Municipal Public Health Planning Framework - Part B

< back to contents | next page>

7. Checklists

Page content: 7.1 Checklist 1: Organisational checklist for embedding health promotion | Checklist 2: Ladder of Community participation | Checklist 3: Community consultation and participation | Checklist 4: Stakeholder matrix | Checklist 5: The collaborative processes | Checklist 6: Priority and ojbective setting | Checklist 7: Deciding on MPHP priorities | Checklist 8: Developing strategies for MPHP's | Checklist 9: Evaluation | Checklist 10: Suggested review process - evaluation

7.1 Checklist 1: Organisational checklist for embedding health promotion

Practitioners - does the agency have:

• Policies for health promotion? Describing priorities, processes, values, philosophies, professional codes of practice, quality improvement for health promotion.

• A multi-disciplinary internal health promotion committee or advisory group for decision making, sharing ideas, support?

• Suitably experienced and qualified health promotion staff? Is the mix of staff skills appropriate? Is health promotion experience valued? Is staff development for health promotion supported? Is health promotion knowledge supported, with subscriptions to relevant journals, newsletter, and professional associations?

• Opportunities for health promotion action? Is health promotion included in job descriptions? Is dedicated time available for health promotion work (planning, needs identification, collaboration)?

• Dedicated and innovative leadership for the coordination of health promotion?

• Reporting processes (planning, implementation and evaluation) and documentation of health promotion achievements? Is there recognition and incentives for staff to be involved in quality health promotion?

Management - does the agency have:

• Health promotion principles (empowerment, public participation, broader determinants of health, equity and justice, intersectoral collaboration) in the mission statement or organisational values?

• Structures that support consumer and community participation in decision making and project operations?

• Open short and long term planning processes that include health promotion? Are there dedicated finances for health promotion (an allocated minimum percentage of the overall budget)? If so, do the practitioners know how much and how decisions are made about its distribution? Does a three-year plan and vision for health promotion exist? How are priorities established?

• Suitably experienced and qualified management? Do they understand and value health promotion? Do they recognise and support the health promotion requirements of staff?

• Are staff members actively involved in planning their (and the organisation's) work, assessing progress towards their goals, and redesigning office practices? This enables employees to have more control and greater variety, which benefits health and improves productivity. Health promoting organisations are also workplaces and as such should provide staff with an environment (physical and mental) that is health promoting. Appropriate involvement in decision making and suitable rewards or recognition is likely to benefit employees' health at all levels of an organisation.

• Change is influenced with each of these mechanisms, and when several are activated simultaneously significant system changes are achievable. Which areas need to be addressed in your organisation?

Source: Infrastructure and Organisational Change for Health Promotion. M. Bensberg, 1999

Another useful reference is by Dalmau, T., & Dick, B. (1985). A diagnostic model for selecting interventions for community and organizational change. Kenmore, Australia: Dalmau & Associates.

top of page

7.2 Checklist 2: Ladder of community participation

Ladder of community participation. (Brager & Specht, cited in Who, 1999, p. 12.)

WHO Book 4 (272kb, pdf)

"Both Local Agenda 21 and Healthy Cities call for high degrees of community participation. The challenge for many people working in local authorities, health authorities and other agencies is to move up the ladder, finding new tools and techniques that promote active and genuine involvement and empowerment rather than settling for the more passive processes of providing information and consultation" (WHO, 1999, p. 11)

Where would you place your organisation on the ladder above? What would you need in order to move up the ladder?

See Section 3 (pp. 17-57) of Community participation in local health and sustainable development: A working document on approaches and techniques for an extremely comprehensive 'toolbox' of many community participation techniques and methods: http://www.who.dk/healthy-cities/Documentation/20010914_2

top of page

7.3 Checklist 3: Community consultation and participation

Ask the following questions:

• What are the aims of the consultation? Do you want to consult your communities primarily to seek confirmation of their needs as you see them?
  • OR Do you want to involve yourself in communities so that you can find out their issues and concerns and participate with them in addressing them?
• What information is to be conveyed?
• What information is being sought?
• How will this information be used in the planning process?
• How can participants be involved in decision making?
• How will participants be informed of outcomes and actions?
• Will follow-up contact be required?

top of page

7.4 Checklist 4: Stakeholder matrix

1. Identify the issue/s that you need to address.

2. For each issue, who are the stakeholders across the following domains?

• Built/Physical Environment

• Social/Cultural Environment

• Economic Environment

• Natural Environment

  When brainstorming the list of stakeholders, consider the following sectors (see Figure 7):

• Commonwealth Government

• State Government

• Regional organisations

• Local Government (consider stakeholders in all divisions across Council)

• Private sector

• Non- government bodies, community leaders and Representatives

• Potential users

3. What is the major interest of each stakeholder?

4. What is their power base - from where do stakeholders derive their power?

5. On what or whom is each stakeholder dependent - for resources, information, influence and so on?

6. What is each stakeholder's potential for conflicts with other stakeholders?

7. Is each stakeholder a potential ally or adversary, or neutral?

8. Is each stakeholder:

• A key player (KP)?
• A participant (P)?
• To be advised only (A)?
• A significant individual (SI)?

