Veterinary surveillance: Prioritisation Project
The principal objective of the Prioritisation Project is to provide an accessible evidence base to guide animal health and welfare policy. It seeks to ensure that the finite resources available for the prevention and management of animal health and welfare diseases or issues are targeted appropriately at those of most importance in the context of government policy and the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy (AHWS).
The project will deliver a simple IT-based decision support tool and governance structure that will inform budget and resource management. A prototype of the tool has been developed and is guiding further work.
The tool draws on an evidence base of information about animal diseases and health issues, in the form of disease/issue ‘profiles. This information is processed to produce separate ranked lists for each of the AHWS ‘reasons for intervention’, i.e. protecting public health, promoting animal welfare, ensuring opportunities for international trade and protecting the interests of the wider society and the economy.
Background Q&A information is also available.
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The design and development of a working version of the Tool was conducted in partnership with a range of government and non-government stakeholders. The criteria, structure and scoring options used by the Tool were further refined in a series of workshops, specific to the five principal sections of the Tool, attended by stakeholders and specialists in each of these particular areas. The meeting notes from these workshops are available below, together with a summary document describing the sets of criteria that have been adopted for inclusion in the Prototype Prioritisation Decision Support Tool (DST):
- Risk and Epidemiology workshop,
Monday 18 September 2006
(112 KB); - Public Health Workshop,
Wednesday 11 October 2006
(118 KB);
- Wider Society & Economy,
Friday 13 October 2006
(137 KB);
- International Trade, Wednesday
25 October 2006
(96 KB);
- Animal Welfare, Friday 27 October
2006
(125 KB);
- Summary of the criteria and scoring
scheme adopted by the Prototype DST (200
KB).
Design of the Prioritisation Decision Support Tool was informed by a
review of the approaches taken to resource prioritisation in selected
public sector organisations in the UK and overseas. Approaches
to the prioritisation of resources: A brief review of selected public
sector organisations in the UK and abroad
(273 KB)
Key Benefits of the Project
Standardised, peer reviewed evidence base for policies
Priorities for resource allocation and, conversely, areas not selected
for government intervention can be identified from a ‘level playing
field’ of evidence.
Transparency
The evidence base, in the form of Profiles, is available on the Defra
website and Prioritisation Reports, produced by the Tool, can be similarly
made available. This will enable stakeholders and the public to view evidence
that has contributed to the setting of Government priorities and funding
decisions. The Decision Support Tool has been developed to ensure that
the process of how information brought in from the evidence base and is
combined to produce Prioritisation Reports is conceptually simple and
transparent.
Cost sharing
The evidence base and the Tool are capable of identifying which issues
and diseases are most important to different stakeholders and why this
is so. This information is accessible and can be used to inform discussions
with stakeholders concerning the nature of appropriate roles and responsibilities
with respect to individual animal disease and health issues.
Efficiency gains
By using the Decision Support Tool to analyse the relative importance
of different animal diseases and health and welfare issues, policy makers
will be able to allocate budgets so that maximum utility can be obtained
from limited public resources.
Identify gaps
The evidence base and the outputs from the Tool will highlight areas where
uncertainty exists in our understanding of an animal disease or issue,
potentially enabling the targeting of research. It will also be possible
to identify diseases or issues where, according to the evidence, a sub-optimal
level of resource, i.e. either too much or too little, is currently being
invested.
Flexibility
The national and international animal health environment is unpredictable
and subject to rapid fluctuations in risk and perception. In light of
this, information in the Profiles is kept under periodic review. This
will allow the Decision Support Tool to be used on an ongoing basis to
reassess Government priorities in light of changing circumstances and
hence facilitate a rapid response.
Page reviewed: 13 December
2007
Page last modified:
December 13, 2007