healthscotland.com

What do we do?

EfA’s main roles are to:

• gather together evidence relating to the effectiveness of health improvement action in key subject areas, and communicate that evidence in ways that help policy-makers, organisations and practitioners to develop and deliver effective action
• promote and contribute to the further development of approaches to evidence-informed decision making on policies and other action that will improve health and reduce health inequalities.

EfA's roles involve specific inputs to the design and delivery of health improvement programmes within and beyond HS, and more general work on developing the EfA function and health improvement decision making.

How do we do it?

EfA’s current main general objectives are to:

• provide evidence inputs to the development of health improvement policies and programmes, to enhance their effectiveness
• produce and disseminate Health Scotland Commentaries on Public Health Guidance published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in England, so that organisations, professionals and others can make use of it in a Scottish context
• promote an approach to health improvement decision making that combines evidence, theory and ethical principles
• work with other agencies to develop more fully fit-for-purpose ways of capturing, assessing and communicating evidence on how to improve health and tackle health inequalities
• promote a strategic approach to translating learning into action.

In addition, EfA is responsible for the following specific blocks of work:

• leading and coordinating the comprehensive evaluation of the ban on smoking in public places in Scotland, and dissemination of the findings
• leading Health Scotland’s Healthy Environments programme, inputting to national strategy on environment and health, and coordinating the Healthy Environment Network
• leading Health Scotland’s Health programme, linking with the Have a Heart Paisley national health demonstration project and coordinating the Heart Health Network.

What staff do we have, and what are their remits?

Within EfA there are two teams – one concentrating on health improvement topics, the other on settings, lifestages and environments. The current EfA portfolios within these teams are as follows:

Topics team

• Food, Nutrition & Healthy Weight
• Physical Activity & Healthy Weight
• Mental Health & Wellbeing
• Sexual Health & Wellbeing
• Tobacco, Alcohol & Drugs

Settings, Lifestages & Environments team

• Healthy Environments
• Settings & Lifestages
• Early Years
• Heart Health, Keep Well & Health Service
• Teenage Transition

Working with others

EfA staff work closely with a wide range of colleagues within and outwith Health Scotland, in Scotland and beyond, through formal and informal groups and networks as well as one-to-one contacts. Our contributions include leadership roles and other specialist inputs to team and partnership efforts.

We have good working links with other national evidence agencies, in Scotland – NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), and in England – National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.