Outcomes-based approaches and the devolved administrations

Author(s):  
Derek Birrell ◽  
Ann Marie Gray

Governments in all three devolved administrations of the UK (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) have been adopting what they define as an outcome based approach to aspects of their policy making. This chapter examines the attraction of outcome based approaches and the outcome based accountability (OBA) model in particular. It assesses the conceptual issues arising from the OBA methodology and its application and examines arguments about the value of the OBA approach. The relationship between outcomes and indicators and the use of OBA for monitoring and evaluating performance is discussed. While there has been substantial buy-in to the principle of an outcomes based approach in the three administrations the paper questions whether there is evidence that these approaches have improved performance and policy.

Author(s):  
Etain Tannam

This chapter assesses the impact of UK withdrawal from the EU on British–Irish relations. It examines yet another possible disintegrative effect of Brexit on the UK system, namely the re-unification of Ireland. The 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, bringing to a close decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, had created an excellent working relations between Dublin and London. However, Brexit has threated this equilibrium, and has unexpectedly brought back on the agenda a possible border poll. The chapter then looks at the unfolding of the Brexit negotiations from June of 2016 to March of 2020 from the perspectives of British–Irish relations. It also studies the importance of the British–Irish relationship and the EU in the peace process in Northern Ireland, and considers potential methods of managing the relationship after Brexit.


2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 406-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Carl

SummaryCross-regional correlations between average IQ and socioeconomic development have been documented in many different countries. This paper presents new IQ estimates for the twelve regions of the UK. These are weakly correlated (r=0.24) with the regional IQs assembled by Lynn (1979). Assuming the two sets of estimates are accurate and comparable, this finding suggests that the relative IQs of different UK regions have changed since the 1950s, most likely due to differentials in the magnitude of the Flynn effect, the selectivity of external migration, the selectivity of internal migration or the strength of the relationship between IQ and fertility. The paper provides evidence for the validity of the regional IQs by showing that IQ estimates for UK nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) derived from the same data are strongly correlated with national PISA scores (r=0.99). It finds that regional IQ is positively related to income, longevity and technological accomplishment; and is negatively related to poverty, deprivation and unemployment. A general factor of socioeconomic development is correlated with regional IQ atr=0.72.


Author(s):  
Peter A. Hall

This chapter charts the shape and movement of the growth strategies of the developed democracies since 1945 across three periods: an era of modernization, one of liberalization, and an era of knowledge-based growth, with an emphasis on the relationship between developments in the political economy and changes in the character of electoral politics. It argues that economic policy-making always entails assembling coalitions for policy in both the arenas of electoral politics and of producer group politics. Accordingly, economic policy responds, not only to secular economic developments, but also to shifting political conditions and notably to changes in the cleavage structures underpinning electoral politics, which are themselves influenced by preceding economic developments. Growth strategies are conditioned by how an evolving “economic gestalt” portrays the problems of the economy and by processes of coalition formation in the electoral arena. The chapter devotes special attention to the growth strategies of the UK, France, Germany, and Sweden.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 53-80
Author(s):  
Holger Nehring

This article challenges two myths about the British and Scottish Sixties: first, that there was no real student radicalism in Scotland in the long 1960s, and second that this radicalism was confined to narrow groups of the extreme left. Rather than focusing on processes of cultural change and their manifestations, this essay conceptualises ‘1968’ as a series of political contestations over the form of university governance and, by implication, government in the United Kingdom from the mid-1960s and to the mid-1970s. Conceptually, this article brings together an analysis of governmental and university policy making with the politics of protest. It draws attention to the interaction between local experiences and central structures in framing the protests, and it highlights how the student protests on the Stirling campus gave expression to broader fractures within the UK polity. Thus, this article demonstrates how students expressed dissatisfaction with the realities of technocratic planning in the context of the centralised UK state by calling for more representation. In doing so, it offers two conceptual messages for scholars working on ‘1968’ more generally: ideological currents and value changes should be connected to specific local places of contestations; and the call for student representation against technocratic planning should be taken more seriously and analysed in the context of these contestations and embedded in a discussion about the relationship between culture and politics.


Author(s):  
Cathy Gormley-Heenan ◽  
Mark Sandford

This chapter examines the relationship between the UK Parliament and the devolved legislatures established in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. It first considers the impact of devolution on parliamentary sovereignty before discussing the establishment and development of the devolved parliaments in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. It then describes the key features of those devolved institutions and the way in which Parliament's interactions with them have evolved since their inception, as well as the division of powers between the United Kingdom and devolved governments. It shows that the influence of Parliament on devolution in the UK has so far been marginal, and that these subtle changes in practices at Westminster point to Parliament as an increasing reflection of wider shifts in public attitudes about the relationships between the territories of the United Kingdom, especially after the Brexit referendum.


