Government Social Research
News from the Government Chief Social Researcher's Office (GCSRO)
The last few months have been a very busy time for my team.
One of our main concerns has been creating more cohesion within GSR and fostering better communication between Departments. We're also keen to raise GSR's profile both within and outside government. We need to tell policy colleagues, non government researchers and potential recruits who we are - professional discipline based policy analysts who provide high quality evidence-based research for government and have a major impact on policy development. In order to facilitate all of this we have developed a bold new visual identity and designed a website, both of which will be launched at the forthcoming conference in Edinburgh.
We have put a lot of work into making sure we got the image right - interviewing key stakeholders to gauge perceptions of GSR and working with the Comms Committee and communications experts. Many of you will have been consulted on both the new logo and the website, either at the New Recruits conference in December, or through your Communications Committee representative. We now have an image we are confident presents us in a positive and relevant way. I will be circulating the logo after the GSR conference with branding guidelines on its use. This is our logo - do use it.
We are also very excited about the launch of the GSR website. It will be an essential tool in facilitating better communication and information sharing within GSR. It will include career development information (including vacancies), a directory page, links to key resources, and information on how social research units in Departments operate. There will also be information on my team, HoPs and the GSR Committees. Please visit it at www.gsr.gov.uk from 10 March; tell us what you would like to see on it and, ideally, offer to do something for it.
GCSRO provides technical consultancy service to Departments and agencies - a sort of 'critical friend'. In the past few months we have worked with colleagues in the Home Office on the evaluation of the drug strategy part of the Criminal Justice Intervention Programme and the evaluation of the Pathfinder's Programme on cognitive behavioural skills for offenders on probation; with DfID on developing evidence-based policy on reducing poverty and reaching the very poor in difficult environments; with DWP on the evaluation of the 'Informed Choice' policy on pensions; with ODPM on the role of research and analysis in policy making, especially in neighborhood renewal and with GOEM (Government Office of the East Midlands) developing and testing social network analysis and Virtual Network Analysis. We've also conducted a number of pieces of methodological research; copies of reports are available electronically or in hard copy - see GSR website.
We have been working with the Training Committee on a skills audit; results should be available soon. We have also continued to provide a range of training courses and professional development opportunities for social researchers. Courses have been provided in:
These courses will be run again over the year, along with courses in the following:
We have also run several bespoke courses for Departments and agencies and are running one for Customs and Excise in March 2004.
We have also published several chapters of the 'Magenta Book' on good practice in policy evaluation (see Policy Hub).
My team has also been trying to foster our links with the wider academic and research community. GCSRO staff sit on various committees of external research bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Council, the Joseph Rowntree Trust, and the Social Research Association. In addition, they work with these and other groups such as the Campbell Collaboration, the Cochrane Collaboration, the King's Fund, and the Rockefeller Foundation to identify good practice in social research and evaluation in the outside and within government social research. Details of recent activity in this area can be found on Policy Hub (www.policyhub.gov.uk).
GCSRO members regularly give conference presentations on the work of the government social research service and we recently organised a meeting of people who are working on evidence-based policy making across Whitehall. This proved to be a successful way of sharing experiences and creating good working links for the future. Action arising from this meeting will be fed back into the Excellence in Policy Making Network; actions include trying to rationalise the plethora of policy-related networks which currently exist and sharing good practice on better policy-making initiatives.
We are also working to address issues of ethical assurance in research. We have drafted a proposed way forward; more details will be provided at the GSR Conference.
If you want to find out more about our work please contact us. And do visit the website for further information on all GSR issues from March!