Health Impact Assessment in Wales Welsh Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (WHIASU) Professor Gareth Williams (Director) Dr Eva Elliott (Project Manager) Chloe Chadderton (Research Associate) Liz Green (Development Worker) www.whiasu.wales.nhs.uk
Locating Wales
History of WHIASU HIA part of Assembly s wider strategy for sustainable health and well being and to address inequalities in health ( Better Health, Better Wales, 1998) Commissioned pilots to reflect on methods and use (eg Objective One, Home Energy Efficiency Scheme, Housing Renewal) Set up in 2001 as a 2 year project directly funded by WAG (staff: 1 fte): partnership between Department of Epidemiology, Statistics & Public Health and School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University From 2003 funded as rolling programme by WAG through the WCfH (staff: 2 fte)
Key roles of WHIASU To support the development and effective use of health impact assessment through building partnerships and collaborations with key statutory, voluntary, community and private organisations To provide direct information and advice to those who are in the process of conducting health impact assessments To conduct research and provide access to evidence in order to inform judgements about the potential impacts of policies, programmes and projects
HIA Officer Activity in Wales Capacity building within organizations and partnerships Support to organisations starting to institutionalise HIA Training and awareness raising sessions to relevant groups and organisations Local Authorities, Local Health Board s, local public health teams, voluntary and community groups Facilitation of rapid appraisals HIAs learning by doing approach Support for comprehensive ongoing HIA s eg Welsh Assembly Government Regional Waste Plan First Review Ad hoc advice and guidance Research and evaluation eg role of community engagement in HIA
Partnership building Partnership working is key to the development of HIA. WHIASU s partners inside Wales include: Welsh Assembly Government Wales Centre for Health Welsh Local Government Association (ie Route to Health Improvement) National Public Health Service for Wales (National and local) Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Communities First partnerships (WAG s Flagship regeneration initiative) National Voluntary Sector Organisations
Modes of health impact assessment Strategic: trans-national, national or regional governmental initiatives (eg. Wales Waste Strategy) Operational: regional, local or district governmental initiatives (eg demolition and house building or stock transfer programmes) Responsive: local, district or national initiatives, some involving protest against and resistance to political or commercial initiatives (eg Foot and Mouth, landfill waste tips, open-cast mining, roads, wind farms)
Levels of Health Impact Assessment Wise About Waste: Wales Waste Strategy Review (2007) Regional Waste Plan First Review (RWPFR) (2007) Health, Social Care and Wellbeing Strategies Community Hospital Reviews Local Authority Departments Planning, Education, Public Protection Community and Voluntary Initiatives
Achievements in Wales Launch of Welsh guidelines in 2004 Over 60 HIAs undertaken Building capacities of officers in LAs and partnership organizations Increasing awareness in some WAG policy areas Institutionalization of HIA Development of bi-lingual website based resource sustained increase of hits (78,172 for 2006 118,657 for 2007) International leadership: hosted HIA Conference, advice provided internationally
Sustaining HIA in Wales HIA is a mechanism to address wicked issues in health improvement and the social and economic determinants of inequalities HIA needs to built into the public health system in its broadest sense at national and local levels and harness the collective intelligence of its institutions and people. Needs to be supported by research and evaluation
Re-defining health impact assessment Health impact assessment is a process through which evidence (of different kinds), interests, values and meanings are brought into dialogue between relevant stakeholders (politicians, professionals and citizens) in order imaginatively to understand and anticipate the effects of change on health and health inequalities in a given population Gareth Williams, South East Asian and Oceania Regional Health Impact Assessment Conference, Sydney, Australia, November 2007