PREPARED BY: Planning and Strategic Initiatives
DATE: 2025-11-20
SUBJECT: Q3 Board of Health Effectiveness Survey Summary
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE
The Ontario Public Health Standards (2021), under the Good Governance and Management Practices Domain, states: “the board of health shall have a self-evaluation process of its governance practices…”.
In addition to a yearly self-evaluation process, the WECHU has developed a quarterly self-assessment survey for Board of Health (BoH) members. The survey provides an opportunity for feedback on BoH operations and is used to inform quality improvement efforts.
DISCUSSION
There were 9 completed surveys received from BoH members related to Q3 effectiveness.
Responses related to BoH operations continued to be positive overall. Most responses were ‘Strongly Agree’ or ‘Agree’. There were 2 instances of ‘Don’t Know/Unsure’ related to asking if material notices of wrongdoing or irregularities were responded to in a timely manner.
In terms of overall perceived BoH effectiveness, responses were similar to the Q2 2025 survey and ranged from scores of 7 to 10 (compared to 8 to 10 in the previous survey). However, the average score was slightly higher at 9.1/10 compared to the Q2 average score of 8.7/10.
Suggestions for improvement included:
- Stronger social media presence
- Improving our collaboration with local municipal governments
- Involving local municipalities in community-building and public health initiatives that go beyond the management of environmental hazards such as beach water and tick surveillance