Health Action Zones (HAZ) were one of the earliest and most prominent area-based initiatives launched by the New Labour government in England soon after it came to power in 1997. "Health Action Zones," written by members of the team undertaking the national evaluation of HAZ, examines their development and impact from a variety of perspectives.
It outlines important features of the social, policy and evaluative environment within which Health Action Zones were established and which greatly contributed to learning about health policy and practice development in the early part of the twenty-first century. As importantly, the book discusses enduring themes on topics such as building capacity for collaboration amongst diverse and unequal partners and developing the capacity to learn within complex policy systems. It assesses the successes of specific strategies aimed at improving health and reducing health inequalities.
"Health Action Zones" provides in-depth analysis of a key policy initiative that will be of great value to those concerned with building the evidence-base for future action. It also offers guidance on how best to design, implement and evaluate future initiatives intended to deal with fundamental social problems.
The multidisciplinary nature of this text makes it suitable for a wide range of postgraduate courses including those covering issues in public health, community care, urban studies, social policy, health and social care research, local governance and public services.

Health Action Zones (HAZ) were one of the earliest and most prominent area-based initiatives launched by the New Labour government in England soon after it came to power in 1997. Written by members of the team undertaking the national evaluation of HAZ, this book examines the initiative 's development and impact from a variety of perspectives. It outlines important features of the social, policy and evaluative environment within which HAZ were established and discusses enduring themes such as building and developing capacity with diverse and unequal partners within complex policy systems.

Multidisciplinary in nature, the book provides in-depth analysis of a key policy initiative, offering guidance on how best to design, implement and evaluate future initiatives intended to deal with fundamental social problems.

This volume explores the defining features, critical approaches, challenges and opportunities for public policy in the 'Asian Century'. This is the first book to systematically analyse the key institutions and practices that comprise public policy, administration and governance to investigate how they are changing in the context of increasing Asian influence. Its authors argue that the Asian Century holds the potential to generate a paradigm shift equivalent to the impacts of neo-liberalism and the New Public Management of the late 20th century. Divided into three parts, this volume interrogates the theories underpinning contemporary public policy; explores case studies from different policy arenas across the Asian region; and imagines what a future of globalised public policy might look like. It examines the implementation measures necessary to support policy and administration in an era of transnational governance networks, tightly linked economic markets and progressively fluid cultural exchanges. This book provides the concepts and tools necessary to navigate these shifting sands successfully. It is essential reading for scholars of public policy, public management, international relations, and politics and social sciences, as well as for administrators and public servants.

How are responses to urban policy challenges affected by new ideas about governance? How can we explain the governance transformations that result? And what are the consequences for democracy? This wide-ranging study of three European cities - Birmingham, Copenhagen and Rotterdam - shows how hybrid forms of governance emerge from the tensions between new visions and past legacies, and existing institutional arrangements and powerful actors. Hybrid governance includes public-private partnerships, stakeholders boards, and multi-actor forums operating at arm's length to institutions of representative democracy. Offering detailed studies of migration and neighbourhood policy, as well as a novel Q methodology analysis of public administrators' views on democracy, the book explores how actors generate new practices, shows how these develop, and evaluates the democratic implications. The book concludes that hybrid governance is both widespread and diverse, is spatially and policy specific and that actors - public managers, politicians and the public - contribute to hybrid designs in ways that promote and challenge democratic conventions.

This wide-ranging study of three European cities shows how hybrid forms of governance emerge from the tensions between new ideas and past legacies, and existing institutional arrangements and powerful decision makers. Using detailed studies of migration and neighborhood policy, as well as a novel Q methodology analysis of public administrators.

Collaboration is a ubiquitous yet contested feature of contemporary public policy. This book offers a new account of collaboration's appeal to human actors drawing on empirical examples across time and space. It provides a novel and comprehensive framework for analysing collaboration, that will be of use to those interested in understanding what happens when human actors collaborate for public purpose.

Public participation is central to a wide range of current public policies - not only in the UK, but elsewhere in the developed and the developing world. There are substantial aspirations for what enhanced participation can achieve. This book offers a critical examination of both the discourse and practice of participation in order to understand the significance of this explosion in participatory forums, and the extent to which such practices represent a fundamental change in governance. Based on 17 case studies across a range of policy areas in two English cities, the authors address key issues such as: the way in which notions of the public are constructed; the motivation of participants; how the interests and identities of officials and citizens are negotiated within forums; and the ways in which institutions enable and constrain the development of participation initiatives. Much of the literature on public participation is highly normative. This book draws from detailed empirical work, theories of governance, of deliberative democracy and social movements to offer a nuanced account of the dynamics of participation and to suggest why experiences of this can be frustrating as well as transformative. This book will be essential reading for students of public and social policy and offers important insights for those directly engaged in developing participation initiatives across the public sector

This book investigates the professional needs and training requirements of an ever-changing public service workforce in Australia and the United Kingdom. It explores the nature of future roles, the types of skills and competencies that will be required and how organisations might recruit, train and develop public servants for these roles. Leading international research - practitioners make recommendations for how local organisations can equip future public servants with the skills and professional capacities for these shifting professional demands, and the skillsets they will require. Drawing on ideas that have been developed in the Australian and UK context, the book delves into the major themes involved in re-imagining the public service workforce and the various forms of capacities and capabilities that this entails. It then explores delivery of this future vision, and its implications in terms of development, recruitment and strategy.

Collaboration between governments, business, the voluntary and community sectors is now central to the way public policy is made, managed, and delivered. This book provides the first comprehensive and authoritative account of the theory, policy, and practice of collaboration. Written by two leading authorities in the field, the book explores the experience of collaboration in regeneration, health, and other policy sectors, and assesses the consequences of the emergence of public-private partnerships contrasting the UK experience to that elsewhere in the world.

Public participation is central to a wide range of current public policies - not only in the UK, but elsewhere in the developed and the developing world. There are substantial aspirations for what enhanced participation can achieve. This book offers a critical examination of both the discourse and practice of participation in order to understand the significance of this explosion in participatory forums, and the extent to which such practices represent a fundamental change in governance. Based on 17 case studies across a range of policy areas in two English cities, the authors address key issues such as: the way in which notions of the public are constructed; the motivation of participants; how the interests and identities of officials and citizens are negotiated within forums; and the ways in which institutions enable and constrain the development of participation initiatives. Much of the literature on public participation is highly normative. This book draws from detailed empirical work, theories of governance, of deliberative democracy and social movements to offer a nuanced account of the dynamics of participation and to suggest why experiences of this can be frustrating as well as transformative. This book will be essential reading for students of public and social policy and offers important insights for those directly engaged in developing participation initiatives across the public sector.