Government Social Research
Government Chief Social Researcher's Office - Linking GSR to Current Issues in Social Research and Government
Philip Davies and Siobhan Benita have been working with colleagues in the Government Office for the West Midlands and the West Midlands' Regional Office of the Home Office on a Rapid Evidence Assessment on Gangs and Gun Violence. This is part of a drive to undertake as comprehensive a review of the existing research literature as possible in a limited period of time. A brief guide to Rapid Evidence Assessments is now available on this website. Comments from GSR members would be welcome. Philip also gave a presentation to the Strategic Management Board of the Government Office for the West Midlands on Evidence-Based Policy Making . There was some very constructive and appreciative discussion of how social research can play a role in evidence-based policy and practice, and in helping people make good strategic decisions.
Philip also visited the Nordic Campell Collaboration Centre in Copenhagen, which is doing some excellent work on developing systematic reviews to support policy making. Details are on their website Philip will be the keynote speaker at the Centre's national conference in Copenhagen in November 2004.
We have also been working with colleagues in DfID to help develop their policy and strategic development work on poverty reduction and social exclusion in countries at different stages of development.
Siobhan Benita attended the 12th Cochrane Colloquium to give the opening presentation at a special session on 'Building Bridges between Health and Social Science Research'. Siobhan spoke about the merits of 'joined-up government', what joining-up means for research and policy communities and what policy users want from their research colleagues. Phil Davies ended the special session with an exploration of the potential future links between the Cochrane and Campbell Collaborations.
Sue Duncan has also been widely promoting GSR at conferences and seminars. These have included the Royal Statistical Society annual conference; CRSP's Birthday conference and the ESRC Methods Fair. She will also be speaking at the JRF Centenary conference on 14 December. Sue and others in the unit take along the GSR stand and recruitment and promotional materials. If you have an event where some GSR profile would be useful, contact Correna Callender.
Phil has been working with Ricky Taylor and other GSR members on a two day course on Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Research.
Rebecca Laffineur has been working with the new Professional Skills in Government initiative (PSG), finding out what it could mean for you as a government social researcher. Details are yet to be finalised. It is clear that with Social Research as your professional skill, your career would be anchored in the Policy expert/analyst professional stream, alongside economists, statisticians, scientists and policy experts. The initiative will provide opportunities and encouragement to broaden your experience, beyond your social research role. GSR staff increasingly do this anyway, but once PSG is up and running, it will become an expectation. In particular, before entry to the SCS, you might be expected to have had exposure across more than one stream and acquired a range of business skills.
There will also be clearer criteria for moving from one grade to another. The competencies we are developing for a career in GSR will reflect the minimum requirements for the policy/analyst professional stream and are deliberately linked to the Senior Civil Service competencies, which have an increasing focus on delivery skills and relationship skills, as well as analytical and intellectual skills. Our plans for professional development in GSR will be shaped by the PSG initiative, ensuring that we are building career paths which provide the variety of skills and experience required for a successful Civil Service career. All this should make it easier to plan your career and give a clearer idea of what is expected at every grade.
We will provide further information through the GSR monthly bulletin; telling you how you can give your feedback about the initiative, and about how our plans are developing. You should also hear more about the initiative and your department's response to it from your HR unit. You can access the Summary Factsheet which outlines the key issues and background to the PSG initiative and have Your Questions Answered.
Annette King together with Jane Lewis from the National Centre of Social Research went to the 5th Qualitative Research Conference in Health and Social Care at Bournemouth University to give a talk on the Quality Framework. Delegates in the session were open to the idea of a Framework. Annette also learnt of an interesting new development: Look out for the 'IPA' approach, a paper on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis discussed using an 'IPA' approach to bring together perspective on research and psychotherapy to construct extended case studies. Know more about it? Think it sounds interesting or bizarre? Tell us what you think? What interesting methods development are you involved in? Share them with the rest of GSR.
We have also formed strong links with the new ESRC Methods Centre in Southampton (www.ncrm.ac.uk). Sue is on the Advisory Committee and we are looking at opportunities for joint activity.
A number of Departments are active in this area and ESRC is developing its own Framework. Sharmila Kaduskar has now left GCSRO to return to Department of Health. Her work on an ethical framework document for government social research will be taken forward by Teresa Williams.
FOI is coming soon; make sure you know how it affects social research. Sue Duncan is representing GSR on a GSS committee looking at this, but you need to know what's happening in your Department.
Sue has been holding discussions with the Office of Government Commerce to seek ways of addressing research procurement issues. SRA are also concerned about this issue. We'll keep you in touch with progress.
Yes this means everyone in GSR! GCSRO has been doing some work in this area, but if you want to know what's going on, you have to tell us what you're doing (see News from Departments).
