Government Social Research
Government Chief Social Researcher's Office - Linking GSR to Current Issues in Social Research and Government
The PSG sub-group for Heads of Profession met in January. They proposed some key changes to the PSG initiative, all of which received support from the PSG team and will be put to the Civil Service Management Board for approval. For a quick reminder of the key issues and background to the PSG initiative see the Summary Sheet
The key messages from the feedback were:
The proposed changes are:
GCSRO supports the proposed changes, in particular we welcome the move of emphasis away from gateways and on to ensuring that we are setting the right standards for all grades and; the recognition that broader experience could be gained by doing the same job in different settings, and doesn't require time-out from deepening professional skills. We expect to see some tangible outputs from the PSG team over the next few months i.e. standards and skill sets for each of the work streams. We are involved in this work and are well placed to keep you posted on developments through these news bulletins.
Contact details: Rebecca Laffineur, tel: GTN 7276 1772; e-mail: rebecca.laffineur@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
Sir Andrew Turnbull has initiated a new cross-Whitehall group to provide a strategic and coordinated oversight of government analytical services and their contribution to policy and delivery. GCSRO has been central in ensuring this happens, and provides the secretariat for the group, which will meet quarterly. The group - known as the Coordination of Research and Analysis Group (CRAG) - brings together the chiefs of key analytical professions across government (including Sue Duncan as the Chief Government Social Researcher) and senior policy/delivery stakeholders across government (including Sir Brian Bender, the new Head of Profession for policy; the heads of the PM's Delivery and Strategy Units, and strategy directors from key departments).
The first meeting was held in December, and focused on what the group might do to strengthen and support the way government identifies and responds to its key analytical priorities (within and across departments). A key action from the meeting is to organise a Spring Event to draw together emerging priorities across analytical groups (science, social research, economics, statistics etc), share these with key policy stakeholders and feed them into the design of the next Spending Review process.
The GCSRO contact for this work is Teresa Williams, tel: GTN 7276 1875; e-mail: teresa.williams@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
GCSRO is in the process of developing a Strategic Framework for the ethical assurance of government social research. This document will set out:
Heads of Profession in Departments, as well as external stakeholders, have already been consulted on earlier drafts. The final version will probably be launched alongside the ESRC Research Ethics Framework in the Spring/early Summer.
The GCSRO contact for this work is Teresa Williams, tel: GTN 7276 1875; e-mail: teresa.williams@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
At the same time, Cabinet Office - with financial contributions from Department for Transport, Inland Revenue, Scottish Executive, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation - is commissioning the National Centre for Social Research to undertake a qualitative study to explore research participants' perceptions and experiences of ethical issues in social research. This is due to commence shortly and will report in Spring 2006.
The GCSRO contact for this project is Gemma Penn
Rob Reynolds is a new arrival to GCSRO as Stakeholder Manager. Managing the politics of the Unit is crucial to GCSRO's success in helping stakeholders understand and support the work of GSR. Rob's key work areas will be to help develop the GSR strategy, clarifying and prioritising the unit's work with different stakeholder groups and reviewing the communications needs of both GSR and the unit. His previous Departmental experience includes the Home Office Anti-Social Behaviour Unit, Private Office of the Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office), CMPS, and ONS (Census Division). Prior to joining the Civil Service, he worked in the private and local authority sectors and served in the Royal Navy.
Gemma Penn (Senior Research Officer) has just joined GCSRO from the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit at ODPM. During her time in GCSRO she will be working on a project to improve evidence-based policy making, which will involve undertaking research on what policy-makers understand by social research and how they see social research fitting into the policy-making process. Gemma helped run a workshop at the most recent Social Research Association (SRA) Conference, entitled 'Action learning and disseminating research findings from the National Evaluation of the Street Warden Programme: The challenge of timely and appropriate feedback'. This involved reflection on the lessons learned in meeting the key challenges of complexity and change. The SRA was particularly pleased as the workshop was given jointly by the research contractor and research contract manager. Several other GSR members ran workshops at the conference as well as researchers working on government research projects.
