Part 7: Learning
Strand 3: The Reality of a Whole Systems Approach
Video
Learning Objectives
After watching this section, you should be able to:
- Describe why continual learning from other areas is important to sustaining a whole systems approach journey
- Identify practical challenges around timing, stakeholder engagement, and resourcing and capacity
- Explain why evaluating a whole systems approach is an ongoing challenge
Key Points
- Continual learning from other areas and colleagues elsewhere is one of the most important ongoing practices for keeping up with evidence, approaches, and shared challenges
- Evidence and examples are needed to reduce perceived risk and help make the approach feel like a “must do” for partners
- Identifying missing stakeholders, working out who needs to be “around the table,” and finding ways to engage them are ongoing tasks
- Timing of engagement varies by sector — for example, local plans require long-term engagement from the start, while schools operate on a different (academic) calendar year than the council
- Public health is not always the expert, especially in newer areas such as the commercial determinants of health, requiring closer work with sectors that hold that expertise
- Resourcing and capacity matter — having a named, dedicated contact (even if not full-time) inside and outside the organisation is important
Further Reading
Add recommended readings or links for this segment.
Knowledge Check
Complete the questions below before moving on.
Which specific initiative is given in this section as an example of learning from how other areas have implemented a whole systems approach?
The correct answer is School Superzones, as implemented by colleagues in Portsmouth and London boroughs. This section describes continually learning from others as one of the most valuable parts of this work, and gives School Superzones, as implemented in Portsmouth and various London boroughs, as a specific example. The other initiatives are real public health programmes but are not the example given in this section.
- True
- False — the Sugar Smart campaign is not the example given in this section.
- False — the Better Care Fund is not the example given in this section.
- False — the Healthy Streets Programme is not the example given in this section.