Action planning: Ensuring collective ownership

In addition to longer term visions and strategic goals, effective alliances should have action plans setting out the activity which will take place over shorter time frames, eg. this quarter, in the next two quarters or this year.

Action plans can take different forms but consolidating actions which will deliver against the strategic vision and incorporate evidence based activity across the six key strands of tobacco control is important to ensuring Alliances are taking a comprehensive approach to tobacco control.

Giving Alliance partners ownership of actions can be a key way to ensure their engagement, especially if they’re asked to provide updates on activity at meetings with senior leadership presence.

• Newcastle’s Smokefree Newcastle Action Plan is updated and based around an eight key strand approach – the World Bank six strands plus tobacco regulation, and research monitoring and evaluation. This includes SMART objectives and space for reporting on progress with each of these.
• Smokefree Newcastle’s Action Plan is also represented as a ‘Plan on a Page‘. This present the key activity under each of their eight key strands which can be shared with partners and senior leaders to show key activity.
• Barnsley’s Smokefree Barnsley Tobacco Alliance Action Plan Refresh 2018-2020 allocates actions to different organisations and has space to report on activity each year.

Roadmap stops: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12