From a new project to a finalised certificate.
No onboarding call, no scoping, no waiting for a slot. You simply create a self-assessment for your project and start online. Here's exactly what happens and what you get.
The three stages
1. Assess
Work through the twelve considerations at your own pace, and see where the scheme stands as you go.
The free indicative preview, from a worked example. Select the image to enlarge it. 2. Finalise
Make your declaration, pay, and the outcome is recorded and locked.
3. Receive
Your Self-Assessment Certificate and full Project Pack, by email and in the app.
The certificate, from the same worked example. Select the image to enlarge it.
Step by step
Step 1 — Create your project.
Name the scheme, add the site address and the local planning authority. That takes a minute; everything else can follow later.
Step 2 — Work through the twelve considerations.
Each consideration opens with what the framework is looking for, then presents the framework’s own points — what good looks like, and what to avoid — as plain questions about your scheme. You answer Yes, Somewhat or No. Where an answer needs explaining, you add a comment. Your work saves automatically as you go, on any device, so you can stop and come back.
Step 3 — Attach your evidence.
Upload drawings and supporting documents against the considerations they relate to. An Ordnance Survey location plan is needed before you can finalise.
Step 4 — Check where you stand, free.
At any point the indicative preview shows your position for every consideration and overall — clearly marked as indicative, and free. This is usually where teams find something worth revisiting.
Step 5 — Finalise.
When you are satisfied the assessment reflects the scheme, you make your declaration, pay £450 + VAT, and the outcome is recorded and locked.
Step 6 — Receive your documents.
Your Building for a Healthy Life — Self-Assessment Certificate arrives by email and is available to download, together with a full Project Pack recording every answer, every comment and every uploaded document, consideration by consideration.
How the traffic lights are reached
Building for a Healthy Life is not a checklist and is not a scoring system. It sets out twelve considerations and asks for a green, amber or red judgement against each, reached with care and in context.
This tool does not produce a score, and it does not aggregate anything into a single number. What it does is apply one consistent, published rule to your answers so that a green, amber or red position follows the same way every time, for every user:
- Any No against a consideration takes that consideration to amber at best.
- Every point must be answered before an assessment can be finalised — there is no partial completion.
- A Somewhat, and a Yes against a point the framework flags as one to avoid, both require a written comment.
That rule is ours, not the framework’s. It exists so that two people assessing the same scheme reach the same result, and so that the reasoning behind an outcome is legible to anyone who reads the Project Pack. It is set out in full here, and reproduced on every certificate.
Then, if you want it: an Independent Design Review Panel Assessment from The Design Review Panel. See Panel assessments