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Posits that collaboration in the UK is either recommended as good practice or enshrined within legislation as a necessity. Chronicles that there has been a sustained growth in the number of formal and informal collaborative relationships between state agencies and market, voluntary and community sectors, as well as within and between state agencies themselves. Uses illustrative case study materials drawn from the authors’ research and consultancy experiences, particularly in the areas of inner city community based mental health, urban regeneration, policing, and child and adolescent mental health. Concludes that research has extensively been drawn on to illustrate the dilemmas that regularly arise when attempting to implement this policy objective.

Often linked to the New Public Management (NPM) doctrines, agencification has been on the priority list of policy makers for over two decades. This article proposes an analysis of the role of agencies in the French health system and the impact of government agency reform on physicians and the public.

The research analyzes the perceived implementation of a re-concentration of decision-making powers within public agencies as the declared goal of agencification at the French health care system, specifically primary care providers and hospitals. The assessment relies on secondary sources from ministerial bodies such as the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Labor, the Social Security and the General Accounting Office, and specialized French technical agencies.

Decentralization in France and the subsequent rise of public health care agencies had outcomes below expectations. Hence, a re-concentration of decision-making powers within the larger Regional Health Agencies; a streamlining of the public administration; and a re-appropriation of decision-making powers by the Ministry of Health are needed. The monitoring of health providers allows central health authorities to govern at a distance.

The analysis of health care agencies in France and of their use of efficiency-enhancing techniques may trigger a change of values within the medical profession.

This study seeks to provide an examination of a health policy network operating in a single, small community along the US‐Mexican border. The purpose of the paper is to discuss why and how this network evolved, and then to present findings on how the network was structured. Analysis will focus especially on agency involvement, or “embeddedness” in the network, and its relationship to attitudes held by network members regarding trust, reputation, and perceived benefit.

Data were collected from 15 public and nonprofit agencies trying to work collaboratively to influence local policy and services regarding the prevention of obesity‐related chronic disease, especially diabetes. Embeddedness was measured in three different ways and both confirmed and unconfirmed networks were assessed. Network analysis methods were utilized as well as nonparametric correlation statistics.

The network was found to be densely connected through unconfirmed linkages, but much less so when these links were confirmed. Strongest findings were found for shared information. Measures of agency embeddedness in the network were strong predictors of agency reputation, but findings for trust and perceived benefit were generally weak.

From a practice perspective, the study points to the problems in building and sustaining community‐based chronic disease health networks, especially in a small community with substantial health needs. The research also contributes to theory on embeddedness and to methodology for collecting and analyzing data on community health networks.

Several emergency public health issues have a tremendous impact on and rely upon close coordination with law enforcement officials. Most interactions involve law enforcement personnel providing security, crowd control, and/or traffic control during public health related incidents. However, as varied chemical and biological threats have emerged over the years, this interaction has increased to include joint investigations between the two disciplines. Certain biological threats, such as pandemics, pose direct threats to the law enforcement agency operations. Understanding the role of public health in emergencies, the overlapping missions, and the threats at all levels allows law enforcement professionals to better prepare themselves and their organizations for coordinating operations and maintaining continuity of law enforcement services.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between women’s sexual health agency and their intent to initiate communications with their doctors. The research questions examined the effect sexual health agency has on patient-doctor communication, women’s emotional responses to health advertisements encouraging patient communication with their doctors, attitude toward the message and behavioral intentions after exposure to the advertising message.

An experimental design was implemented via an online questionnaire instrument to test the differences between younger-aged women (25 to 45 years) and mature-aged women (46 to 70 years). It was observed that 188 women who reported their status as single and sexually active in the past 12 months were exposed to a health advertisement that encouraged patient-doctor communication. Analyses were conducted to compare between-group measures on sexual health agency, emotional response and attitude toward the ad and behavioral intention.

No statistical difference existed between younger and older women. In general, women expect their doctor to lead conversations about sexual health but are positively reinforced by health messages that encourage their assertiveness as patients.

The small sample size also may have limited the study’s potential to evaluate differences between age segments. Future research should explore this further.

The study provides evidence that sexual health advertising can reinforce women’s intent to initiate conversations with doctors regardless of age.

Health communications can bolster women’s sexual health agency and improve patient-initiated conversations with doctors.

The study is the first to explore advertising messaging’s potential for applying health agency as a communication strategy for encouraging sexual health communications between women and their doctors.

The implementation of mobile health (mHealth) in developing countries seems to be stuck in a pattern of successive pilot studies that struggle for mainstream implementation. This study addresses the research question: what existing health-related structures, properties and practices are presented by rural areas of developing countries that might inhibit the implementation of mHealth initiatives?

This study was conducted using a socio-material approach, based on an exploratory case study in West Africa. Interviews and participant observation were used to gather data. A thematic analysis identified important social and material agencies, practices and imbrications which may limit the effectiveness of mHealth apps in the region.

Findings show that, while urban healthcare is highly structured, best practice-led, rural healthcare relies on peer-based knowledge sharing, and community support. This has implications for the enacted materiality of mobile technologies. While urban actors see mHealth as a tool for automation and the enforcement of responsible healthcare best practice, rural actors see mHealth as a tool for greater interconnectivity and independent, decentralised care.

