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Home Office RDS Away Day

10th January 2005: specialist staff working in the Research Development and Statistics (RDS) branch of the Home Office attended the RDS Away Day in London.

The day started with a presentation by Professor Paul Wiles, the head of RDS and chief scientific advisor for the Home Office. Professor Wiles spoke about the vision for RDS through supporting people and improving the work conducted. Some of the work which has already taken place includes:

• Ensuring consistent research standards apply across the whole of the Home Office. This also includes non-RDS work. This has been taken forward by revising the Project Quality Approval Board (PQAB) process and working with external bodies to ensure they take this on board with the work they carry out on behalf of the Home Office;
• Ensuring that research publications come out at the same time once a month;
• Publication of the science and innovation strategy;
• Holding a science and research week in late 2005.

The delegates also had the opportunity to attend two breakout sessions on other developments occurring across the department, including:

• Skills development and grading
• Systematic reviews of evidence
• Working with other government departments
• Randomised Control Trials

Karen Dunnell, the National Statistican and Head of the GSS also attended to speak about the developments and challenges within ONS, and how this could impact on the work within the Home Office. Karen also spoke about the recently published Statistics Commission draft report on crime statistics and the announcement for the ONS being independent from government.

One of the main focuses of the away day was to provide updates on the Professional Skills for Government (PSG) agenda and the close working with the government wide professional groups. The day ended with presentations by Carole Willis, the Home Office GSR head of profession who highlighted the developments in PSG for social researchers. Sue Holloway from the Government Economic Service and Tony O’Connor from the Government Operational Research Service also presented, giving the developments within their professions. These presentations helped to provide a comparative account of the various developments for each professional group.

After this away day there are plans for the continuation of the events, including the re-introduction of an annual RDS seminar.