Gaining health : analysis of policy development in European ...

tives and targets over the period 2006–2008 in relation
to social inclusion, pensions, health and long-term care.
• A National Development Plan (NDP) 2007–2013,
Transforming Ireland – a better quality of life for all, was
published in January 2007 and contains a specific chapter
on health and on social inclusion, unlike the previous
NDP where social inclusion was dealt with mainly as a
“horizontal principle”.
• Ireland’s National Action Plan for Social Inclusion
2006–2016 (NAPinclusion) was published in February
2007, expanding from an implementation and delivery
point of view on aspects of Towards 2016.
Health issues are addressed in all the above documents. For
example, Towards 2016 includes the following commitments
of specific relevance to NCD:
• developing a new strategic health promotion policy
addressing factors undermining the health of young
people;
• launching a national nutrition policy to address children’s
food poverty and obesity;
• developing a national database to monitor prevalence
trends in growth, overweight and obesity; and
• monitoring prevalence trends in smoking and substance
use through the National Health and Lifestyle Surveys
and the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and
other Drugs.
In common with Towards 2016 (6) and the National Development
Plan 2007–2013 (5), the National Action Plan for Social
Inclusion 2006–2016 (7) adopts the lifecycle framework,
placing the individual at the centre of policy development by
assessing the risks facing him/her and the support available
to address those risks at key stages in his or her life.
Of the 12 goals set out in the National Action Plan for Social
Inclusion 2006–2016 (7), two relate specifically to health,
one being particularly relevant to NCD.
• Develop 500 primary care teams by 2011, which will
improve access to services in the community with
particular emphasis on meeting the needs of holders of
medical cards (i.e. those on low incomes and those over
70 years of age)
Other significant health commitments in the National Action
Plan that are relevant to NCD include:
• development of specific community and sectoral initiatives
to encourage healthy eating and access to healthy
food, with a focus on people living in areas of disadvantage;
• monitoring of inequalities in cancer risks, cancer occurrence,
cancer services and cancer outcomes to maintain
a policy focus on cancer inequalities; and
• an ethnic identifier, to facilitate more evidence-based
planning through identification of needs, measurement
of uptake of services and evaluation of outcomes, to be
initiated from 2007.
An attempt was also made to learn from the NAPS consultation
process (42). A team of people with experience in
organizing participatory and consultation processes, coordinated
by the Institute of Public Health, was asked to plan
and oversee the consultation process. A National Checkback
Seminar was held in June 2001 so that those who had
participated in the consultation process could be brought
up to date on progress and influence the final decision-making
process. This proved successful in highlighting gaps and
issues not yet identified. Interestingly, participants identified
a problem of consultation fatigue/overload yet at the same
time wanted to participate. Feedback indicated that people
are not comfortable talking to a comment line and prefer
to have a person at the other end of the telephone, and
that web pages are not currently an effective mechanism for
seeking participation in consultation.
Chapter 4
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Case studies: policy development in countries for tackling noncommunicable diseases