Support for policy-making
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform published a new Code of Practice on Consultation (PDF 223KB)
in July 2008. It supersedes and replaces previous versions of the Code. The Code sets out the UK Government’s general approach when it has been decided to run a formal, written, public consultation exercise. The Code does not have legal force and cannot prevail over statutory or mandatory requirements.
Evaluating Policy
The Government Social Research Unit (part of the Cabinet Office) was set up in October 2002 (as Government Chief Social Researcher's Office) to provide strategic leadership to social research across government. A key element of the GSRU work programme is to encourage excellence in government policy research and evaluation. This area of policyhub provides information on:
- what research and evaluation evidence is and examples of how it can contribute to the policy process
- guidance on evaluation methods
- professional development opportunities in analytical skills and evidence based policy
- projects on policy design, piloting and evaluation, including an employment policy demonstration project and review of government pilots.
Established by the Economic and Social Research Council following a major initiative taken in 1999 to bring social science research much nearer to the decision process, the UK Centre for Evidence Based Policy and Practice provides a focal point for those interested in evidence based policy and practice. The Network maintains a website which is a useful source for tracking down social science evidence and expertise.
NINIS provides free access to statistical and locational information relating to small areas across Northern Ireland. Information is available across a range of themes including Population, Social and Welfare, Agriculture, Education and Crime. Users will be able to obtain an area profile based on a postcode or by selecting an area to view.
The GeoHub, which has been established by Land & Property Services in DFP, aims to harness the power of geographic information to improve policy development and service delivery in Northern Ireland's public sector. It is a web based solution that facilitates sharing, using and developing geographic information.
The Strategy Exchange is a public access website hosted by the National School of Government in partnership with the Strategy Unit in the Cabinet Office and the Horizon Scanning Centre at the Department for Innovation, Universities, and Skills (DIUS), designed to build the capacity for strategic working across the public sector. This resource offers access to news and developments in the strategy field, case studies, papers, networks and events for those working on strategy in government.
It has five principal objectives:
- ·To provide a readily accessible, easily searchable resource of material of interest, relevance and use to those involved in strategy;
- ·To provide critical analysis of current strategy work;
- ·To commission and share thinking on issues of importance to strategists;
- ·To provide a platform for exchange and networking;
- ·To build appetite for strategic working by giving access to examples of successful strategic work and identifying its value.
This toolkit is for anyone who uses or would like to use, futures thinking and analysis in their decision-making. It is intended for futures analysts, policy-makers, strategists and people managing a futures process. This toolkit offers ideas and suggestions for ways to approach futures projects but is not intended to be prescriptive or definitive.
You will find a host of items in the Policy Hub Bulletin which is published on the National School of Government website. There are articles under the headings of: better policy-making; improving delivery; and evaluating policy, plus a “website of the month” feature.
The Policy Toolkit is intended to provide a practical overview of the key steps and phases in the policy development process. It is divided into individual workbooks, structured around the key stages of the policy process to enable policy-makers to dip into the guidance as appropriate. The Toolkit is available on OFMDFM’s Policylink webpages. Amendments and updates to the Toolkit will be undertaken as required.
New for this issue
This is a new UK website which has been launched to provide the public with a free, one-stop shop for Government data. The site contains more than 2,500 sets of data on topics such as crime, education and health relating to the UK.
In the summer of 2008, the Cabinet Office published Excellence and fairness: achieving world class public services setting out the UK Government's overall approach to improving public services over the next few years. Although specific changes will vary from service to service, improvements will usually be driven by three main developments:
- Developing new approaches to empowering citizens
- Fostering a new professionalism across the whole public service workforce.
- Providing stronger strategic leadership from central government.
In 2007, the Children and Young People’s Unit of the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister demonstrated government commitment to promoting children and young people’s participation, and allocated funding to form The Participation Network. Participation Network supports the Public Sector to engage effectively with children and young people in the development and review of policy and services that impact on their lives.
Participation Network offers FREE workshops on including children and young people in public decision-making.
Further information is available on their website.
This web-based project aims to encourage active participation in which citizens actively engage in the decision and policy making processes. Using the internet as a delivery mechanism, the project provides valuable explanations and insights into a range of policy related areas such as:
- what is policy?
- different levels of government
- the role of devolved government
- how to make a change
- expert advice from four highly respected campaigners on how to influence policy decisions.
- the project has potentially a large interested constituency including public, community and voluntary sectors as well as universities, colleges and schools.
