MSW 513 Module 5 Evaluating Social Policies

Introduction to Policy Analysis in Public Health

Lesson 5 Summary Page 1

LESSON 5: ASSESSING POLICY OPTIONS

This lesson delved a little further into the second domain of the policy process and provided you with information on how to identify and apply appropriate analysis tools and techniques to analyze policy options under consideration. The objectives for this lesson included:

• Describe a systematic approach for evaluating policy options based on desired outcomes.

• Apply criteria to candidate policy options.

KEY POINTS

• Policy options must be compared against each other to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each, and to build an analysis that clearly illustrates the trade-offs in each option. For analysis of a policy that impacts public health, consider measuring the option against the three criteria below. This list is not exhaustive:

• Impact on public health

• Feasibility

• Fiscal and economic impact • The trade-offs must be clear to

stakeholders and decision-makers, in particular those whose roles are defined by prioritization and resource allocation.

• You may want to enlist the help of an economist in situations where complex calculations are necessary to determine the fiscal and economic impact.

• Before you can begin to prioritize criteria, it is often helpful to establish a rank ordering scale for each criterion of interest.

• Prioritizing the criteria is often a subjective process.

• Your weighting/prioritizing scheme will be based on the priorities of the team, leadership, decision-makers, or stakeholders and the severity of the public health problem.