Evidence-based policy? The re-medicalization of cannabis and the role of expert committees in the UK, 1972–1982

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 129-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne L. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Evidence Based ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
The Uk

Can Complexity Move UK Policy beyond ‘Evidence-Based Policy Making’ and the ‘Audit Culture’? Applying a ‘Complexity Cascade’ to Education and Health Policy

2011 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Geyer
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Response ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Visual Metaphor ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Audit Culture ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
The Uk

For much of the twentieth century UK public policy has been based on a strong centralist, rationalist and managerialist framework. This orientation was significantly amplified by New Labour in the 1990s and 2000s, leading to the development of ‘evidence-based policy making’ (EBPM) and the ‘audit culture’ – a trend that looks set to continue under the current government. Substantial criticisms have been raised against the targeting/audit strategies of the audit culture and other forms of EBPM, particularly in complex policy areas. This article accepts these criticisms and argues that in order to move beyond these problems one must not only look at the basic foundation of policy strategies, but also develop practical alternatives to those strategies. To that end, the article examines one of the most basic and common tools of the targeting/audit culture, the aggregate linear X-Y graph, and shows that when it has been applied to UK education policy, it leads to: (1) an extrapolation tendency; (2) a fluctuating ‘crisis–success' policy response process; and (3) an intensifying targeting/auditing trend. To move beyond these problems, one needs a visual metaphor which combines an ability to see the direction of policy travel with an aspect of continual openness that undermines the extrapolation tendency, crisis–success policy response and targeting/auditing trend. Using a general complexity approach, and building on the work of Geyer and Rihani, this article will attempt to show that a ‘complexity cascade’ tool can be used to overcome these weaknesses and avoid their negative effects in both education and health policy in the UK.

scholarly journals El uso de la información en los procesos de políticas: Tensiones epistemológicas y del contexto decisional en la Política Nacional de Evaluación de la Educación en México

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Valladares
Keyword(s):  
National Policy ◽  
Educational Evaluation ◽  
Educational Policies ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy Cycle ◽  
Evidence Based Policy

One of the objectives of the National Policy for Educational Evaluation in Mexico (PNEE) is to support the design of educational policies based on the information provided by the evaluation results. This paper argues that the use of information in policy processes is undergoing a strong debate about the role of knowledge in public decisions. This debate is addressed through the description of five tensions that are presented in the epistemological and decisional dimensions associated with the policy cycle. It is proposed that the analysis and reflection around these tensions can enrich the understanding of the evidence-based policy approach and contribute, with new theoretical elements, to the design of the actions and measures proposed by 

scholarly journals The new evidence-based policy: public participation between ‘hard evidence’ and democracy in practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-227
Author(s):  
Helen Pallett
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Science Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Hard Evidence ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk

Background:Debates about evidence-based policy (EBP) were revived in the UK in the 2010s in the context of civil service reform and changing practices of policy making, including institutionalisation of public participation in science policy making. Aims and objectives:This paper aims to explore this revival of interest in EBP in the context of the Government-funded public participation programme Sciencewise, which supports and promotes public dialogues in science policy making. It is based on in-depth ethnographic study of the programme during 2013, considering the impacts on Sciencewise practices and working understandings of engaging in the EBP debate. There is a particular focus on the advantages and disadvantages of categorising public participation as a source of evidence-based policy as opposed to presenting participation as a democratic act which is separate from discussions of EBP. Key conclusions:At different times Sciencewise actors moved between these stances in order to gain credibility and attention for their work, and to situate the outcomes of public participation processes in a broader policy context. In some instances the presentation of outputs from public participation processes as legitimate evidence for policy gave them greater influence and enriched broader discussions about the meaning and practice of open policy. However, it also frequently led to their dismissal on methodological grounds, inhibiting serious engagement with their outputs and challenging internal frameworks for evaluation and learning.

