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< Back to '7th July 2021' briefing

July 6, 2021

Case proven

The perennial challenge facing those in charge of our public services is how to move ‘upstream’ and start funding the much more cost effective (community based) preventative measures which they know would ease pressures on the more expensive services that are needed at times of crisis.  There is a mass of evidence to support the argument and it just keeps coming. Latest addition comes from Glasgow Caledonian’s four year study of Scotland’s Men’s Sheds. The evidence of their impact on men’s health is so compelling that  you have to wonder why there isn’t a shed in every community in Scotland.

GCU Project Lead: Artur Steiner Project Team: Danielle Hutcheon, Artur Steiner, Simon Teasdale, Helen Mason 

Study by GCU – December 2017 – December 2021

The Sheds for Sustainable Development Project focuses on supporting Men’s Sheds in Scotland to be both financially and socially sustainable. Key components include: the collection and analysis of data pertaining to the development challenges that sheds may face; the co-creation of viable solutions to help sheds develop and sustain; and the evaluation of the potential health and wellbeing benefits associated with being a member of a shed, and taking part in shed activities. The project has two key aims: 

  • To identify the key development challenges facing sheds and, through action research, implement entrepreneurial changes enhancing the sustainability and viability of the sheds; 
  • To explore, using mixed methods, the health and wellbeing impacts of shed activities on their users and how sheds may contribute to a preventative spending approach to health and care.

Briefing Reports