“Policy problems no longer arrive in neat department-shaped boxes. They require intense ‘joined-up’ government and cooperation between regional, national and international levels.”
These are the words of David Mair of the EC’s Joint Research Centre, co-author of the Commission’s publication Understanding our political nature. Simple problems can be solved by linear thinking, but many economic and social problems have deeper dynamics and connections, and face the ‘philanthropic challenge’ – the task of determining how to fix a problem now versus helping people over time.
In my previous blogs, I’ve looked at (among other things) where evidence sits in the policy process, how researchers can approach policymakers, and the political mindset, to give an overview of the landscape in which knowledge exchange takes place. Today, as we publish our new Transforming Social Policies report (PDF), I want to consider how to mobilise data, evidence and expertise that goes beyond research communications and external engagement and towards problem solving.
Reforming systems
In the previous blog, I mentioned putative reforms of the way government works. A cynic might suggest that this is all just talk, and that the more things change, the more they stay the same. But if the Prime Minister’s appetite for reform is shared not only by his closest adviser(s), but also by the public and wider stakeholders, things can move more, and more quickly.
Quick fixes can easily be the default position in a world of instant gratification and pressure on governments to act. This can even be the case where there is shared knowledge about the complexity of a problem and the likely behaviour response to policy change – which is often not the case.
The COVID-19 crisis has done more than simply present the government with the biggest crisis in fifty years. The distributional effects of the short-term economic measures taken to date have had a progressive effect on household incomes, while the crisis has also demonstrated the efficacy of communities mobilising to support each other.
However, it has revealed the long-term underlying problems society faces and brought these into sharper focus. Inequalities have been exacerbated, not least existing racial inequalitieseducational disparities have increased, and vulnerable groups of older people have been ‘missed’.
People want the economy to bounce back, naturally, and this must be the government’s immediate priority after combating the virus. Equally, there has also been much talk in recent years of governments starting to temper their obsession with GDP with an increasing focus on pursuing a broader set of outcomes that improve wellbeing. One might argue that the coronavirus crisis has bolstered that argument – at least when it comes to health. How policymakers become better at preventing fires rather than agile at firefighting is a core part of that transition.
It is too early to tell how COVID-19 might herald a break with the past – among the public, business and government – but it could be a catalyst for more radical thinking. That will not only require a significant shift in policy priorities, but also competence and fairness in delivering reforms. Tackling spatial disparities, a bigger role for science, and urgent reform of social care are on the priority list, but it also seems that ‘take back control’ is initially revealing greater centralisation of policy and communications at the heart of government.
The next moves
In our new Transforming Social Policies report, I’ve outlined three ways in which we can approach the future. This can broadly be summarised as:
- changing the way we think about social problems
- supporting bottom-up innovation
- using longitudinal science to encourage a focus on early action
Each of these requires us to rethink the purpose of knowledge exchange given the current context, and importantly, how it can be practiced differently.
Even if radical reforms were not on the cards in Whitehall, or there is no great political vision, a changing world means we can never stand still. Yes, we must consider how we frame our research, but changing the way we communicate or reach out to policymakers is not enough by itself.
Just as government departments need to join up to tackle social problems, so must researchers. If policies are to address the long term – and not simply play ‘whack-a-mole’, tackling a problem which pops up in a different guise later – we need to provide the evidence and motivation for social investment and structural reform. That will require coalition-building among academics and multidisciplinary research using longitudinal and other data sources.
Collaborative thinking and working
Perhaps we as researchers need to work with different audiences to more deliberatively define problems and identify solutions. Depending on the nature of the problem these could, for example, include commissioners, innovation agencies, government departments, practitioners, service users, funders, business, and civic society. With universities and research councils creating ‘challenge labs’, sand-pits and hackathons, the opportunities are there for us to be creative. Occasionally, we may be able to provide recipes and concrete answers, but we can certainly help separate assumptions and myths from fact, and break through cognitive blocks.
It may be that we see real, wholesale change in the way UK government operates in the coming years. Having acquired greater powers and being closer to their communities, the devolved administrations have certainly been trialling their own decision-making mechanisms and policy innovations. And while some of the underlying problems may seem intractable, or progress slow, we must pioneer ways to combine data, empirical research, expertise and other forms of evidence in an attempt to move the policy dial and drive social innovation. Collaboration, social learning and adversarial conversations will need to be at the heart of this process.
Transforming Social Policies: Insights, ideas and challenges for mobilising data and evidence is available now
Authors
Raj Patel
Raj Patel is Associate Director, Policy and Partnerships, at Understanding Society
