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

The assessment of the consultation process for the NAPS
and health consultation process referred to above sets out
the following guidelines for consultation (47).
• Have a team of key stakeholders, with a designated coordinating
role, dedicated to the development, support
and reporting of the consultation.
• Be clear from the outset of the objectives, constraints
and desired outcomes.
• Base the consultation process on explicit principles.
• Be aware of barriers to participation and pre-empt
them as much as possible, e.g. by building the participative
capacity of people and organizations or providing
access to events for people with disabilities.
• Develop a range of approaches to elicit information
in different ways from different groups, such as the
multi-strand approach of the NAPS and health process.
Prompt questions are a means of guiding those who
are making submissions and of assisting the analysis of
submissions.
• Allow at least three months for people and groups to
participate and be aware of the timing of other consultation
exercises.
• Utilize creative methods of participation, such as art,
drama, photography, story-telling, role-playing and sharing
of personal experiences.
• Utilize local and regional structures, as appropriate.
• Provide resources for participation, particularly for those
who are the subject of the action and policy.
• Host a check-back seminar before deciding on the final
results and priorities.
• Use qualitative as well as quantitative methods to analyse
the information gathered. Utilize the quotations of
respondents when producing documentation.
• Circulate widely the outcomes of the consultation.
Over the last ten years, health has been among the top
three issues of interest to the Irish population and gets
good coverage in the media. Recently, issues concerning
Travellers and older people have been on the agenda.
4. Forces facilitating or obstructing disease
prevention and health promotion
Ireland has a considerable history of developing umbrella
and issue-specific policies, facilitating a continuous step-wise
process to improve methods and techniques. At the national
level, there is a strong body of public health experts able
and committed to taking the NCD agenda forward. Irish
professionals, services and organizations are heavily involved
in international health promotion activities, including the
main international and EU networks, ensuring acute awareness
of developments in tackling NCD. Health promotion
has been successfully included in efforts for closer collaboration
across the island, facilitating the sharing of resources.
In recent years, considerable progress has been made in
developing the knowledge base for NCD policy development.
The extensive use of quantified targets in health
policy development has highlighted the need for improved
data and indicators of progress.
The rapid growth of the economy has focused attention on
the need for a healthy workforce, facilitating increased funding
for health promotion.
Despite a highly trained health sector workforce, the provision
of health services was not considered as good as it
might be, owing partly to their uneven geographical distribution.
Together with more general administrative reforms
in the country, this brought a far-reaching transformation
of the health care system, including the establishment of
the new HSE. These changes have radical implications for
national/local collaboration in health policy implementation
and, during the necessary transitional period, might possibly
delay to some extent the implementation of health promo-
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Case studies: policy development in countries for tackling noncommunicable diseases