New from research institutes and think tanks
Theme: Community Development
Community Development Foundation in England
Authors: Michael Pitchford and Tom Archer with Meghan Rainsberry
This report tells us that public sector community development (CD) workers have two central roles: working with communities on the one hand, and for their organisations on the other. This unique position makes CD workers valuable resources for informing service development. However, internal barriers within their organisations can block CD workers from effecting real change in policy and strategy. Without effective ways of exerting influence, CD workers are unable to fulfil their vital role as agents of change.
Community Development Foundation in England
Author: Bhanu Dhir
This book is based on the learning from two successful grant funds ie The Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund, and Connecting Communities Plus, Community Grants scheme, also distributed over three years. It sets out lessons which will benefit anyone working in community cohesion at a local or national level.
Theme: Crime and Justice
Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
Author: Rick Muir
This is a chapter excerpted from the forthcoming book Devolution in Practice 2010, to be published in April. It shows how the devolved administration in Scotland has been less successful than other parts of the UK at reducing crime.
In analysing the main developments in criminal justice and policing policy across the four nations of the UK, the research highlights a number of innovative policies that others might learn from.
National Economic Foundation
Author: Aleksi Knuutila
This report examines how the number of young people and children in prison could be drastically reduced. It outlines a policy that would channel the resources currently spent on prison to local authorities, allowing them to improve their neighbourhoods and to deal with crime in a more constructive way locally.
Theme: The Economy
Urban and Regional Research Centre, Utrecht University
Authors: Frank Neffke, Martin Henning and Ron Boschma (Utrecht University)
This paper was the subject of discussion at a seminar hosted by the Centre for Economic Performance in January 2010. The question of how new regional growth paths emerge has been raised by many leading economic geographers. From an evolutionary perspective, there are strong reasons to believe that regions are most likely to branch into industries that are technologically related to the pre-existing
industries in the region. Employing a new indicator of technological relatedness between manufacturing industries, the authors analyze the economic evolution of 70 Swedish regions during the period 1969-2002 using detailed plant-level data.
Centre for Cities
This independent report published by Centre for Cities ranks the economic performance of 64 of the UK's largest cities and towns. It includes an analysis of the economic performance of the city regions, a wider definition of urban areas, and a summary of regional devolution to date.
The Policy Exchange
Research from this Policy Exchange report shows that while manufacturing’s share of national income has steadily declined over recent decades, its output was steadily rising until the recession that followed the recent financial crisis. Manufacturers play a vital role in the British economy, providing 2.6 million jobs and around half of export earnings.
Theme: Education
Centre for Economic Performance
Authors: Nicholas Barr and Alison Johnston
This paper discusses the problems that arise from interest subsidies in the UK system of student loans; systems in other countries, for example Australia and New Zealand, face similar problems. The topic appears to be narrow and technical, though the opening section sets out the broader context in order to establish the educational importance of the issue, not least that the cost of interest subsidies is a contributory cause of the current shortage of university places.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Authors: Alissa Goodman and Paul Gregg
This research focuses on a range of factors under the umbrella term 'aspirations, attitudes and behaviours', encompassing a wide variety of influences throughout childhood. This study: uses a number of large-scale longitudinal data sources capturing groups of children in the UK from early childhood through to late adolescence;
- examines attainment gaps between richer and poorer children and influences on these, from pre-school through to secondary school;
- considers the importance of expectations and aspirations for higher education;
- looks at the intergenerational picture; and
- suggests some policy conclusions relating to parents and the family home, and children's own attitudes and behaviours.
Theme: Employment and Skills
The Policy Exchange
This report argues that implementation of the 2006 Leitch review of skills has resulted in a skills system which is substantially flawed and focused on the delivery of outputs designed to meet arbitrary government targets rather than the needs of employers and individuals.
European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP)
Publications Office of the European Union
Authors: O'Leary, Nigel (Swansea University) / Sloane, Peter (Swansea University) / McGuinness, Seamus / O'Connell, Philip J / Mavromaras, Kostas (Flinders University)
This report produced by CEDEFOP gives a broad overview of skill mismatch and the factors that contribute; it analyses economic and social costs and discusses why mismatch should be a concern for national and European policy-makers. The report is a direct input to evidence-based policy making.
Research commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions
Author: Dr Maria Hudson
People with health conditions that make them ‘harder to help’ may not get the support expected under outcome-based contracts between the government and service providers. This is one of the findings from a recent study of Provider-led Pathways to Work based on qualitative research interviews in four Jobcentre Plus districts. The research was commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and undertaken by the Policy Studies Institute in 2009, involving a research team led by Maria Hudson.
Theme: Environment and Climate Change
Economic and Social Research Institute (Dublin)
Authors: Gorecki, Paul K / Acheson, Jean / Lyons, Seán
The report sets out an economic approach to municipal waste management policy in Ireland and then applies that framework to two recent policy developments. First, the proposed Section 60 policy direction to cap incineration and other matters, and second, the international review of waste management policy. These complementary policy developments sponsored by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government are designed to provide a roadmap for a new municipal waste management policy.
