Policy Success and Public Health

Like many countries, England has introduced a range of policies and strategies on public health since the early 1990s. Using concepts drawn from the policy success and failure literature, this article concludes that recent governments in England achieved only 'precarious success' in McConnell's typology. It demonstrates, with wider significance, that success or failure is not merely about policy achievement in programme terms, but that policy processes and the political dimensions of policy must be included in any evaluation. It also highlights the adversarial nature of public health policy, the subjectivity of judgments about effectiveness and the political problems this creates for government. The article pinpoints the relevance of public health policies for judgements about government competence, trustworthiness and accountability. It argues that failures of public health policy, including poor evaluation and failures to learn from experience, may be more comprehensible by adopting a political analysis of public policy making in this field

Accountability · Competence (human resources) · Economics · Government (linguistics) · Health care · Management · Policy studies · Political science · Politics · Public health · Public policy · Public relations · Relevance (law) · Sociology · Subjectivity · Typology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Public Administration · Social Issues and Policies · Health Policy

• Strategies for engaging policy stakeholders to translate research knowledge into practice more effectively

  Open Access•Kate Vallance, Tim Stockwell et al.•Drug and Alcohol Review•2022

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• Policy success for whom? A framework for analysis

  Open Access•Allan Mcconnell, Liam Grealy et al.•Policy Sciences•2020

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• Assessing policy success and failure

  Philip Begley, Catherine Bochel et al.•Policy Studies•2019

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• The lessons of failure

  Open Access•Michael Howlett•International Political Science…•2012

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• Street-level bureaucrats’ non-compliance in policy transfer

  Open Access•Hang Duong, Hoang Thi Tran•Public Policy and Administration•2025

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• Success and Failure in Public Governance

  Paul 'T Hart, Paul T Hart et al.•Success and Failure in Public…•2001

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• Understanding Policy Success

  Open Access•Allan Mcconnell•Understanding Policy Success•2010

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• Shifting the balance of power

  Open Access•David Evans•Critical Public Health•2004

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• The impact of the food-based and nutrient-based standards on lunchtime food and drink provision and consumption in secondary schools in England

  Open Access•Jo Nicholas, Lesley Wood et al.•Public Health Nutrition•2013

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• The impact of the food-based and nutrient-based standards on lunchtime food and drink provision and consumption in primary schools in England

  Open Access•Dalia Haroun, C L Harper et al.•Public Health Nutrition•2011

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• Public Health

  Open Access•Rob Baggott, David J Hunter•Health & Social Care in the…•2001

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• Political Language

  David D Laitin, Murray Edelman•Contemporary Sociology A Journal…•1978

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• What counts is what works’? New Labour and partnerships in public health

  Neil Perkins, Katherine E Smith et al.•Policy & Politics•2010

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