Section outline

  • This is the last workshop of the dissertation module – well done for making it this far! In this final week we introduce the key concepts of health policies, and how to analyse them.

    This week's activity begins with another video, 'What is a Policy?', where you are invited to reflect and discuss the difference between policies, laws and politics. We then proceed to the guided practice lecture, which talks about the importance of going beyond the mere analysis of policy documents, if they even exist, and look at how such policies were elaborated. We distinguish between ‘analysis of policies’ and ‘analysis for policies’, and introduce the policy triangle, a useful framework to inspire and guide your own analysis.

    For your weekly seminar activity you will be asked to analyse the UK Govt's initial policy to contain Covid-19. You will discuss its contents and explain, in the seminar/webinar, the context in which it took place, the actors behind it, and the process through which it was put in place.


    Learning outcomes

    By the end of the week, you will be able to:

    • Understand what health policies are, and their difference to law and politics;
    • Distinguish between retrospective and perspective health policy analysis;
    • Apply the policy triangle to analyse health policies for your own research

    • week 6 - lecture: INTRODUCTION

      Let’s start by asking ourselves what policies are. Watch the video to get started.

      What do you understand by 'policies'? Can you easily distinguish between ‘policy’, ‘politics’ and ‘law’? If you speak another language, how do the definitions of these terms differ from one another?

      Be prepared to share your own definition of the terms ‘policy’, ‘politics’ and ‘law’ in the seminar/webinar.


      Please watch now Giuliano’s presentation on health policy and health policy analysis. Pay specific attention to the policy triangle framework and its components.

      Video lecture


      Please complete now this formative quiz based on the video lecture on health policy:

      A. What is the difference between ‘analysis of policy’ and ‘analysis for policies’?

      • Analysis of policy is about researching the political environment.
      • Analysis for policies is used to design new policies.
      • Analysis for policies looks retrospectively at how policies were elaborated.

      B. What are the components of the policy triangle?

      • Context, content, actors, process, stakeholders and factors of policies.
      • Context, content, actors and process.
      • Prospective as well as retrospective analysis.
      C. In the policy triangle, what is the difference between ‘actors’ and ‘process’? Please select the correct example for these two concepts.

      • Actors are stakeholders, while process is how the policy was developed (e.g. the pharma industry and price reimbursement negotiations with the National Institute of Clinical Excellence). 
      • Actors are politicians, and process is how these have come to become  important (e.g. policy-makers and how they were selected by the party).
      • Actors are people who pretend to care about the policy, and process is how they manage to disguise their true intentions (e.g. members of the opposition and vote trading in parliament).

       

      week 6 - SEMINAR: introduction

      For this week’s seminar activity, we will analyse the UK public health response to Covid-19. Please read this BMJ editorial published in May 2020, and then this The Guardian's investigation on the inside story behind the coronavirus crisis.

      In the break-out groups:

      • Present the official UK Government policy: succinctly explain its contents – perhaps referring back to specific sections of the readings to back it up;
      • Analyse the policy: explain what its context was, who the actors supporting or opposing it were, and how it was approved / implemented;
      • Critically assess the policy: what do you think made this UK Government policy response successful (or unsuccessful)?

      Be prepared to post it in class or in Blackboard, read the work of your peers and comment on each other’s analysis.

       

      week 6 readings

      1. Buse, K., Mays, N. and Walt, G., 2005. Making Health Policy. Understanding Public Health. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
      2. Collins, T., 2005. ‘Health Policy Analysis: A Simple Tool for Policy Makers’. Public Health, 119(3), pp.192–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2004.03.006.
      3. Gilson, L., and Raphaely, N., 2008. ‘The Terrain of Health Policy Analysis in Low and Middle Income Countries: A Review of Published Literature 1994–2007’. Health Policy and Planning, 23(5), pp.294–307. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czn019 (Links to an external site.).
      4. Walt, G., and Gilson, L., 1994. ‘Reforming the Health Sector in Developing Countries: The Central Role of Policy Analysis’. Health Policy and Planning, 9(4), pp.353–70. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/9.4.353 (Links to an external site.).



    • Week 6 Health policy analysis - slides File
      Students must
      Mark as done

      These slides accompany week 6 video lecture

      5.6 MB
    • Links to external resources URL

      Use this link to take you to an external link with relevant information