This study has two significant limitations. First, the study focussed on a region where technology-enabled guideline-driven treatment is the main mHealth concern. Second, consistent with the exploratory nature of this study, the qualitative methodology and the single-case design, the study makes no claim to statistical generalisability.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to adopt a socio-material view that considers existing structures and practices that may influence the widespread adoption and assimilation of a new mHealth app. This helps identify contextual challenges that are limiting the potential of mHealth to improve outcomes in rural areas of developing countries.

The paper examines “lessons learned” from the COVID-19 pandemic by capturing the organizational and operational experiences of police departments in the state of Washington across two waves of survey administration. This study is among the first to document experiences at a state level, affording an opportunity to compare national results and allowing for documenting shifts between each wave.

This study draws from a state-specific replication of the IACP instrument fielded by Lum et al. (2020a) on the experiences of police departments working under COVID-19 and integrates specific questions from stakeholders in Washington. The survey was administered through Qualtrics, which was distributed by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) 6 months into the pandemic and 18-months later.

Respondents reported operational and organizational reconfigurations including shifting to telecommuting for support staff and command staff, implementing online reporting forms for use by the public to report crimes and planning exercises for predicted budget reductions. While CDC and Washington Department of Health guidelines informed most of the respondents' policy, integrating that policy into the operational procedures demonstrated how quickly issues in staffing can transition from a challenge to a severe issue. Quarantining and staffing problems remained an issue across both waves, which were exasperated by staff turnover.

The response rate and response completeness, particularly a drop in response for Wave 2, limit the ability to supply more precise estimates documenting the experiences of WA police departments. Relatedly, an inability to match Wave 1 to Wave 2 results inhabits a direct comparison of changes 12-months later. Second, the responses reflect those of the chief law enforcement officer (Chief of Police, Sheriff) or the person designated by the chief, which may not represent the experiences of front-line officers.

Reflecting on the lessons learned across each Wave, agencies shared adaptations implemented to better protect the health of staff and their communities to effectively manage future health emergencies. Most directly, they learned how to conduct some business remotely and the necessity to innovate. The most important lesson learned, and implication for policy is improving the resourcing and logistics to secure adequate health protections. The data also highlight a concern for clarity, consistency, and credibility in supplying information to police departments in pandemic and emergency situations.

This paper fulfils an identified need to enhance “lessons learned” for police response in pandemic and emergency situations. These data supply insight into the anticipated and lived experiences of agencies adapting to the pandemic in Washington State. The endogenous and exogenous shock that is COVID-19 altered how police departments interacted externally and internally resulting in operational and organizational reconfigurations.

Recent government policies in relation to children stress the importance of service integration and partnership working, with particular emphasis on combating social exclusion. With reference to findings from a three‐year empirical study, this article examines some key elements of the process of multi‐agency working in services for disabled children with complex health care needs. It highlights some of the barriers to effective partnerships and lists some pointers for policy and practice.

This study examined how rural police agencies have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Using data from various sources, this study first analyzed what factors influenced agency preparedness to respond to pandemics. Second, it examined how the pandemic influenced specific organizational practices.

Findings revealed that as coronavirus infections increased in counties, supervisors were more likely be tasked with inspecting personal protective equipment (PPE), agencies were more likely to offer pandemic related training, health tracking of officers was more likely to occur and agencies were more likely to encounter a shortage of officers. In addition, as rurality increased, agencies were more likely to offer training but less likely to experience officers contracting COVID-19 and an officer shortage. Lastly, as the rurality of the county in which the agency resides increased, the ability to supply PPE decreased.

Based on these findings, it is imperative that rural police agencies give attention to risk management and the formulation of policy to prepare for public health emergencies.

While knowledge about how large police agencies in the United States have responded during the coronavirus pandemic is building, little is known about rural policing during pandemics.

Workforce shortages and maldistribution in the health care sector are the outcome of poor planning processes, entrenched power relations, jurisdictional boundaries and professional silos. In seeking to redress these problems, countries are moving toward establishing independent agencies to monitor, regulate and shape the health workforce. In Australia, for example, Health Workforce Australia (HWA) has been established to provide data on workforce numbers and fund clinical education. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether this strategy is likely to work. By locating HWA within the framework of an Independent Regulatory Agency, the implicit strengths and weaknesses of using HWA to manage workforce planning are highlighted.

A theoretical discussion on regulatory capitalism and Independent Regulatory Authorities provides the context for the case study: the gynaecological cancer workforce – a niche health workforce that is complex and multidisciplinary. Data are from a mixed method study commissioned by Cancer Australia.

The analysis of the gynaecological cancer workforce illustrates the difficulties that HWA will face in defining the health workforce, in measuring supply and demand and in setting targets for training and education.

Findings are limited by the fact that HWA was only established in mid 2009.

The establishment of independent agencies to oversee and implement government policy is a new form of control over universities and health professionals that challenges their professional autonomy.

This paper points to the creation of new agencies of government control in the wake of an international health workforce crisis.