The Idea

• The first major stage in the policy making process is the development of the seminal idea that will eventually become policy. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay describes this step as the defining of the problem and the setting of the agenda. The Summit on Children's Mental Health, held in 2004, simply described this stage as the determination of the objective. It is during this stage that the initial idea is discussed and developed so that the problem that the policy will be aimed at can properly be defined in terms of its scope and possible solutions.