Health in All Policies (HiAP) Toolkit

Health in All Policies (HiAP) is an approach to working across health determinants to impact on health inequalities and improve wellbeing. It draws on the HiAP approach advocated by the World Health Organization and the European Union. The Marmot review also highlighted the importance of building health equity into the approach.

HiAP is an agreed approach supported in a number of key local policies and strategies, including the Director of Public Health (DPH) Annual Report 2020/21 endorsement by Health and Wellbeing Board in March 2021 and endorsed within the Warwickshire County Council Plan 2020-25 and the Draft Coventry & Warwickshire Integrated Care System (ICS) Health Inequalities Strategic Plan (2022-27).

District and boroughs in Warwickshire have been actively involved in HiAP workshops delivered at Place. HiAP can be used across the whole organisation, partnership or sector and can also be applied to specific policies, programmes and strategies.

HiAP encompasses a wide spectrum of activities, ranging from one-off collaborative efforts with a single partner to approaches involving ongoing collaboration across many agencies.

Public Health offer of support

View the document below to find out about the Public Health offer of support.

HiAP Aims

  • To embed considerations of health, equity and sustainability as a standard part of decision-making processes across a range of sectors including VCS, local government functions and place partnerships.
  • To start with the policy area (e.g., economic development policy or transport policy) but you can start with a public health issue if this is more relevant to your work.
  • To encourage thinking about the range of potential direct and indirect benefits/risks for health.

HiAP Principles

Several elements have been identified as central to a HiAP approach. Policy makers and practitioners have emphasised that there is no ‘right way’ to incorporate HiAP, but the principles below are sufficiently general to be adaptable to a wide range of organisations and localities:

  • promote health, equity and sustainability
  • support inter-sectoral collaboration
  • benefit multiple partners
  • evidence that partnerships work
  • engage stakeholders
  • create structural or procedural change to embed tackling health inequalities
  • develop common monitoring and evaluation tools