Social Work

Jurisdictional scans are "decision-making tools used by governments and organizations to:

• Consider how problems have been framed in other jurisdictions,
• Compare and evaluate options based on action taken in other jurisdictions in response to similar problems,
• Identify and anticipate implementation considerations associated with options" (Kilian, Nidumolu, & Lavis, 2016, slide 2)

Kilian, A., Nidumolu A., & Lavis, J. (2016). Jurisdictional scans in policy making: A critical interpretive synthesis. Retrieved from https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/handle/2123/15695/bhsc_kilian_ehpr-presentation-2016-06-21final.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Jurisdictional scan resources:

I have yet to find an authoritative book or resource on how to conduct a jurisdictional scan, so if you come across one you think is useful, please let me know!  In the meantime, a couple of faculty in the School of Child and Youth Care suggested these two items as good examples of a jurisdictional scan done in their field, but it gives you an idea of what these tend to look like:

• Jewell, L., Mathias, K., Pilon, A., Brown, K., Ferguson, M., Truswell, K., ... & Wormith, S. (2016). A jurisdictional scan of the programs and services available to support the community reintegration of IRCS youth in Northern Saskatchewan. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjOzP_j8rXoAhVJHc0KHfarDucQFjAAegQIBxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usask.ca%2Fcfbsjs%2Fdocuments%2FIRCSJurisdictionalScan.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3zmyCTAUjkhKJr5Je8LnJg
• Bertrand, J. & Michal, D. (n.d.). Literature review and environmental scan: Prepared for the Training Strategy Project. Child Care Human Resources Sector Council. Retrieved from http://www.ccsc-cssge.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/Projects-Pubs-Docs/2.22-Training_LitRev_Eng.pdf

Probably the easiest way to locate information on a jurisdictional scan is to do a Google search for: "jurisdictional scan" (include quotes around phrase to ensure Google searches for these words in this EXACT order).  You will get a variety of results of scans from different sectors. 

If you want to focus on jurisdictional scans coming out of child and youth care, you could add those terms to your search.

Or, if you want to focus on jurisdictional scans coming out of government,  you can use the advanced Google search feature to limit your search to websites coming out of particular domains.  For example, if I want examples coming from the BC government, I would type this at the end of my Google search: site:.bc.ca

Adding site:.bc.ca ensures that only websites coming from the domain .bc.ca are retrieved.  If you want to filter to other provincial governments or the Federal government, you can change the domain to things like: site:.ab.ca, or site:.gc.ca, etc....