20 Years of SHIIAN
Margaret Douglas and Elizabeth Oldcorn, January 2023
The aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost of living crisis and stalled mortality – it would be easy to feel overwhelmed by the many public health challenges we are facing in Scotland. But HIA can help to address those, by identifying the impact of wider policies on health and ways to improve these impacts. The establishment of Public Health Scotland provides an opportunity to work jointly with national and local government to support this ‘Health in All Policies’ approach.
Over the past year we have published blogs from colleagues reflecting on their experiences of HIA in Scotland. We’d like to thank them very much for taking the time to produce such candid, insightful blogs. SHIIAN has continued to be an active member of national partnerships that bring together colleagues to understand health impacts of polices for Transport, Spatial Planning and Environments and Spaces – a practical way to take a HiAP approach. Recent outputs have included an HIA of Roadspace Reallocation in Scotland, and HIA scoping reports on the Route Map to achieve a 20% reduction in car km, and on Open Space Strategies and Play Sufficiency Assessments. We have also held several peer support meetings where colleagues across Scotland – and beyond – have shared their experiences of HiAP and HIA, and discussed issues such as integrated assessment and HIA training needs. This has shown continued enthusiasm for the potential of HIA to make a positive difference to health at all levels, with a desire for more capacity to support this.
So we are delighted that Public Health Scotland has now set up a small team to support HIA, as part of the Localised Working Programme. The HIA Support Unit (HIASU), led by Elizabeth, will provide more resource to build HIA capacity, experience and skills among colleagues at local level in Scotland.
The HIASU will be supporting SHIIAN going forward, transferring this function from ScotPHN. This will include the email network, the peer support meetings and the web presence. Most of the existing SHIIAN reports, guidance and resources will be transferred to the HIA pages on the new PHS website. All members of the Network will be notified when the new web pages are live and the ScotPHN website will link people to the new site.
The HIASU is currently carrying out some stakeholder engagement to ascertain what the needs of our partners are around HIA and how best we, as the national public health organisation in Scotland, can work collaboratively to support those needs. This may include: updating HIA guidance, providing training and development on HIA and Health in All Policies, and offering support and advice as a ‘critical friend’. We would welcome feedback and suggestions on how best the HIASU can help you to use HIA and work with partners using a Health in All Policies approach.
You can get in touch with the HIASU via the dedicated inbox phs.impactassessment@phs.scot
It has been a privilege to be part of SHIIAN over the last 20 years and it is even more exciting to see this continued and increasing support for HIA in Scotland. We look forward to working with colleagues across Scotland who are using HIA to help ensure that policies and plans in all sectors improve health and reduce health inequalities. Here’s to the next 20 years!