Development of the policy readiness tool to increase capacity for healthy public policy change

Building healthy public policy is a crucial health promotion strategy for addressing health inequities and improving population health outcomes. Municipal policy plays a crucial role, but its multi-step and complex policy processes can pose barriers for diverse policy actors. To inform policy tool development in other settings, this paper describes the methods used to develop the well-established Policy Readiness Tool, which was designed in Canada to help policy actors assess municipal readiness for policy change and focus their efforts accordingly. A three-phase research process utilized: systematic collecting and coding of municipal bylaws to characterize stages of readiness for policy change by adopter type (i.e., innovator, majority type, or late adopter); researcher-administered questionnaires with municipal representatives to determine organizational characteristics and policy change readiness; and semi-structured interviews with policy developers and advocates to uncover key strategies based on adopter type. Analysis employed diffusion of innovation theory and subsequent tool development involved pilot-testing with policy professionals. The resultant Policy Readiness Tool offers policy actors: the ability to self-assess municipal readiness for policy change; tailored strategies for fostering policy change aligned to level of readiness; and general strategies for encouraging healthy public policy change, regardless of stage of readiness. The Policy Readiness Tool aims to increase intersectoral policy actors’ capacity by providing advocacy strategies tailored by municipal readiness for policy change. This tool has been extensively used in Canada and internationally, providing a model for the development of healthy public policy-promoting tools in other settings.