(From the ISHN Member information service)  One of the major challenges in sustaining and integrating health and social programs within education systems is the tendency in government to create and maintain "silos" of programs, often delivered in isolation or even competition with each other. Most governments create committees to encourage coordination but they often fail, or they focus on only one problem at a time. The Manitoba Healthy Child Agency, a strategy established in law in 2007, is an exception to this rule. The slogan on Manitoba license plates tells the world about "Friendly Manitoba". More than just words, this slogan actually reflects a culture and customs in the province, one which was born in Canada's harshest winters and bred by generations of immigrants who had to rely on each other. So, perhaps, it is this culture of cooperation that enables Healthy Child Manitoba (HCM) to be as effective as an inter-ministry agency, coordinating several ministers and ministries, in a "whole of government" strategy.  Other factors could include their requirement to report results every five years, its research, innovation and knowledge development capacity, and its combination of programs (as opposed to framework documents) that are delivered hands-on and delegated ways. As well, the Healthy Child inter-ministry program has its own legislation, entitled the Healthy Child Manitoba Act, thereby giving its coordination work legal authority and requirements to report every five years on progress.     

The HCM web site describes its work as follows: " in 2000, the provincial government implemented the Healthy Child Manitoba (HCM) Strategy – a network of programs and supports for children, youth and families. This nationally recognized strategy was set in legislation under The Healthy Child Manitoba Act in 2007.Led by the Healthy Child Committee of Cabinet, Healthy Child Manitoba bridges departments and governments and, together with the community, works to improve the well-being of Manitoba's children and youth. HCM focuses on child-centred public policy through the integration of financial and community-based family supports.In addition to these cross-sectoral government structures, The HCM Act also continues the work of cross-sectoral community structures, including Parent-Child Coalitions and the Provincial Healthy Child Advisory Committee (PHCAC). HCM researches best practices and models and adapts these to Manitoba's unique situation. It strengthens provincial policies and programs for healthy child and adolescent development, from the prenatal period to adulthood. HCM then evaluates programs and services to find the most effective ways to achieve the best possible outcomes for Manitoba children, families, and communities."

(From the ISHN Member information service) SHPPS is a national survey periodically conducted to assess school health policies and practices at the state, district, school, and classroom levels. The 2012 study collected data at the state and district levels
only. School-and classroom-level data collection will take place in 2014. This report is on school health coordination activities. 66.0% of states had a person, such as a state school health coordinator, responsible for overseeing or coordinating all
of the state’s school health and safety policies and activities. 53.7% of districts had a district-level school health coordinator who oversees the district’s health and safety policies and activities. 68.8% of states had one or more than one group (e.g., a committee, council, or team) of people formally charged with coordinating state-level school health-related activities. 65.4% of districts had one or more than one group (e.g., a school health council, committee, or team) at the district level that offered guidance on the development of policies or coordinated activities that are health-related. Read more>>

(An item from the ISHN Member information service) The school health movement has focused on transforming schools through "whole school" strategies. As proponents, we would learn much from reading Issue #2, 2013 of Improving Schools, where the concept of "schoolwide pedagogies" is discussed in a special issue. There are several articles but this quote from the concluding article is quite revealing. "The term schoolwide pedagogy was once rarely heard and yet has now become a part of most discussions around school improvement. But what does it really mean and why is the presence of a schoolwide pedagogical framework important? Some would say that in their school the adoption of an authoritative approach such as Habits of Mind, Bloom’s Taxonomies or the Productive Pedagogies is a schoolwide pedagogical framework. To some extent they are, but what is often lacking is the intellectual and social capacity that is built through collective professional sharing and articulation of strongly held beliefs about contextually relevant teaching and learning practices. Without this sense of ownership, teacher adoption ends up being sporadic at best with some teachers paying only lip service to imposed quality frameworks". If this is the case for matters at the heart of the school (ie how to teach), then what can we expect for matters such as health, which are often seen as secondary? (unless we truly understand and commit to working within schools in a sustained manner) Read more>>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #5, 2012 of Environmental Education Research draws from the experience of a Queensland Environmentally Sustainable Schools Initiative Alliance in Australia – "to argue that while network participants were engaged and committed to participation in this network, ‘old’ forms of top-down engagement and relationships needed to be unlearnt. This paper thus proposes that for participation in decentralized networks to be meaningful, new learning about how to participate needs to occur." The authors suggest that the assumption that we automatically know how to work within networks needs to be challenged and that we need to specifically identify the problems inherent in the process. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) Several years ago, the process of inter-group collaboration was described in depth and the slogan "Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing" was used to capture the various stages of cooperation. However, as with many other health and social issues, this accumulated wisdom is not real until someone in that particular discipline or network reinvents the idea. Such may be the case of an article in Issue #5, 2012 of Administration & Policy on Mental Health Services/Mental Health Services Research, where the authors explored the process involved in inter-agency collaboration when providing Integrative Family and Systems Treatment (I-FAST) for families with severely emotionally or behaviorally disturbed children. Data were collected through a series of eight focus groups with 26 agency collaborators across 11 counties in Ohio. Data analysis revealed two emergent phenomena: the process of developing collaboration, consisting of making initial contact, a trial period and developing trust. As well, the authors suggest that the key ingredients of collaboration are focused on interpersonal and professional qualities. Hopefully, the full text of the article or the details of the study reveal an evolution in our knowledge that is not apparent in the abstract.  Read more..

(An item from ISHN Member information service) One of the characteristics of large "professional bureaucracies" such as education, health and social service is that knowledge is a source of power and influence within those layered and loosely-coupled structures. Consequently, it makes sense that knowledge management (KM) strategies can be helpful in coordinating these systems and enabling the local agencies and professionals to work together. An article in Issue #5, 2012 of Health & Social Care in the Community reports on the use of KM strategies to integrate the efforts of two systems. The authors completed a critical review of the literature to identify theoretical insights and models in this field. The findings were then used to explore the approach to KM. This case study involved an interrogation of relevant documentary material, together with 25 in-depth interviews with managers and professionals. The authors no planned KM strategies for learning and KM, but rather, interventions and mechanisms at different levels to support integration processes. These included formal activities, training and appraisal, but also informal ones within communities of practice and networking. Although structural enablers such as a co-location of facilities and joint appointments were important, the value of trust and inter-personal relationships was highlighted especially for tacit knowledge exchange. The conclusion to the article uses Nonaka’s knowledge conversation model to reflect on the research findings, to comment on the absence of an explicit approach to learning and KM, and to develop a template to assist policy-makers with the design of planned strategies" Read more..