2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin Donnelly ◽  
Robert D. Osborne

Many commentaries on social policy in the UK assume that policy as developed in England applies to the constituent countries of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, the advent of political devolution in the last five years is slowly being reflected in the literature. This paper takes education policy in Northern Ireland and discusses recent policy developments in the light of the 1998 Belfast Agreement. The Agreement, it is suggested, is providing a framework which promotes equality, human rights and inclusion in policy making. Some early indications of this are discussed and some of the resultant policy dilemmas are assessed. The paper concludes that accounts of policy development in the UK, which ignore the multi-level policy-making contexts created by devolution, do a disservice to the subject.


Author(s):  
Kirsty Hughes

This chapter analyses how the Brexit process has unfolded in Scotland since the 2016 vote. With the UK as a whole voting to leave the EU whilst Scotland, and Northern Ireland, voted to Remain, political tension was inherent in the relationship between the Scottish and UK governments over Brexit from the start. This tension worsened during the subsequent two to three years as the Article 50 process got under way. Scottish support for remaining in the EU is compared to that across the UK, together with polling evidence on the subsequent evolution of support for Remain and for another EU referendum (a ‘people’s vote’). Political responses in Scotland are then considered, focusing in particular on the varying positions of the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government took a more strategic approach to Brexit in the initial weeks after the Brexit vote, which was then replaced by a more tactical emphasis on staying in the EU’s single market and defending the devolution settlement. This shifted again in autumn 2018 when the Scottish Government came out in favour of a people’s vote and put more emphasis on Remain over a ‘soft’ Brexit; this position was strengthened through 2019. How the politics of Brexit and the politics of independence have intertwined since 2016 is also briefly considered.


UK Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 249-273
Author(s):  
Andrew Blick

This chapter turns to the forms of government that cover specific areas within the UK. These territories fall into two general categories: devolved and local government. The chapter introduces the general roles of these tiers of government, their powers, their responsibilities and how they function. It introduces a number of theoretical perspectives to these subjects. It looks at the balance of power between the various systems that exist. It offers examples as to how that balance of power works in reality. The chapter also considers the mechanisms for regulating interventions by the UK Parliament into devolved spheres of operation; the process of expansion of Welsh devolution over time; the devolution of responsibility for police and justice in Northern Ireland; devolution to local government in England; and innovatory approaches in Scotland. The chapter provides an assessment of devolution and local government and gives some historical context as well. Finally, the chapter looks at the relationship between Brexit and devolution.


1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (03) ◽  
pp. 426-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Kitchen ◽  
I D Walker ◽  
T A L Woods ◽  
F E Preston

SummaryWhen the International Normalised Ratio (INR) is used for control of oral anticoagulant therapy the same result should be obtained irrespective of the laboratory reagent used. However, in the UK National External Quality Assessment Scheme (NEQAS) for Blood Coagulation INRs determined using different reagents have been significantly different.For 18 NEQAS samples Manchester Reagent (MR) was associated with significantly lower INRs than those obtained using Diagen Activated (DA, p = 0.0004) or Instrumentation Laboratory PT-Fib HS (IL, p = 0.0001). Mean INRs for this group were 3.15, 3.61, and 3.65 for MR, DA, and IL respectively. For 61 fresh samples from warfarin-ised patients with INRs of greater than 3.0 the relationship between thromboplastins in respect of INR was similar to that observed for NEQAS data. Thus INRs obtained with MR were significantly lower than with DA or IL (p <0.0001). Mean INRs for this group were 4.01, 4.40, and 4.59 for MR, DA, and IL respectively.We conclude that the differences between INRs measured with the thromboplastins studied here are sufficiently great to influence patient management through warfarin dosage schedules, particularly in the upper therapeutic range of INR. There is clearly a need to address the issues responsible for the observed discrepancies.


Author(s):  
Nina TERREY ◽  
Sabine JUNGINGER

The relationship that exists between design, policies and governance is quite complex and presents academic researchers continuously with new opportunities to engage and explore aspects relevant to design management. Over the past years, we have witnessed how the earlier focus on developing policies for design has shifted to an interest in understanding the ways in which design contributes to policy-making and policy implementation. Research into policies for design has produced insights into how policy-making decisions can advance professional impact and opportunities for designers and the creative industries. This research looked into how design researchers and design practitioners themselves can benefit from specific policies that support design activities and create the space for emerging design processes.


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