London School of Economics – supported by the Anglo-German Foundation
A research team from the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) at the London School of Economics, led by Ralf Martin, has conducted an in depth evaluation of the effect of the UK’s Climate Change Levy (CCL) on individual firms using a representative sample of the UK economy which includes detailed data on more than 10,000 companies.
They found that the Climate Change Levy – which on average corresponds to a £20 carbon tax per ton – has had a strong impact on power usage by companies and reduced electricity consumption for the average manufacturing firm by 10 to 20 percent. The economists also examined whether the levy had had any adverse impacts on economic performance of companies in areas such as employment or productivity. They did not find any evidence for this.
Theme: Health
The Kings Fund
Quality has been at the centre of recent National Health Service policy, and the NHS Next Stage Review highlighted the role of information and measurement in supportingquality improvement, particularly in relation to patient safety, clinical effectiveness and patient experience.
If quality measurement is going to have greatest impact, all those involved – policy-makers, commissioners, board members, managers and clinicians – need to be aware of the opportunities and challenges it presents.
The Young Foundation
A new report from the Young Foundation and the Improvement and Development Agency (IdeA) highlights that promoting and influencing happiness is no longer an airy aspiration. As the recession forces difficult public spending choices, services focused on wellbeing are delivering widespread economic and social benefits - especially to children.
The Policy Exchange
In this pamphlet, Bill Hayes and Paul Corrigan, the architects of Foundation Trusts argue that the NHS needs to adopt more of the changes that allowed Foundation Trusts to flourish. They put forward a number of changes which they feel must happen in order to create the culture within Government to enable autonomy to flourish and with it creativity and innovation.
Theme: Housing
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Authors: Christine Whitehead et al
The planning system is seen as one of the main barriers to the delivery of new housing. This Solutions highlights the problems in the current system, and pulls together suggestions for change from a range of organisations, and from housing and planning academics and practitioners. The suggested ways forward include:
- moving away from national targets towards a more localised incentives-based system of land-use planning;
- simplified contributions to infrastructure and affordable housing that include a narrowly defined Section 106;
- encouraging local housing trusts, community land trusts, self-build and other local initiatives, which can deliver more housing and empower local communities.
Theme: Older People
This latest e-bulletin published by CARDI provides up to date information on ageing research, innovation, events and funding opportunities.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Author: Peter Beresford
The Government’s 2009 Green Paper - Shaping the Future of Care Together - is the starting point for this Viewpoint and the national service user 2009 consultation on which it reports. The consultation brought together a diverse range of social care service users from different parts of the country, including both older people and people of working age.
Theme: Poverty and Social Inclusion
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Authors: Jim McCormick and Anne Harrop
For the tenth anniversary of devolution, this Round-up and a series of reports explores trends in social and economic disadvantage as well as policy developments in four areas: housing and homelessness, employment, neighbourhood regeneration and long-term care for older people.
Institute for Fiscal Studies
Authors: James Browne and Gillian Paull
This report documents the dynamic patterns in work and poverty for families using data for the years 2001 to 2006 from the Families and Children Study. The analysis examines the degree to which simply moving into work is an important factor in lifting families out of poverty or whether significant retention and progression within employment are key elements in allowing families to escape from poverty.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Author: Kathryn Ray et al
Examining the work experiences of a group of lone parents and long-term unemployed people over five years, the study found that low-skilled people were more likely to become stuck in a ‘low-pay no-pay cycle’ of temporary jobs, without opportunities for training or promotion.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Authors: Matthew Taylor and Philippa Stroud
This research suggests that it is time to abandon the assumption that higher levels of home-ownership are good for society. Reasons ranging from asset inequality to labour market flexibility call this assumption into question. It suggests that a more balanced approach that encourages people to make pragmatic decisions about whether to rent or buy is needed. An important element of encouraging this new way of thinking, for government and for householders, will be the emergence of a larger, more ambitious, intelligently regulated private rented sector.
National Economic Foundation
Authors: Jody Aked, Juliet Michaelson and Nicola Steuer
This report offers new insights into the connection between people’s well-being – how people experience their lives – and the built environment which surrounds them, and to consider how better account could be given to these linkages through policy development and professional practice. It considers why a focus on what ought to be shared outcomes – creating places and spaces where people can enjoy a good life now and in the future – is often abandoned in the face of pursuing short-term financial returns on investment.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Authors: Donald Hirsch and Philip Spiers
This report looks at the issue of finding extra funding for social care which both covers the growing needs of an ageing population and shares the cost fairly between generations.
Theme: Public Services
Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR)
This paper focuses attention on the role citizens and communities can play in directly producing services, setting out the challenges that lie ahead, and identifying the questions IPPR’s research will seek to answer over the coming months. It sets out the case for community empowerment, before examining how this important agenda can move from the margins to the mainstream of the policy agenda.
National Economic Foundation
Authors: David Boyle and Michael Harris
This report is the first of three publications to be delivered from a major project between NESTA’s Public Services Innovation Lab and National Economic Foundation to increase the understanding of co-production and how it can be applied to public services.
With the new challenges facing public services in the UK - increasing demand, rising expectations, reduced budgets and seemingly intractable social problems, this report argues that co-production – users and professionals working together to design and deliver public services in equal partnership has the potential to deliver a major shift in the way we provide public services.
