Shifting the gravity of spending? Exploring methods for supporting public health commissioners in priority-setting to improve population health and address health inequalities
Dr. Christianne Ormston (Fuse)
11.45, Tuesday 9 July. The Clubhouse, level 4
Objectives
The project aims to recommend decision-making support methods, which are appropriate for determining priorities in public health commissioning within local authorities. It aims to identify which priority-setting methods local authority commissioners find useful for public health investment, assessing enablers and barriers to decision-making.
Background
There is increased urgency to demonstrate return on investment in relation to public health interventions and explore methods of decision-support for public health priority setting. The return of the responsibility for public health commissioning to local authorities means that priority setting will take place within new organisational and cultural settings, which presents new challenges. With local authority ring-fenced public health budgets confirmed, difficult decisions about investment, and particularly in a time of economic stringency, about disinvestment, will have to be made, not just within the ring-fenced public health budget but also across different departments of the local authority.
Methods
This two-year study is supporting public health priority-setting in three local authority case study sites across England, through bringing together specialist input from health economics and public health in a series of seminars and targeted decision-making support for public health commissioners. The relevance of prioritisation methods and their impact on spending patterns within and across programmes will be evaluated through a series of initial and follow up interviews with decision-makers in each site.
Findings
This paper will report on the interim findings from the initial prioritisation workshops held with the three local authority case study sites and set out the plans for the remainder of the research.
The project aims to recommend decision-making support methods, which are appropriate for determining priorities in public health commissioning within local authorities. It aims to identify which priority-setting methods local authority commissioners find useful for public health investment, assessing enablers and barriers to decision-making.
Background
There is increased urgency to demonstrate return on investment in relation to public health interventions and explore methods of decision-support for public health priority setting. The return of the responsibility for public health commissioning to local authorities means that priority setting will take place within new organisational and cultural settings, which presents new challenges. With local authority ring-fenced public health budgets confirmed, difficult decisions about investment, and particularly in a time of economic stringency, about disinvestment, will have to be made, not just within the ring-fenced public health budget but also across different departments of the local authority.
Methods
This two-year study is supporting public health priority-setting in three local authority case study sites across England, through bringing together specialist input from health economics and public health in a series of seminars and targeted decision-making support for public health commissioners. The relevance of prioritisation methods and their impact on spending patterns within and across programmes will be evaluated through a series of initial and follow up interviews with decision-makers in each site.
Findings
This paper will report on the interim findings from the initial prioritisation workshops held with the three local authority case study sites and set out the plans for the remainder of the research.