The Health Canada Policy Toolkit for Public Involvement in Decision
Making
Information Toolkit
Guidelines
The following guidelines apply to all levels of the public involvement
continuum. The guidelines bring some rigour to this field of activity
but are not intended to be definitive or overly prescriptive. Employees
may wish to improvise or tailor their approaches in order to meet
their needs. The guidelines are intended to assist Health Canada
employees to recommend, select and use the right public involvement
techniques to match their objectives. They are intended to support
all Health Canada employees with responsibilities relating to public
involvement, including decision makers, advisors, practitioners
and administrative support. They recognize that departmental employees
frequently have multiple responsibilities in this area.
To benefit from the guidelines, Health Canada employees should
consult them at the beginning and regularly throughout the process
for planning, designing, implementing and evaluating their public
involvement initiative. All of the guidelines below should be considered
for a successful public involvement initiative. However, inherent
intangible factors prevent the development of a "simple formula" that
would always guarantee success.
The guidelines are divided into the following parts:
- Operating Rules - Operating rules are provided
as counsel for staff who may need to undertake public involvement
initiatives.
- Planning Process Overview - A standard planning
process is described which includes key success factors.
- Planning Checklist - A short form of the planning
process overview provides a practical checklist.
- Who Should be Involved? - Guidelines are provided
on how to decide who to include.
- Matching Action to Needs - A practical chart
is provided to identify options for techniques to meet your objectives.
- Lessons learned - A synthesis of lessons learned
from experience is provided.
- Terminology - Key terms are described.
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