9. What type of involvement is to be offered to each stakeholder - are they to be informed, consulted, or involved? Insert into the matrix below the type of involvement to be offered to each stakeholder in the management of outcomes.

   top of page

7.5 Checklist 5: The collaborative processes

The collaborative process (Walker, 2000, adapted from Gray 1989:57)

Phase	Tasks to be achieved
Phase 1: Problem setting	Shared definition of the problem Shared commitment to collaborate Identification of stakeholders Establish legitimacy of the stakeholders Identify and establish the legitimacy of an appropriate convener Identification of resources required to support the collaboration
Phase 2: Reaching agreement	Establish the ground rules for the collaboration Agree on an agenda for the collaboration Organise sub-groups if required Jointly search for information that will inform understanding of the problem and potential solutions Explore options for solving problems Reach agreement on how the problems will be solved
Phase 3: Implementation	Dealing with the negotiators' constituencies Building external support for the problem solutions agreed Institutionalising of the agreements reached Monitoring the agreement and ensuring compliance

The collaboration process is seen to develop through three phases. Over time a successful process establishes a new set of institutional arrangements within the problem domain. There will be new understandings that are shared, new ways of working together, and new ways of working within organisations to achieve goals that are common to the participating organisations.

(Walker, 2000, citing Gray, 1989.)

top of page

7.6 Checklist 6: Priority and objective setting

Ask the following questions when making decisions:

• How should Council decide on the priorities for the MPHP? There are many ways and many models but it is essentially a decision based upon values.
• Who should you talk to?
• How much do you involve the community?
• How do these priorities relate to current state, and national health priorities?
• What are the funding and planning priorities of federal and state governments that have an influence on health?
• What are the limits and responsibilities of different organisations?
• What are other organisations in your municipality planning?
• What are their resources and priorities?

top of page

7.7 Checklist 7: Deciding on MPHP priorities

The following list is useful to assist in prioritising needs:

• Prevalence Is the problem widely experienced?
• Severity Is the problem debilitating, or does it cause minor inconvenience? What does it mean in terms of potential years of life lost, quality of life and health care costs?
• Selectivity Does it affect a group in the population in particular; say a group that is chronically disadvantaged and least able to cope without assistance?
• Amenability to intervention Is it known that interventions have succeeded with this problem?

from Hawe, P., Degeling, D., & Hall, J. (1990). Evaluating Health Promotion. Sydney: McLennan & Petty. (p. 28, citing Wilson and Wakefield).

Other factors to consider when deciding on priorities can include:

• What are your community's key strengths and capacities that can be built on?
• How can we best enhance sense of community?

top of page

7.8 Checklist 8: Developing strategies for MPHPs

The selection of strategies is based on comparing alternatives. Judgements should be made on agreed selection criteria:

• Acceptability to key decision-makers and stakeholders (this could also include funding bodies)
• Acceptance by the general public
• Technical feasibility
• Relevance to the issue
• Cost effectiveness
• Timing
• Client or user impact
• Long term impact
• Flexibility and adaptability
21 September, 2009s and activities.

The added advantage of setting criteria is that they can be used for future evaluation purposes.

top of page

7.9 Checklist 9: Evaluation

Commitment to evaluation and its use can be gained by following suggested steps:

• Taking time to explore the perceptions, past experiences and feelings that stakeholders bring to an evaluation.
• Developing a shared definition of program evaluation and what the process will involve.
• Helping primary users to see and value evaluation as a process for testing the reality of whether the program is doing what they think it is doing.
• Taking primary intended users through a process of generating evaluation questions that are meaningful to them, by the evaluator asking for: "Things you would like to know that would make a difference to what you do."

top of page

7.10 Checklist 10: Suggested review process - evaluation

The review processes should involve stakeholders and planning team members with sessions being structured around the following:

• Overview of the plan.
• General discussion of the plan and reactions to it (SWOT analysis):
  • Strengths - what worked?
  • Weaknesses - what did not work?
  • Opportunities
  • Threats.
• Modifications that would improve on strengths and minimise or overcome weaknesses.
• Agreement on the next steps to complete the plan.

In many ways, the review process provides for reflection on the planning process and an opportunity to anticipate upcoming events and issues.

< back to contents | next page>