Policy & Practice Tools
Below is a list of policy and practice tools and toolkits -- including policy evaluation methods-- created by InSPIRE or others that are freely availble for use. Many of the tools are supported by workshops, tutorials, or case studies.
This POLICY BRIEF is for those working in the public sector and third sector to help improve policies for mitigating the impact air pollution has on brain health and dementia.
It is based on a recent article we published in Environmental Research.
LESSON PLANS for educating students about brain health and air quality. There is a Primary and Secondary school plan.
Each Lesson Plan consists of two one-hour lessons. These lessons aim to introduce pupils to air pollution, its causes, and its effects on health, with a specific emphasis on brain health.
Each lesson includes five sections and lasts 1 hour. Activities are designed based on an ethnographic approach that encourages students to observe, talk with others, make comparisons, and consider their personal experiences.
Background: Over the course of two years, we worked as a consortium of 20+ academics in a participatory and consensus method to develop the first policy agenda for mitigating air pollution’s impact on brain health and dementia, including an umbrella review and engaging 11 stakeholder organisations.
Results: We identified three policy domains and 14 priority areas. Given the pressing issues of brain health, dementia and air pollution, setting a policy agenda is crucial. Policy needs to be matched by scientific evidence and appropriate guidelines, including bespoke strategies to optimise impact and mitigate unintended consequences. The agenda provided here is the first step toward such a plan.
COMPLEX-IT is a case-based, mixed-methods platform for policy evaluation and applied social inquiry into complex data/ systems.
It was designed to increase non-expert access to several computational techniques, including cluster analysis, artificial intelligence, data visualization, data forecasting, and scenario simulation.
The Complexity Evaluation Toolkit is aimed at those seeking guidance and signposting on how to handle complexity. The Toolkit draws from, summarises and builds upon concepts and guidance in key contributions that CECAN has made, such as the Magenta Book Supplementary Guidance (2020), and the Complexity Evaluation Framework (CEF) (2019).