National Consumer Engagement Strategy for Health and Wellbeing - An implementation strategy for the National Preventive Health Strategy

Improving health and wellbeing across the population is a national policy priority of Australian governments. Good health and wellbeing, including physical, mental, social and cultural wellbeing, enables Australians to lead fulfilling and productive lives, participate in education and employment and contribute positively to their community [18].

The National Preventive Health Strategy 2021-2030 (NPHS), emphasises that preventive health action, informed and co-designed by consumers, is central to achieving a healthier Australia [18].

The development of a National Consumer Engagement Strategy for Health and Wellbeing (this Strategy) is one of the 8 priority actions included in the NPHS [18]. It has been developed to support and inform consumer engagement in health policy-making and to strengthen partnerships between policy-makers and consumers [18]. Trusted partnerships between policy-makers and consumers (and communities more broadly), are integral to ensure that policy is responsive to the diverse social, economic and cultural needs and circumstances that influence the health and wellbeing across the population.

Development of this Strategy has been informed by consultations with key stakeholders, underpinned by a review of the evidence relevant to effective consumer engagement and best practice co-design. The primary target audience for this Strategy is policy-makers (both government and non-government). 3 objectives, 5 Consumer Engagement Fundamentals and 10 Good Practice Guidelines make up the core elements of this Strategy (see Strategy overview on next page for further detail). Aligning with the 3 primary objectives are 3 priority policy action areas to support effective implementation of this Strategy. These are to:

1.Develop resources to support good practice consumer engagement in health policy-making.
2.Strengthen operational capability to achieve good practice consumer engagement across government and non-government organisations involved in health policy-making.
3.Build the capacity and capability of consumers, particularly those from priority population groups, to engage in health policy-making processes.

The Health Engagement Learning Platform (HELP) Toolkit is a supplementary resource to support policy-makers to implement this Strategy. It provides practical guidance to assist with designing, implementing and evaluating consumer engagement activities in health policy development. This includes a high-level overview of common consumer engagement approaches relevant to policy-making and detailed checklists for applying the Good Practice Guidelines.

This Strategy and the HELP Toolkit both provide an extensive list of existing resources that may further inform and guide consumer engagement in Australian health policy-making. Links to these can be found in the ‘Other resources’ section at the end of this Strategy and the HELP Toolkit.