Policy cycle an appropriate tool for developing a new policy

Why is a policy cycle an appropriate tool for developing a new policy? Essay Assignment Paper

Questions ( 300 words approximately for each answer)

Why is a policy cycle an appropriate tool for developing a new policy? (your response must include referenced materials and do not use dot points).

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How is a health policy different to a government policy document? (your response must include referenced materials and do not use dot points).

How does the ‘new public health’ differ from the old public health approach? (your response must include referenced materials and do not use dot points).

What are key sociological issues and how do they determine a person’s state of health? (your response must include referenced materials and do not use dot points).

What policy considerations should be included in a national obesity health campaign? (your response must include referenced materials and do not use dot points).

1.2. What is Policy?

Policy, in the broadest sense, is something that has encompassed a set of specific issues, views, goals and ideas together and formed a plan of action based on this (Fleming & Parker, 2012). The aim of a policy is to solve potential problems through avoiding, preventing and even minimising these (Fleming & Parker, 2012). As Palmer and Short (2010) point out – policy can be a general set of intentions and directions or a specific statement. Time is represented by past, present and future directions and intentions (Palmer & Short, 2010). Public policy relates to government actions, laws and directives for a society or community including funding structures, regulatory control even cultural structure and societal morés.

Health policy specifically, is explained by Palmer and Short as a term that:

….embraces courses of action that affect the set of institutions, organisations, services and funding arrangements that we have called the healthcare system. It includes actions or intended actions by public, private and voluntary organisations that have an impact on health (2010, p.23).

1.3. The Policy Cycle

The definition of the term “policy” provides a broad statement that refers to a number of concepts that can vary from well defined objectives and processes to statements about organisational direction (Althaus, Bridgman & Davis, 2013). This unit involves an exploration of policy documents and courses of action that shape organisations, the provision of services and funding arrangements in the Australian Health Care system. Therefore, ‘health policy’ includes the actions that determine how health care is organised, how its services are delivered and the funding mechanisms that enable the process of delivery (Mason, Leavitt & Chaffee, 2012). It encompasses the role that private, public and non-government organisations play within the health care system.

Policy can be regarded as a set of ideals and activities aimed at decreasing inequalities or inequities by allocating and redistributing available resources. This process occurs at a local, state, national and international level.

Policy making has to contend with competing demands- allocation of resources, determination of priorities and competing values. It is a political process and takes account of:

availability of funds and funding mechanism
demography and epidemiology
workforce availability
electoral cycle and the government of day
media and community expectations
legislation

Policy development is not a linear process that neatly and predictably follows a sequence of steps. It can be ambiguous and layered and not a single, uniform, transferable process. Policy development occurs as a series of processes that are continuous and vigorous and that always respond to an act or event. Policy development is however described within a policy cycle (Althaus et al. 2013).

As such, the policy cycle should not be read as a staged and ordered process but an active and iterative process. The policy cycle model does, however, outline the key components required to develop policy (Althaus et al. 2013).

The policy cycle forms a framework to consider presenting problems, the formulation of proposals for dealing with these problems and the endorsement and introduction of these as the government’s stated health policy.

Althaus et al (2013) offer an Australian policy cycle model (see figure 1) with the following stages:

issue identification;
policy analysis;
policy instruments;
consultation;
coordination;
decision;
implementation; and
evaluation.