Summative Assessment

S: Essay

Submission dates

S: Essay, 2500 words equivalent, 100% of total marks

Thursday 09 December 2022 23:45 MAIN SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Submission via Assessment Page on Blackboard (via Turnitin)

Critically analyse and evaluate a particular chosen public health policy in terms of how and why it was developed, its impact in terms of meeting the public health of the intended target population* and how your chosen policy can be improved to better help the population it targets (3,000 words) *Target population could be the whole population, specific communities or specific at risk groups

LO1. Judge how theories and models of policy development, implementation and evaluation can explain and inform the policy process.
LO2. Evaluate the development, implementation, and operation of specific policies, and the roles of individuals, groups and organisations in influencing their development. LO3. Critically analyse how a public health and a health in all policies approach can support the development of healthy public policies

Core

Your Notes

Introduction (suggested 100 words)
Briefly outline what policy and associated issues you are going to discuss in the essay.

Background (sources and evidence must be cited) (suggested 600 words)

•  Explain key concepts (definition) e.g. policy, policy process/cycle, policy analysis, policy evaluation, any

others [LO1, LO2, LO3]
Some of these could be discussed later e.g. evaluation could be discussed later when evaluation of the policy or its interventions is discussed

•  Discuss the importance of the public health topic and key (epidemiological) statistics on the public health topic [LO1]
•  The value of a healthy public policy/health in all policies approach in informing the policy process and thereby improving individual, family, community and population health and wellbeing [LO1 and LO2] Critically analyse and evaluate a particular chosen public health policy in terms of how and why it was developed, its impact in terms of meeting the public health of the intended target population* and how your chosen policy can be improved to better help the population it targets

Body of Essay/Main Section (sources and evidence must be cited) (suggested 1650 words) Describe briefly, then analyse and evaluate some or all of the following aspects:

•  History of policy in the topic area and how it has evolved over time and why it has evolved in the way that it has [LO1]
•  What social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors have influenced how the policy has been developed. Explain and analyse why these factors influence the policy in the way they did [LO2]
•  What are the policy vision, aim and objectives [LO1]
•  What population does it target and why [LO1]
•  The key elements of the policy, the key programmes and interventions, how does the policy think these programmes and interventions will improve population health [LO1]
• Judge how theories and models of policy development, implementation and evaluation can explain and inform the policy process.
•  Based on your wider reading of the literature, are the programmes and interventions included in the policy appropriate from a public health perspective. Are there any gaps in the policy [LO1, LO3]

Critically analyse and evaluate a particular chosen public health policy in terms of how and why it was developed, its impact in terms of meeting the public health of the intended target population* and how your chosen policy can be improved to better help the population it targets (3,000 words) *Target population could be the whole population, specific communities or specific at risk groups

LO1. Judge how theories and models of policy development, implementation and evaluation can explain and inform the policy process.
LO2. Evaluate the development, implementation, and operation of specific policies, and the roles of individuals, groups and organisations in influencing their development. LO3. Critically analyse how a public health and a health in all policies approach can support the development of healthy public policies

Core

Your Notes

What key stakeholders were involved in the policy process (developing, implementing and operating). Why they were involved. What influence did they have and why did they have the influence that they did. Think about the power/influence and importance/interest i.e. do a stakeholder mapping

o If you cannot find information on stakeholders, then discuss the stakeholders that are likely to have been involved, why they would have been involved, what their likely influence could have been and why (your reasons should be explained in detail). [LO1)]

•  Does the policy address health equity and inequalities issues. How does it do this. Why it does it do so in the way that it does. If no, then why does it not address equity and/or inequalities and what are the public health implications of this. [LO1, LO2, LO3]
•  How is the policy being implemented and put into operation. [LO1]

o OPTIONAL: Identify or develop a logic model of the policy and how policy objectives relate to, for example, policy actions, outputs, impacts and outcomes [LO2]

What do any existing evaluations tell us about the effectiveness of the policy: process, outputs/impacts and outcomes. [LO3]

o Was the policy evaluated i.e. is there an evaluation report, if so, what were its key findings and what were the reasons for the successes or failures of the policy.

o Is there any policy analysis research looking at the overall policy, if so what were the criticisms of the policy analysis research e.g. criticisms of the policy and how it could be improved from academics and researchers.

o Is there any epidemiological research evidence on the interventions inside the policy, if so, what were the overall findings of this intervention research e.g. systematic or other literature reviews, on randomised controlled trials or before and after cross-sectional studies, on the effectiveness of the interventions included in the policy.

If there is no evaluation information, what kinds of evaluation could be undertaken to evaluate the impact of the policy and what process, outputs, impacts and outcomes could be monitored [LO3] LO1. Judge how theories and models of policy development, implementation and evaluation can explain and inform the policy process.

Critically analyse and evaluate a particular chosen public health policy in terms of how and why it was developed, its impact in terms of meeting the public health of the intended target population* and how your chosen policy can be improved to better help the population it targets (3,000 words) *Target population could be the whole population, specific communities or specific at risk groups

LO1. Judge how theories and models of policy development, implementation and evaluation can explain and inform the policy process.
LO2. Evaluate the development, implementation, and operation of specific policies, and the roles of individuals, groups and organisations in influencing their development. LO3. Critically analyse how a public health and a health in all policies approach can support the development of healthy public policies

Core

Your Notes

Conclusion (suggested 150 words)
Wrap up your discussion with some thoughts about:

•  What you think are the ways that the policy could be modified to improve the effectiveness of the policy in achieving its stated vision, aim and objectives and in further improving population health and wellbeing. [LO1]
•  What based on your academic reading, do you judge to be the future trends in how the policy might change over time because of social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors and changes in the stakeholders and their power. [LO2]
•  What should policymakers do to better evaluate the policy in terms of its effectiveness in improving population health and wellbeing. [LO3] LO1. Judge how theories and models of policy development, implementation and evaluation can explain and inform the policy process. Judge how theories and models of policy development, implementation and evaluation can explain and inform the policy process.