Government Social Research
Welcome to the May GSR bulletin.
Please use the links below to navigate to sections of interest to you.
Visit the Homepage and Research news pages for more recent items.
Around 80 heads of profession from the analytical community met at the Treasury. Alongside GSR we were joined by colleagues from operational research, economics, statistics, and science and engineering. The purpose of the meeting was to improve the quality of analysis and evidence, and its use by policy makers and deliverers, by initiating an on-going programme of activity amongst the analytical professions to share good practice, exploit synergies and solve common problems.
The morning consisted of input to the debate. Perspectives were wide, being drawn from the recent survey of government analysts, departmental perspectives and views from the centre provided by Gus O’Donnell (Cabinet Secretary), Suma Chakrabarti (Permanent Secretary, DfID) and Ian Watmore (Head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit). Gus O’Donnell in particular endorsed the importance of analysis in the policy process and urged Heads of Profession to increase their profile and influence. In the afternoon working groups tackled a range of issues emerging from the morning sessions. The steering group that convened the meeting (consisting of representatives from all the analytical professions and chaired by GSRU’s Teresa Williams) will be responsible for reporting on the event in full and identifying possible on-going work and projects from the outputs of the working groups.
Data cleaning of GSR member database - We are in the process of checking all the details we hold centrally about individual members of GSR. It is vital to our work as your central support unit that we have accurate information on which to base our plans and activities. We will be writing to each member currently on our database with a copy of the information we hold about them and asking for them to return it to us, indicating where any changes are needed.
Following his successful run in the recent London Marathon, GSR member Ceri Hughes is taking a career break from Visit Wales to live in the jungle in Ecuador for a couple of years. Commenting on the move, Ceri said: "I just fancied a bit of a change of scenery and lifestyle for a couple of years. I was going to go off travelling the world but felt I'd rather do something a bit more worthwhile so I'm volunteering with an environmental charity Jatun Sacha. It was time to change jobs, so I thought why not have a good break between? Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to go back to the Welsh Assembly Government. I'm hoping as well to learn first hand about the problems we are creating and maybe have an opportunity to do at least something about it." Ceri has set up a blog that he will be updating once he gets going, though he is not sure how frequently he will have Internet access, but feel free to pop in for a look at Ceri's blog.
Whitehall and Westminster World Civil Service Awards: Call for entries: deadline 27 July - this year’s categories have just been announced - New categories for this year include Diversity, Financial Management and Public Value. The nominations process is now open and you can complete your nominations easily and conveniently online. Visit the Civil Service network website to help you compose your nominations and to see how your colleagues did last year. These awards have quickly established themselves as a premier opportunity to promote and celebrate good work and achievement across the civil service. Please identify work in your area that can be entered.
Research Excellence & Effectiveness Awards 2007: call for entries: deadline 31 May - Full information on categories, criteria and the applications process is available on the MRS website.
GSR Recruitment and Objective Assessment training course: new course date 3-4 July - this GSR training course is essential for those involved in recruiting to, and promoting staff within, the Government Social Research service. Book now to secure your place on the last available dates in the current schedule.
GSR Recruitment and Objective Assessment training course (GSI only)
Government Social Research Masters degree - essential that researchers understand both the policy context and how current analytical thinking and techniques can be applied. This qualification is expressly designed to help them to do that, whilst adding to government’s collective expertise” Sue Duncan. Deadline for applications is Tuesday 31 July.
Academy of Social Sciences: Jo Campling Memorial Prize: deadline 31 July 2007 - To mark the contribution of the late Jo Campling to the furthering of the social sciences, the prize is aimed at capacity building for the social science community through inviting scholars who are still developing their careers to contribute an 8000 word essay on a topic of their choice fitting to the scope of the journal 21st Century Society. Papers should be emailed to acssjournal@ioe.ac.uk.
GSRU has published two new reports which look at how evidence is viewed and used by policy makers, and the different structures in which analysts work to provide it. The reports were launched at a joint meeting of all government analytical heads of profession at the Treasury, attended by Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell.
The Home office publish Adult offenders’ perceptions of their underlying problems: findings from the OASys self-assessment questionnaire (Findings 284) (PDF) which summarises the responses of over 100,000 offenders in the OASys self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ), between January 2003 and May 2006.
The Office for National Statistics is preparing the 'National Statistics Annual Report' for 2006/07 - one of the annexes to this report lists all of the additions to, and deletions from, the scope of National Statistics during the year. If your organisation has made any changes to scope in the last 12 months (April 2006 - March 2007) please provide Matt Prior with the titles. His e-mail address is: matt.prior@ons.gsi.gov.uk.
The Welsh Assembly Government are developing a quality assurance framework for WAG social research, to set out the key stages of the research process and who is required to provide “input” at each stage. Crucially, it will also highlight where “sign-off” is required and who is responsible for quality assuring specific outputs. For details contact Beverley.morgan@wales.gsi.gov.uk
Mathematica semimonthly update 10 May 2007
Contents include:
Mathematica semimonthly update 3 May 2007
Contents include:
Mathematica semimonthly update 19 April 2007
Contents include:
World Values Survey - "non-profit organization based in Stockholm and funded by various scientific foundations ... to help social scientists and policy makers better understand worldviews and changes that are taking place in the beliefs, values and motivations of people throughout the world ... a global network of social scientists who have surveyed the basic values and beliefs of the publics of more than 80 societies, on all six inhabited continents." [website]
Visit the Bulletin Archive to view the contents
of previous Bulletins.
Copy deadline for next Bulletin is noon 14 June 2007