LEARNING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
LEARNING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Informing health policy and practice
The purpose of the Demonstration Projects is to act as a learning and teaching resource for the rest of Scotland. Lessons learned about what works - and does not work - will help to inform national policy and practice. A multi-sectoral National Steering Group is overseeing the implementation and evaluation of Starting Well, Healthy Respect and Have a Heart Paisley so that their learning and teaching role is fully developed. A list of Steering Group members is included in the Appendix. The UK-wide National Screening Committee will consider the evaluation findings for Cancer Challenge.
One year into the programme, stakeholders are turning their attention increasingly to what individual Projects - and the Demonstration Project Programme as a whole - may offer others. A Stakeholders Workshop, held in November 2001, brought together a range of people involved in different ways with the Demonstration Projects to consider and establish shared expectations about what Have a Heart Paisley, Starting Well and Healthy Respect (individually and collectively) might demonstrate to inform health policy and practice in Scotland.
The implementation and findings of the Demonstration Projects will have relevance and implications for policy and practice relating to a good start in life, enhancing healthy respect and heart health. A brief flavour of Projects' 'demonstration aspects' has been provided in earlier sections. However, the Projects have much in common and it is also vital to capture shared learning on cross-cutting issues, such as:
Learning about projects: learning lessons about commissioning, setting-up and managing complex health projects, e.g. the skills needed and technical support required; aspirations and expectations; funding streams; and how projects are managed throughout their lives.
Developing and rolling-out effective large-scale prevention programmes: what are the critical factors, and combination of factors, for success?
Involving communities and being responsive to their needs
Partnership working: how to take forward effective partnerships; lessons about how and when to use (and not to use) partnership approaches.
Change management: how to introduce innovation, mobilise levers for change and overcome barriers; how to develop the health improvement roles of organisations.
Priority groups and health inequalities: how to access, involve and meet the needs of priority/hard-to-reach groups; also the broader issues of approaches to increase equity in health.
Achieving saturation/a high enough dose: lessons about securing consistency and intensity of message and approach - across professional groups, communities and geographical areas.
Sustainability: how to raise the profile of and drive social/health messages across partner agencies and build links at operational and strategic levels; influencing decision-making; mainstreaming; and securing systemic change.
Evaluating outcomes and lessons learned
Major independent evaluations of the National Health Demonstration Projects are underway to assess Projects' methodology, impact and outcomes and to identify implications for policy and practice. Cancer Challenge is being independently evaluated as part of the UK National Screening Programme. The University of Glasgow's Department of Public Health is leading the evaluation of Starting Well and Have a Heart Paisley. The University of Aberdeen is evaluating Healthy Respect. Projects' implementation teams are also responsible for ongoing monitoring and evaluation to track progress and help capture learning. The National Demonstration Project Steering Group is responsible for drawing together and distilling lessons learned.
Sharing learning: Scotland-wide Learning Networks
Our National Health: a plan for action, a plan for change (Scottish Executive, 2001) stated that a Scotland-wide Learning Network for the National Demonstration Projects would be established. The National Health Demonstration Projects Steering Group undertook to establish and drive the proposed Network and agreed plans in October 2001.
There will be three inter-related Networks, each led by senior figures in the relevant field and supported by a co-ordinator. The aim of the Networks will be to develop and share the evidence base for action in relation to heart health, sexual health of young people and child health (a good start in life) in order to develop stakeholders' ability to translate these policy priorities into practice and inform future developments across Scotland. Their functions will be to sift, collate, analyse and share existing evidence base, practice and experiences; to cultivate links with other relevant learning networks; and to identify implications for future practice and come forward with relevant strategies/plans.
The Networks will support:
the Demonstration Projects and other major practitioners in the field in each area (a practitioners' network)
networks of academics and those who are confronting issues of the evidence base
a network of managers or decision-makers who are in a position to implement evidence and good practice.
Demonstration Projects will be key nodes of the Networks. However, recognising that the Demonstration Projects are not the only work in progress on child health, heart health and sexual health of young people, the Networks will engage with and bring together a wider range of stakeholders.
The Scottish Executive Health Department has commissioned the Public Health Institute of Scotland to take forward plans. PHIS will launch the Networks in summer 2002.