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National Action Plans & Strategies

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Most countries, states and provinces have laws, regulations and policies to protect children and adolescents, identify and respond to specific problems and promote educational success, health and development. However, many jurisdictions often need to use up-to-date "national action plans" that implement, strengthen, maintain, scale up or sustain multi-component approaches (e.g. Healthy Schools), multi-intervention programs (e.g. Dropout Prevention), specific interventions (regulating food sales)  or broaden the use of Learning Behaviour Models (e.g Life Skills). National Action Plans (NAPs) are different than such approaches, programs, interventions and models because they are relatively short term (a defined set of years) while while approaches, programs and interventions are intended to be permanent fixtures or policies requiring practices and procedures to be maintained by or within systems and organizations..

Traditionally, NAPs have focused on broad health or social issues. However, they can also seek to strengthen core components such as health/life skills education, Progress towards the use of school-based and school-linked multi-component approaches and multi-intervention programs that seek to modify the family, community and school ecology that affect student learning, health and development have led to broader and more complex NAPs. More recently, policymakers and decision-makers have understood the need to incorporate these approaches and programs within a systems-focused paradigm that addresses contextualization, capacity-building, integration within the concerns of education systems and better use of systems science and organizational development strategies.Consequently, NAPs should include these systemic factors and actions within their plans.

Effective national action plans provide a framework for comprehensive, systematic, multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary approaches at all levels — local, regional, national and ensures that these action plans draw from international dialogues and knowledge development. The action plans should be for multiple years (3-5) , with annual reports/updating and periodic renewals or conclusion/winding down. The characteristics of effective national plans include a solid base of research evidence, professional experiences and reliable administrative or survey data, a mix of short-term, strategic objectives and long-term goals, a willingness to address systemic barriers and to foster systems change, realistic forward and sustainability planning, cost estimates and selection/training of key personnel (rather than replying on volunteer champions and external seed funding), negotiated partnerships among ministries and agencies which share the risks, benefits and explicit commitments, careful use of incidents, examples and critical junctures to secure and maintain system and senior commitments and serve to respond and mobilize public and political concerns. There are several specific aspects of national action plans which are described in more detail in other topics within this encyclopedia which discuss ecological and systems-based approaches.      

This summary was first posted in January 2021 as  a "first draft" .We encourage readers to submit comments or suggested edits by posting on the Mini-blog & Discussion Page for this section or posting a comment below: 
An Effective National or Provincial/Territorial Plan (Strategy) to Promote Aspects of Educational Success, Health or Development or To Prevent Health, Safety, Security, Social, Economic or Environmental Problems, Behaviours, Determinants or Conditions has the following elements:
  •  Has an evidence-based rationale and the urgency of the problem is documented in personal, health, social and economic terms
  •  Is based on reliable, regular prevalence data
  • is established for multiple years (3-5) in duration with annual reports and updates as well as periodic renewals or conclusions/winding down
  •  Is focused on achievable educational, health status and social development outputs and inter-mediate outcomes (within two years) and practical objectives directly leading to those outputs and outcomes
       -  That will be achieved by influencing carefully selected health determinants and social influences
             -  That recognizes and addresses real life barriers based on a through research- based understanding of how
                 individuals adopt healthy or risky behaviours and which determinants are more influential and
              - That addresses practical real-life barriers and systemic barriers to change   
  •  Has a strategic understanding of the context, constraints, opportunities and threats
  •  Is aimed at specific populations, conditions or determinants through consciously selected evidence-based interventions
            - that will be delivered through existing or sustainable delivery systems in several sectors (health, public health,
              education, recreation, etc)
            - that maximize effectiveness through coordinated, multiple, interventions in selected settings where they reach
               defined populations and wil1 be sustainable
  •  Has designated a lead or co-leading departments, units or staff person to coordinate the strategy and assigned adequate staff time for that coordination/facilitation role
  •  provides funding, policy and program advice, research and training to support this coordination at all levels
  •  Is operationalized with a clear understanding of the nature of national/state initiatives (that require federal-provincial, NGO and professional cooperation), the federal role, the state/provincial/territorial role and their current policies and priorities, the role of local governments, institutions and agencies and their current policies and priorities, current and potential capacities, programs and services as well as their existing professional norms and current organizational cultures and practices 
  •  Has created sustainable mechanisms to influence federal, provincial/territorial. policies and priorities, local agency policies and priorities and capacities, professional norms and practices, the overall capacity of local agencies and professionals to mobilize the resources within their communities, to create and maintain the capacity of voluntary organizations at the national, state and community levels, and the capacity of families and individuals in different circumstances
  •  Is monitored through a comprehensive set of meaningful, reliable, timely and comparable Indicators (over time, by jurisdictions, and by local, similar communities) This can be done by participating in global surveys on children and youth, on student learning and on the status of policies and programs. Whenever possible, administrative data sources such as Education Management Information Systems (EMIS), student and clinical records should also be used. This monitoring should be aimed at improving policies, programs and practices rather than simply for reporting and accountability purposes. Whenever possible, this monitoring should be aligned and coordinated with the national reporting done on the achievement of the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Additional criteria for effective monitoring, reporting, evaluation and improvement include stipulations such as :
          - That these indicators are reliable proxies to measure health, safety, social development, environmental sustainability
             and economic outputs, student learning outputs, system outputs, system processes, inputs into those systems and
             the overall and local social, economic context and correlates those outputs with longer term outcomes
         -  That the monitoring and reporting practices encourage ministry teams, local agencies and schools to identify and be
             accountable for annual and long-term improvements.
 
