title: Housing, health and master planning: rules of engagement.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Knowledge about health focussed policy collaboration to date has been either tactical or technical. This article focusses on both technical and tactical issues to describe the experience of cross-sectoral collaboration between health and housing stakeholders across the life of a housing master plan, including but not limited to a health impact assessment (HIA).
  
  
  METHODS
  A single explanatory case study of collaboration on a master plan to regenerate a deprived housing estate in Western Sydney was developed to explain why and how the collaboration worked or did not work.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data collection included stakeholder interviews, document review, and reflections by the health team. Following a realist approach, data was analysed against established public policy theory dimensions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Tactically we did not know what we were doing. Despite our technical knowledge and skills with health focussed processes, particularly HIA, we failed to appreciate complexities inherent in master planning. This limited our ability to provide information at the right points. Eventually however the HIA did provide substantive connections between the master plan and health. We use our analysis to develop technical and tactical rules of engagement for future cross-sectoral collaboration.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This case study from the field provides insight for future health focussed policy collaboration. We demonstrate the technical and tactical requirements for future intersectoral policy and planning collaborations, including HIAs, with the housing sector on master planning. The experience also suggested how HIAs can be conducted flexibly alongside policy development rather than at a specific point after a policy is drafted.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation, Part of the Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. Electronic address: patrick.harris@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation, Part of the Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Haigh
authors.affiliation: Population Health, South Western Sydney & Sydney Local Health Districts, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thornell
authors.affiliation: Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Molloy
authors.affiliation: Population Health, South Western Sydney & Sydney Local Health Districts, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sainsbury
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D062489:Health Impact Assessment; D006291:Health Policy; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D011050:Policy Making; D011634:Public Health; D036301:Qualitative Research; D014904:Western Australia
keywords: Health impact assessment; Housing master plan; Intersectoral collaboration; Public health; Public policy