The State of Evidence-Based Policy Evaluation and its Role in Policy Formation

2012 ◽  
Vol 219 ◽  
pp. R41-R52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Davies
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy Cycle ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
The Uk

This paper argues that evidence-based policy has clearly made a worldwide impact, at least at the rhetorical and institutional levels, and in terms of analytical activity. The paper then addresses whether or not evidence-based policy evaluation has had an impact on policy formation and public service delivery. The paper uses a model of research-use that suggests that evidence can be used in instrumental, conceptual and symbolic ways. Taking four examples of the use of evidence in the UK over the past decade, this paper argues that evidence can be used instrumentally, conceptually and symbolically in complementary ways at different stages of the policy cycle and under different policy and political circumstances. The fact that evidence is not always used instrumentally, in the sense of “acting on research results in specific, direct ways” (Lavis et al., 2003, p. 228), does not mean that it has little or no influence. The paper ends by considering some of the obstacles to getting research evidence into policy and practice, and how these obstacles might be overcome.

scholarly journals Engineering advice in policy making: a new domain of inquiry in evidence and policy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam C.G. Cooper ◽  
Lorenzo Marvulli ◽  
Katie Black ◽  
John Holmes ◽  
Harshal Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Engineering Team ◽  
Related Science ◽  
Engineering Practices

Most, if not all empirical research on evidence-based policy has three features: firstly, it typically focuses on the application of science and scientific expertise on policy; secondly, it is executed by ‘outsider’ researchers who are not part of the public administration or policy-making process but observers of it (for example, Stevens, 2010); and thirdly, the major topical focus is in social policy areas such as health, education and crime (Oliver et al, 2014). This study advances the perspectives on evidence-based policy making by exploring the role of engineering expertise in policy making. We first make the case that, although related, science and engineering represent different epistemic communities in relation to policy practice. This difference, we argue, can give rise to particular styles of interaction that can make the governance of engineering expertise in policy making different to that for science or scientists. We then report on the findings of a study of the relationship between a new engineering team in a UK ministry with a technical portfolio and the policy colleagues they worked with across a range of programme areas. Through 18 interviews with policy officials, we identify a range of interactions that imply a need to consider styles of management and approaches to internal deployment of experts within policy organisations, as well as the implications for policy making and engineering expertise, given the way policy and engineering practices overlap.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Engineering advice has never been properly identified and studied in the academic social science literature to date.</li><br /><li>Engineering advice is an important and potent source of evidence in policy making in topical areas like energy policy.</li><br /><li>In contrast to science advice, engineering advice as a practice significantly overlaps with policy practice meaning important conflict or complementarity is possible, dependent on how the advice is deployed.</li></ul>

Social Science and the Evidence-based Policy Movement

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Young ◽  
Deborah Ashby ◽  
Annette Boaz ◽  
Lesley Grayson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Gold Standard ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Effective Contribution

There is a growing interest in ‘evidence-based policy making’ in the UK. However, there remains some confusion about what evidence-based policy making actually means. This paper outlines some of the models used to understand how evidence is thought to shape or inform policy in order to explore the assumptions underlying ‘evidence-based policy making.’ By way of example, it considers the process of evidence seeking and in particular the systematic review as a presumed ‘gold standard’ of the EBP movement. It highlights some of the opportunities and challenges represented in this approach for policy research. The final part of the paper outlines some questions of capacity that need to be addressed if the social sciences are to make a more effective contribution to policy debate in Britain.

When Experiments Need Models

2021 ◽  
pp. 004839312110085
Author(s):  
Donal Khosrowi
Keyword(s):  
General Framework ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Causal Effects ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Important Type ◽  
Evidence Based Policy

This paper argues that an important type of experiment-target inference, extrapolating causal effects, requires models to be successful. Focusing on extrapolation in Evidence-Based Policy, it is argued that extrapolation should be understood not as an inference from an experiment to a target directly, but as a hybrid inference that involves experiments and models. A general framework, METI, is proposed to capture this role of models, and several benefits are outlined: (1) METI highlights epistemically significant interactions between experiments and models, (2) reconciles some differences among existing accounts of experiment-target relationships, and (3) facilitates critical appraisal of inferential practices from experiments.

Still Searching for the Evidence? Evidence-based Policy, Performance Pay and Teachers

2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Farrell ◽  
Jonathan Morris
Keyword(s):  
Policy Development ◽  
Performance Pay ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Policy Performance ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Teachers Attitudes ◽  
The Uk

The evidence based policy (EBP) movement became prominent in the UK in the late 1990s, portrayed as an ideology-free method of policy development and implementation. This article assesses the EBP claims by analysing a case study of one piece of policy implementation, namely the introduction of performance-related pay (PRP) for schoolteachers in England and Wales. Using primary and secondary sources, the article argues that while previous evidence was brought into the policy development processes, it was largely ignored. Indeed, prosaic political considerations may well have shaped the policy. Indeed, the teachers' attitudes towards PRP suggest that few of the objectives will be met.

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