adding a creative and engaging lens and making complex topics accessible to a broad audience. 

If you were unable to attend the event and would like a copy of the stakeholder report for the day, please contact olivia.swann@ed.ac.uk.

About the Homes, Heat and Healthy Kids Study

This event was grounded in the Homes, Heat and Healthy Kids Study ‒ a pioneering 5 year project funded by the Wellcome Trust, which is examining how poor housing conditions impact child health in Scotland. By linking healthcare and property-level data, the study will explore how cold, damp homes influence long-term health outcomes ‒ and how joined-up data can inform better decisions.

The study has lived experience at the heart of its approach and has been co-designed with a group of parents with experience of raising families in hard-to-heat homes from across Scotland (the Parent Group). In recognition of this, the project was recently awarded the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine’s Community Engagement Award.

Recognising lived experience through qualifications

To recognise the Parent Group’s significant contribution the project partnered with Media Education to support participants in gaining qualifications. Using their work on the animation and personal storytelling, the group have already achieved an SCQF Level 3 Access to Media award and are now progressing toward an SCQF Level 5 Community Leadership qualification.

Further information

Usher Connects | Usher Institute

Homes, Heat and Healthy Kids Study | Usher Institute

The Homes, Heat and Healthy Kids Study Parent Group co-designed animation | Usher Institute YouTube

Cold Homes Parent Advisory Group Presentation | Usher Institute YouTube

Olivia Swann | The University of Edinburgh

Listen Think Draw | Graphic recording and visual facilitation specialists in Scotland 

Media Education