Promoting health and wellbeing: planning, practice and participation (PHW}

This should provide readers with an understanding of the underlying concepts and ideas on which your proposal is based.

It should enable readers to understand how you explain health-related problems and how you think solutions to the problems might best come about. Key themes include:

• What is the health-related problem? And who might best define this as a problem.
• What factors led to this problem coming about?
• What factors need to be addressed to promote health in relation to this problem – and why?

• What model of change will be used – and why?
The conceptual framework should be well-referenced
Appendix – Example of elements of the conceptual framework
1. Intro – global picture relating to the health issue (MDGs, WHO info) & regional picture
2. Health issue at local level (such as who is affected and how they are affected, country and local context)

3. Statement that there are many ways to understand health (biomedical, sociological, psychological, lay perspectives). The ecological framework (NCI, 2005) draws these areas together
4. What led to the problem? Using the ecological framework need to consider macro, meso, micro factors
5. Need to focus on prevention (state why – and who says)
6. Ideas from health promotion can be one way to identify how change can come about – eg Ottawa Charter

7. However, there may be other ways to understand what areas to focus on (such as capability approach, settings approach). Then let readers know which concepts/theories you have chosen (and why)
8. Then let readers know what level you will focus on: macro (such as policy advocacy); meso/setting (community, school); micro (interpersonal/individual)

9. Draw on evidence on what has worked elsewhere to inform the overall strategy or approach that you will take (for example, if social marketing has been shown to work, you may wish to use this. If there is no evidence that this approach has been used, then perhaps consider not using that approach)

10. Rather than taking a top-down approach, show to readers how you will use PLA techniques to find out about the views of potential beneficiaries, and to begin to engage them in a process of change
a. You may to use ideas from Laverack (2004) regarding parallel tracking to show how a top-down and bottom up process will take place

11. Then, outline which planning model you will use – and explain why a planning model is useful and why you have chosen one or another planning model.
12. Then, provide a concluding sentence or two (for example, the conceptual framework is to inform the strategy and activities in the proposal)
The proposal (about 3,500 – 4,000 words)
This should provide readers with an understanding of the elements of the plan that you propose will help your organisation address the health-related problem.

The proposal does not need to be as well-referenced as the conceptual framework. You may wish to refer readers to the points made in the conceptual framework so that you do not have to repeat yourself.
Sections of the proposal should include:
1. Summary (about 100 words)
2. Background
3. Aim
4. Objectives

5. Strategy
6. Activities
7. Evaluation
8. Making best use of findings
9. Management and staffing
10. References
11. Appendices
a. Timescale (18 months)
b. Budget (£100K)
c. Logframe

1. Summary – a brief outline of the proposal to alert readers as to what they can expect to read
2. Background
a. This should outline the health-related problem (what it is) and its context (global, national, local factors that contributed to the problem)
b. You should keep in mind any trends or histories that have shaped the problem.

For example, a history of community conflict may mean that your project would require a different starting point and different ways of working with that community compared with a community in which high levels of trust have developed through shared community actions.
c. Keep in mind that people (and the communities in which they find themselves) are shaped by current levels of knowledge, by feelings and emotions and by existing practices in relation to health-related problems/issues. Your project will need to engage with this.
3. Aim

a. This should outline the general direction of what will be done (to increase something, to maintain something, to decrease something)
4. Objectives
a. These should address
i. Getting to know more about the problem (such as through a participatory assessment engaging a range of stakeholders). You will need to demonstrate how evidence gathered via the assessment will inform the work proposed

ii. Working with intermediaries and others (such as co-professionals or training volunteers)
iii. Working with those directly affected (such as through participatory methods)
iv. (It would be usual to have one more objective which focuses on the evaluation and the use of evidence from the evaluation – but this is not needed for this proposal)
5. Strategy
a. This should outline what broad strategy is being proposed

– such as advocacy, community development, a healthy school approach, re-orienting health services, working with individuals
b. The strategy should engage with the issues outlined in the conceptual framework and background section – that is, you should identify what led you to propose the strategy you have. (This can summarise ideas presented in the conceptual framework)
c. You may wish to combine two strategies

(such as policy advocacy and community development) but – a note of caution – do not make your project too complex. Do not confuse readers by making the project overly complex and keep in mind that you only have 18 months and £100k for the project.
6. Planning framework
a. You should propose a planning cycle or framework and identify your reasons for choosing that framework
7. Activities
a. You should outline a few activities associated with each objective.
i. For example,

for a participatory needs assessment you may wish to outline who is involved in setting this up, how findings are to be generated, and what process is in place to make best use of the findings
b. You should have a few (certainly no more than five) activities per objective
c. Make sure that the activities link together in some way – it is in this section that you can show readers how the logic model for the project ‘plays out’ in real life. So,

there needs to be a sequence or pathway through the activities so that evidence generated through one activity can inform the next.
8. Monitoring
a. Provide an outline about why monitoring is important (such as, to identify whether work is going according to plan and, if not, to identify that action needs to be taken to bring the project back on track or to prompt a new course of action).
b. You can refer readers to your logframe

(that is, the indicators and how they will be measured/verified). In addition, you may wish also to put the indicators and how they are to be measured/verified into a summary table with a further column which provides readers with a timescale by which indicators are to be achieved.
9. Evaluation
a. You should outline (briefly – about 200 words) what approach to evaluation you would take.

For this module, assume that you will engage an external evaluator. You will need to set aside 8%-15% of your budget for this.
b. This is likely to be a form of participatory evaluation and you could outline the key principles (from readings) that would inform the criteria you would use to select an external evaluator
c. You should identify who the evaluation findings are for and what sort of findings they are likely to be interested in
10. Management and staffing

a. You should outline whether there will be a Steering (management) or Advisory Group (advice), or both to manage/advise the project
b. You will need to outline who is involved in ‘delivering’ the project – such as a line manager as well as project staff and administrator (where needed)
11. References – the references used in the proposal (not the conceptual framework)
12. Appendices

a. These should include a timescale, budget as well as a logframe
b. The timescale should identify what is being done by who by what time
c. Your budget should be based on actual costs where possible (such as actual salaries of a manager and project staff)
When checking the logic of your proposal, make sure that the sequence of activities link together in some way. You should question the assumptions in your proposal. For example:

• Will people automatically engage with the activities you propose? This is unlikely – as they are probably influenced by influential contextual factors that limit what they feel interested in and able to do.
• Might some people (officials, colleagues, lay-people) actively resist change? If so, what might be the best ways to engage them?
• What plan do you have for making the most of top-down and bottom-up interests and strengths (parallel tracking)?