Strategically such national plans should: 
  •  select aspects of the problem that can capture public attention (and that of politicians and decision-makers/administrators)
  •  assess potential allies and potential competitors to select partners, secure allies and mitigate the impact of competition
  • time events to maximize benefits such as impact, visibility and practicality 
  •  select interventions and activities that match the current agendas of many players
  •  distribute and shares profile, influence and information and control of resources to maximize cooperation and sustainability
  •  start with achievable short-term activities but has a long-term vision and set of goals and values that maximizes consensus and sustainability
  •  create or maintain infrastructure (over-arching policy, core curricula, core services, physical and social conditions, staffing & structures, annual budgets, and knowledge that can be used by others
  •  take advantage of existing infrastructure, systems and public concerns
 National and State Action Plans to promote educational success, health and social development should include several of these actions:
  • Publishing and disseminating consensus statements, standards and guidance documents, to encourage local agencies and schools to adopt a comprehensive approach
  • Creating and maintaining an extensive knowledge development and exchange program to support local agency and school improvement efforts
  • Incorporating the implementation and maintenance of a multi-component approach in the accountability frameworks of education, health and other ministries
  • Assigning full and part-time coordinators, teams and coordinating committees at the inter-ministry, inter-agency and school levels across systems
  • Accrediting all schools as they achieve documented and required levels of implementation of a multi-component approach
  • Publishing or using comprehensive and/or topic specific self-assessment tools for use by the government, school districts, agencies and schools
  • Publishing and using evidence-based implementation frameworks
  • Using voluntary school recognition certificates, small incentive project funding, publishing success stories and similar publicity to encourage stakeholders and staff at the school level
  • Encouraging the use of and informing about approaches and good programs at al levels across all relevant systems, ministries and agencies
  • Selecting, building, funding and aligning relevant multi-component approaches such as healthy schools, safe schools, social & emotional learning, positive behavior supports, risk reduction and others
  • Selecting, building, funding and aligning relevant multi-intervention programs on specific topics or elements such as food & nutrition, bullying, infectious diseases, anti-racism programs, health/life skills education, school health or other services,
  • Selecting, building, funding and aligning relevant selected single intervention programs such as school food policies, after-school sports, parent skills training and others
  • Funding, training coordinators at the national, state, agency and school levels
  • Requiring ministries, agencies, school districts and schools to set annual improvement objectives as part of an established continuous improvement program
  • Funding and making use of university-school partnerships or SH&D Knowledge Centres (or other planned KDE activities)
  • Funding and making use of national conferences on regular basis
  • Recognizing, funding and making use of specialist employee associations such as HPSD teachers, school nurses, school counsellors, school resource officers and others

This summary was first posted in June 2012. Currently it has been posted as  an "excerpt/adaptation", "first draft" or "revised draft" and "first or revised edition" version..We encourage readers to submit comments or suggested edits by posting a comment on the Mini-blog & Discussion Page for this section or posting a comment below:
Due to the length of Handbook Sections (similar to a book chapter) prepared for this web site and knowledge exchange program, we post these documents as separate documents. Click on this web link to access the draft or completed version on this topic. Come back to this page to post any comments or suggestions. 

This summary was first posted in June 2012. Currently it has been posted as  an "excerpt/adaptation", "first draft" or "revised draft" and "first or revised edition" version..We encourage readers to submit comments or suggested edits by posting a comment on the Mini-blog & Discussion Page for this section or posting a comment below:
 Bibliography/Toolbox on
Key research, reports and resources on this topic are highlighted below.  Many of the topics in this web site also have extensive bibliographies/toolboxes (BTs) published as separate documents. Click on this web link to access the full version of our Bibliography/Toolbox on this topic. These lists use our outline for these collections that we have developed over several years of curating these materials.We have just begun to collect research on this topic, so here is our initial list:

The following additional resources are posted on this web site or published by other credible sources. Please send any suggested additions to info@internationalschoolhealth.org
Common Topics or Terms 
For updates and reader comments on this section, go to our Mini-Blog on Common Topics & Terms

The number of summaries completed or drafted in this section are listed below:                - How to Develop a Multi-Intervention
                Program (MIP)            - Macro & Specific  Policies
               - HPSD Instruction & Extended Education
               - School Health & Other Services
               - Psycho-social Environment & 
                 Supports
               - Physical Environment and Resources
  • National/State Action Plans
  • Behaviour Theories
  • Inter-Professional Cooperation
  • Disparities, Disadvantage, Determinants
  • Ecological, Systems-based Approaches
  • Informing, Involving, Education & Supporting, Empowering Parents (Overview)
    - Parent Education & Training
    - Parent Support Programs
    - Family Resource Centres
  • School Readiness/Ready Schools
  • School Climate/Social Environment
  • Teacher Education & Development
Writers, contributors, editors and presenters of the knowledge in these summaries include: