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Measuring progress
The State Public Health Plan includes the following priority –
‘building of basic mechanisms to support more sustainable
public health planning and action.’
These ‘basic mechanisms’ include the:
• development of consistent planning and reporting
processes
• development and refinement of comprehensive data sets
to inform planning
• continuous gathering and synthesising of research and
evidence on effective public health
• policies and interventions to inform state-wide and local
action, and;
• development of monitoring, evaluation and accountability
measures that are meaningful to the ongoing improvement
of the public health effort.
(SA Public Health Plan 2013 p6-7)
An important element of Council’s Plan is to ensure the
activities and desired outcomes can be monitored and
evaluated for their effectiveness ongoing.The SA Public Health
Act 2011 requires Council to provide a two-yearly report to
the Minister regarding the implementation and progress of
the Plan – so a system of internal reporting and evaluation
has been designed to ensure Council can meet its obligations,
and also to monitor the Plan’s progress and the achievement
of Council’s aims in playing its role in addressing the public
health challenges and opportunities, in partnership with our
community and key partners.
The SA State Government is working with Local Government
( in 2014/15) to develop and design a set of key ‘indicators’
( data sets) of health and wellbeing that will be used in the
review and evaluation of Public Health Plans, so as to ensure
best practice tools are used, and to enable consistency across
regions. In the interim, Council is developing a range of key
datasets (‘indicators’) to assist in the monitoring of the Plan’s
implementation and its effectiveness. The data will include key
population, risk, and health indicators that reflect the key issues
that have emerged from the research – these will be used to
monitor ongoing trends and emerging issues, so that Council’s
programs and resources can be focused accordingly.
The approach must align with Council’s corporate reporting
and administrative systems – but most importantly, ensure a
sound and meaningful evaluation framework is in place that
has the capacity to systematically capture relevant data (via
measurements or indicators) and genuinely monitor progress
in achieving the key aims of the Plan.
Entities which become ‘Public Health Partners’ under the
new Act, and which are nominated as the primary agent to
implement certain strategies or activities within Council’s
Public Health Plan, will be required to report to Council on
the implementation of their commitments – this will then be
included in Council’s reporting to the State Government.
Public Health Partner Authorities
The SA Public Health Act 2011 introduces a new and valuable
element to public health planning across levels of government
and with NGOs in each region - the concept of Public Health
Partner Authorities (PHPA). These can be State agencies,
NGOs, private sector entities, or other Councils – who can be
incorporated into Council Public Health Plans as lead agencies
in the implementation of actions or strategies, or as partners
in the delivery of programs. Each Partner Authority would
be required to report to Council on progress with actions
that it has committed to in the Public Health and Community
Wellbeing Plan.
The State Government (per SA Dept Health ) are also
developing PHPA agreements with key agencies, which can be
linked to individual Council Public Health Plans.
In preparing the Plan, Council has had discussions and a positive
commitment from Health SA, the Dept Planning Transport and
Infrastructure, the Environment Protection Authority, Dept of
Environment,Water and Natural Resources, the two Medicare
Locals in the region who manage Commonwealth funds and
programs in the Council area, and adjacent Councils with
whom Port Adelaide Enfield Council can collaborate in the
planning and delivery of services or research projects.
The Plan includes a range of commitments from these and
other agencies in the Council area to support or initiate
strategies and programs of benefit to the community.
9.0 Evaluation and Reporting