Government Social Research
This year’s conference, extremely well co-ordinated by members of the Home Office and HMRC, brought together over 200 GSR members from across the UK. We had the luxury of a central London location offering a pleasant environment and inspiring views of the Thames (especially from heady heights of the syndicate rooms) which made the long wait for the lifts worth while.
The conference was opened by the Chief Government Social Researcher Sue Duncan, who laid out a focus for the following three days - exploring the role of GSR in the policy formulation and evaluation process. Delegates were offered presentations from speakers including GSR members, academics and policy makers, all of whom shared with us their experience of research and perspectives on the relationship between policy and social research. An international comparison made by Michael Feuer was particularly interesting, as was Moira Wallace’s conviction that we need to develop closer relationships between policy and research.
From the start, the conference inspired discussions about the role of social science and social researchers in relation to informing the policy process, working relationships, and sourcing evidence on which to make decisions. Michael Feuer’s thesis was that when we strive to deliver an evidence base robust enough to make rational conclusions about the success of a policy or programme, we tend to integrate this within the need for scientific validation. However, he felt that we should not completely ignore the value that instinct and intuition, gathered through the lessons learnt during previous experience, can offer the evaluation process. He also commented that when setting the standards for evidence of success, a balance needs to be achieved - if standards become too high, the conclusions will indicate that most social programmes would not be worth further investment.
This viewpoint was complemented by other presentations highlighting the need for rigorous evaluation alongside the management of expectations of policy colleagues - in particular, during evaluations when the evidence suggests a programme is not working effectively the research should still be viewed as successful. It was suggested that failure to do this may inhibit the progression of research, rather than inspire innovative projects driving methodological advancement and professional standards.
Relationships between policy colleagues and GSR members was stressed as a key component to successfully delivering evidence based policy. The way in which we inter-relate with wider audiences for research (including policy colleagues, those within academia and the wider public sphere) was highlighted as having important consequences for the successful delivery of research findings. Moira Wallace and Patrick Wintour both called for the proactive dissemination of research findings, and a reduction in the time between research being completed and made publicly available. They argued that, for the wider research and policy community, the value of findings is diminished the longer they remain internal to government. It was agreed that research findings should be delivered clearly and concisely, but that we should bear in mind the ability of the audience to interpret them.
Moira observed that policy colleagues may have a greater ability to interpret technical details than they are often given credit for by GSR members, and that this ability is likely to rise further with the launch of Professional Skills for Government (PSG). Moira also took the opportunity to remind us of the great potential of social research for contributing to the policy making and problem solving agenda. Ultimately, she told us, real customer engagement is key to research making an impact.
Research standards and producing high quality evidence is clearly essential but during the Q and A session the panel encouraged us to consider the fine balance between timeliness, usefulness and relevance. Is it more important that what we provide is top quality or fit for purpose? Sometimes, ‘better’ can be the enemy of ‘good’. Timeliness was a big issue, throughout the three-day conference and was discussed in a break-out session on improving performance. This particular discussion on timeliness brought about the novel suggestion that maybe the policy process should slow down.
Sir Brian Bender offered an overview of what PSG will aim to achieve in the longer term. The aim is to produce effective interdisciplinary working, with the supply of analysis better meeting policy demand. The hope is that this will create evidence-based policy through the greater understanding of each other’s roles, rather than the present system of using evidence to back-up policy. We need more ‘demand-side push’ rather that ‘supply-side pull’ - researchers need to anticipate policy makers’ needs so policy makers have the answer when they need it (rather than in three years time).
Rebecca Laffineur sparkled as she introduced the new GSR competency framework produced in alignment with the PSG programme. Rebecca’s presentation on Professional Skills for Government (PSG) was very informative and clear, and filled with practical and useful information.
Towards the conclusion of the conference GSRU presented a suite of recruitment tools for use within assessment centres - the recommended approach for running recruitment exercises. The GSR Fast Stream programme was also announced and prompted some interesting views from the floor.
Chloe Chitty was excellent in closing the conference for Sue Duncan, providing a positive and encouraging summing up. She urged us to “go forth and influence”, and be the critical friend that stands up and says so when things are wrong. She told us that we must be bridges, but not just any bridge. Rather, we should strive to be Tower Bridge - technical, clever, inspiring and useful as we produce evidence and provide advice.
During the evening entertainment we were wined and dined onboard the ‘Silver Fleet’ as it cruised along the Thames, and most of us managed to find our sea legs for long enough to enjoy the views from the deck. On the Tuesday evening we welcomed the return of the GSR quiz, with its ‘ask the audience’ style of participation using voting buttons.
To sum up, we collected a lot of helpful hints and tried and tested techniques from fellow researchers that we have been able to take away and use in our own work.
It was great to catch up with friends and colleagues and to meet more social researchers, and we’re encouraged that, whilst there’s still a lot of educating to be done about research, we are starting to get there.
On a lighter note, we haven’t been able to access at work the website quoted by Michael Feuer (www.Venganza.org), so have not managed to look at it. We found the correlation between the decline in numbers of pirates and global warming was particularly memorable, although we have yet to find a way to work it into a presentation (I expect Lyndsey may find that easier at DEFRA!). In one of the break-out sessions, Andrea Collier gave us a great recipe for successful cross government working. Jude and I made a note of all the ingredients, tested it writing this and hope to use it again ASAP. And finally, what was the unidentifiable translucent vegetable that was served at the Gala dinner? Answers on a postcard please...