John Scott Cree leads on the GSR website (www.gsr.gov.uk). It now has well over 4,000 visits per month. If you want some profile for an event, or you've been doing something interesting or have an achievement to celebrate, tell him ! Check out the website for events , news and GSR vacancies. John regularly updates these, but needs your help. Details of the HOPs' Summer Awayday are on the website - do you know what HoPs are discussing?
Check your details - the GSR Directory lists all staff in GSR. It's an invaluable way to make contacts, but only if it's up to date.
Check Policy Hub (www.policyhub.gov.uk) for the latest in policy making and lots more.
Sue Duncan has been out and about visiting GSR staff outside Central London. She has visited DWP and DfES staff in Sheffield, Home Office staff in Croydon, Scottish Executive staff in Edinburgh and she recently spoke at the NISRA conference in Northern Ireland. She will shortly be visiting GSR staff in Wales. Sue said 'I welcome the chance to chat informally to GSR staff about issues and problems and to find out about work in Departments. It really is important that I stay in touch if I am to properly represent GSR, so I'm always happy to be invited to visit or attend special events; you only have to ask!'
Correna Callender has also been visiting Departments to find out about internal communications. She's been finding out how GSR fits into the wider Department structure; what communication systems exist among GSR Departments; how the GSR staff in Departments link with the wider GSR and GCSRO. Workshops have been completed in 12 of the 20 'GSR' Departments to date. Look out for further news on developments in the communication strategy in future bulletins. For more details contact Correna direct.
Sarah Halls is busy making arrangements for this year's conference on 6 December in London. See your HoP for details if you're not signed up. Places are going fast.
Alexy Buck, Principal Researcher (Deputy Head) at the Legal Services Research Centre of the Legal Services Commission , has been awarded a T H Marshall Fellowship in European Social Policy from the London School of Economics. This is a new Anglo-German Fellowship Programme, open to mid-career to senior level academic researchers and equally qualified social policy practitioners. One of the key aims of the T H Marshall Fellowships is to bridge traditional barriers between theory and practice in social policy and to produce research on a comparative or supranational aspect of welfare state policy. Alexy will be based at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fuer Sozialforschung (WZB): a multi-disciplinary social science research centre and the largest of its kind in Europe. Alexy's research will focus on the influence of national identity and national history on social policy making, specifically in regard to education and how the concept of 'citizenship' has been taught in German schools. Comparisons will also be made to developments in Britain. She will be taking up her Fellowship from this October to April 2005. Congratulations Alexy!
DWP London ran two half-day workshops on the subject of Qualitative Research in Government. These workshops were follow on from a seminar previously held in Sheffield on the same themes. The aim was to share examples of a range of creative research methods that have made an impact on policy-making, and consider how they might be used within DWP. The subjects covered included: q uality in qualitative research , d iscourse analysis and lifecourse techniques . Six speakers presented over the two half-days, from both external agencies and from within DWP. For more information on these events please contact Jennifer Watson ( jennifer.watson@dwp.gsi.gov.uk) .
DWP is also planning a Poster Conference for 25 November at the University of Nottingham . The aim of this is to facilitate networking and knowledge sharing amongst the Social Research community, whilst promoting Social Research amongst analysts and other colleagues across DWP. Every team with a social researcher will be represented and each team will present a team poster, giving an overview of their team's purpose and research activities. The event aims to encourage dialogue and sharing of ideas between all researchers and a greater understanding of how our work links together. The team posters will be linked to team details on a large networking map on the intranet which the wider analytical community and policy customers will be able to access. This will provide a user-friendly overview of our social research community, by illustrating each team's position and how they link to other research teams and analysts within DWP. It is anticipated that, as users of the site browse over different team names, a pop-up sentence will appear at the bottom of the screen showing full team name and briefly state its overall purpose. If the user wishes to know more, they can click on the team to open a link to the team poster in PDF format. Unfortunately numbers for attending this event are limited and it is open to invitation only. However, if you have any queries please contact Fraser Macleod ( F raser.Macleod@dwp.gsi.gov)
The Office for National Statistics has launched a website, Stats4Schools, ( http://www.stats4schools.gov.uk ) to support the teaching of statistics across the national curriculum. It provides teachers and pupils with a free on-line resource, offering up to date statistics linked to lesson plans and worksheets that deal with interesting themes.
Something missing? What are the rest of you doing? Nobody will know unless you tell them. Let us know via your Comms rep . Sue Duncan has commented that she has learned of all sorts of interesting developments around Departments from her visits - people involved in groundbreaking research design; with interesting ways to keep in touch or to develop skills. She strongly encourages people to share all this with other GSR members. A quick email will do it.