Policy, practice and engagement

1
Policy, practice and engagement

• Professor Ronan Lyons
• Centre for Health, Information Research and
  Evaluation (CHIRAL)

2
DECIPHer relevance to policy and practice

• Bid DECIPHer willmaximise impact on, and
  engagement with, policy and practice in the UK
  and beyond
• Research which engages needs to be
• Relevant
• Timely
• Findings capable of being implemented at the
  level of engagement

3
Levels of engagement

• Different levels require different approaches
• Government ministers
• National and local politicians
• Senior policy makers
• Practitioners
• Public

4
Engaging with Ministers

• Awareness of the acquired ADHD issue
• Massive in tray, need to do things, pressure from
  symbiotic relationship with press
• Bring solutions, not problems
• Single side of A4
• Advantages of piloting policy low cost multiple
  media opportunities links to extant policy,
  general and specific

5
Cabinet Office Magenta Book

• '...effective policy making must be a learning
  process which involves finding out from
  experience what works and what does not and
  making sure that others can learn from it too.
  This means that new policies must have evaluation
  of their effectiveness built into them from the
  start ...'

6
Engagement in research

• Particularly relevant to policy makers,
  practitioners and public
• Involve in all groups in aspects of research
• Direction (Advisory Groups)
• Design
• Delivery
• Dissemination
• Build capacity
• Two way secondments
• research ? policy/practice

7
Experience in policy relevant trials

• Advocacy in Action Study (DH PRP, DfT)
• National Exercise Referral Scheme (WAG)
• Free School Breakfast Initiative (WAG)
• Trial of hand washing education (NIHR- RFPB)

8
Advisory Groups PHIRN and SW England PPAG

• Welsh Assembly Government
• Government Office of SW
• Wales Centre for Health
• National Public Health Service
• SW Public Health Observatory
• Health Protection Agency
• Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
• Public Health Association

• Local authorities
• Primary Care Trusts
• Welsh Local Government Agency
• Children in Wales
• Wales Council for Voluntary Action
• Public Involvement Advisory Group
• Involving People
• Children and Young Peoples Research Network

9
Most levers to improve health are outside the
health service

• Education, employment, socio-economic status,
  design of the built environment, spatial plan,
  transport,.
• Joined up government requires research for policy
  appraisal and evaluation, e.g. health benefits
  of
• Improving educational achievement
• Housing insulation
• Urban designs supporting physical activity
  through walking and cycling
• Providing safe and exciting play areas for
  children
• .

10
Making research relevant and feasible

• Excellent research is nearly always
  internationally relevant
• A greater challenge is also to be nationally or
  locally relevant
• Embedding research studies within an anonymised
  e-data infra structure promotes local relevance
  and enhances feasibility
• Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL)
  System
• Anonymised individual level population data
• Anonymised household level population data
• Residential Anonymous Linking Fields (RALFs) A
  Novel Information Infrastructure to Study the
  Interaction between the Environment and
  Individuals Health. Journal of Public Health (in
  press).

11
SAIL data architecture supports widest variety of
research methodologies

• Many different research designs supported
• Data modelling and feasibility studies
• Individual level E-Cohorts identifying modifiable
  factors
• Evaluation of natural experiments
• Evaluation of nterventions at individual,
  household, small area or at multiple levels
• Multi-faceted interventions, combining individual
  and environmental change

12
DECIPHer will succeed with engagement

• History of successful engagement
• Wide variety of organisations, disciplines and
  individuals already involved
• Commitment to expanding engagement at all levels
  of research
• Information infrastructure which supports
  organisational engagement through demonstration
  of local relevance and ability to evaluate
  interventions at their level