Health in All Policies governance

A number of critical elements have contributed to South Australia’s early success in adopting a Health in All Policies approach (HiAP). These include:

  • a cross government mandate
  • leadership from the centre
  • a dedicated strategic HiAP team within SA Health.

Joint governance structure includes:

  • ExComm Chief Executives Group
  • Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC)
  • South Australia's Strategic Plan (SASP)
  • SASP / HiAP priority setting process

Central leadership for HiAP is provided by a high level government leadership group called the Executive Committee of Cabinet Chief Executives Group (CEG).

They report to the Executive Committee of Cabinet, a sub committee of the SA Government Cabinet. The CEG are charged with overseeing the development, implementation and evaluation of HiAP across government.

A Memorandum of Understanding has been developed between SA Health and DPC to describe the relationship, roles and functions in supporting CEG oversee HiAP.

SA Health and DPC agreed to undertake a priority setting process in the third quarter of each calendar year, for HiAP work into the following years.

In addition to a clear process being developed, a set of criteria for prioritising SASP targets is used.

The following criteria was developed by SA Health to assist DPC in reviewing and prioritising SASP targets for the following year’s HiAP work.

Priority targets that:

  • represent a diverse mix of government departments and SASP objectives areas
  • are policy focussed
  • have an evidence base linking target to health
  • have current strategic political relevance for example Council of Australian Governments (COAG)
  • consolidate/leverage/build on existing Health Lens Projects
  • have opportunity to link early in policy development/planning processes.
  • address significant determinants of health
  • can be addressed using the existing capacity available within SA Health, the other agency and South Australian universities etc.
  • address issues of equity.

An extensive cross government consultation process is undertaken, with input from policy experts from numerous government agencies, plus DPC and SA Health more broadly.

Recommendations are provided to the CEG for decision.