Jennifer Watson has joined as a permanent member of staff in the Cabinet Office, following a casual appointment in the Social Research Division at DWP. She is taking on the role of Business Support Manager in GCSRO, with a range of office management duties and support to GSR Communications and Recruitment work. In particular, she will be supporting GCSRO Web Manager John Scott Cree by managing the content of the GSR website ( www.gsr.gov.uk ) so will be the contact point for all updates to the site put forward by Departments and their Communications Reps.
Contact details: Jennifer Watson, tel: GTN 7276 1863 email: Jennifer.watson@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk
It has been a busy time on the training front for GCSRO. A total of 8 professional development courses were run between September and December, as part of the policy evaluation and analysis training programme. All courses were fully booked and feedback from participants was excellent. A new course programme for the spring will shortly be advertised on the GSR website (see www.gsr.gov.uk ). This will include several new courses. If you are interested in taking a course please book early to avoid disappointment.
GCSRO is seeking an academic partner to develop the current course programme into a Masters level qualification. If everything runs to plan it is hoped that a modular based Masters programme will be available to all government researchers by the end of 2005. This will mean that a researcher who wishes to take a course that is part of the policy evaluation and analysis training programme, and who is also prepared to complete coursework and other assessments, will be able to earn credits towards a Masters level qualification (a diploma and a certificate will also be available).
A number of bespoke training events on research methods have also been run for individual departments. For instance, short courses or seminars have been run for DfID, Home Office, Customs and Excise, DWP, and the Cabinet Office. In addition Ricky Taylor and Phil Davies have acted as consultants to a number of departments on policy evaluation projects. Please contact Ricky Taylor (ricky.taylor@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk or tel: GTN 7276 1865) if your Department is interested in a bespoke training course or would welcome advice on a particular evaluation project.
GCSRO has negotiated free online access to the International Bibliography of Social Sciences (IBSS) for GSR. Ask your library or see the Resources page of GSRweb if you have access to the Government Secure intranet. Watch out for news of access to other valuable social research databases.
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 across GSR below).
The website 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 us ! Check out the website for Events , news and GSR vacancies .
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.
Please remember, if you have any vacancies to advertise, please send them to gsr-web@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk at least four weeks before the closing date.
DWP is running a seminar for its Social Researchers on 'Integrating Research and Technology' at their London HQ the Adelphi on 3 rd February. A presentation will be given by ORC International on e-libraries, web portals and the use of the mCAPI (a pocket PC with GPRS connection) in collecting real-time data. For more information please contact: Sonia Cordner
DWP held a Poster Conference at the University of Nottingham in late November to facilitate networking and knowledge-sharing amongst the Social Research community within the Department. This event was considered a great success by the many researchers who attended and the organisers have written an article about it which will shortly be appearing on the GSR website - look out for it in the 'latest news' section very soon.
For more information on research at DTI check out the Employment Market Analysis and Research (EMAR) website at http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/emar . EMAR is a multidisciplinary team of economists, social researchers and statisticians based in the Employment Relations Directorate of DTI. Their role is to provide the evidence base for good policy making in employment relations, labour market and equality and discrimination at work.
The Home Office Civil Renewal Unit has set up a small research programme under the banner of the Active Citizenship Centre to increase the evidence base in the area of community engagement in line with some of the key work strands in the 'Together We Can Action Plan' (a cross government action plan for civil renewal that is currently being finalised). The research programme is being co-ordinated by Professor Gerry Stoker and Professor Peter John at Manchester University.
The projects are aiming to report in September 2005 and the Home Office hopes to hold an event at this time to disseminate the findings and bring government and other academic researchers working in the area of community engagement together.
The titles of the projects and names of researchers are:
There is more information at the website http://www.active-citizen.org.uk/ which is building up a significant amount of information on research in this area (check out the research reports section).
Nobody will know unless you tell them. Let us know via your Communications Rep.