Policy Theory and Policy Practice

This is the story of an encounter between the worlds of policy theory and policy practice. The venue was the King’s Fund College, London; the participants were ourselves and a group of senior NHS managers. The occasion was the College’s Corporate Management Programme (CMP), a major development in management education launched in 1982. This paper recounts our experience of contributing to the Programme over the last three years. In particular, it sets out how we sought to demonstrate the relevance of a policy analysis perspective to the Programme participants and it reflects on some of the problems we confronted along the way. The paper begins with a brief description of the Programme and goes on to outline the part of the Programme for which we had responsibility, the option on health policy and politics. This is followed by a more detailed consideration of the policy analysis perspective in the Programme. The paper then illustrates how the perspective was applied in practice by Programme participants. Some of the issues involved in teaching and learning in this context are reviewed at the end

Context (archaeology · Economics · Health care · Management · Perspective (graphical · Policy analysis · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Relevance (law · Sociology · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Healthcare Quality and Management · Law · Public Administration · Health Policy