This book provides a timely and novel contribution to understanding and enhancing evidence use. It builds on and complements the popular and best-selling “What Works?: Evidence-based policy and practice in public services" (Davies, Nutley and Smith, Policy Press, 2000), by drawing together current knowledge about how research gets used and how this can be encouraged and improved. In particular, the authors explore various multidiscipliary frameworks for understanding the research use agenda; consider how research use and the impact of research can be assessed; summarise the empirical evidence from the education, health care, social care and criminal justice fields about how research is used and how this can be improved and draw out practical issues that need to be addressed if research is to have greater impact on public services. “Using evidence" is important reading for university and government researchers, research funding bodies, public service managers and professionals, and students of public policy and management. It will also prove an invaluable guide for anyone involved in the implementation of evidence-based policy and practice.
251 12 Using evidence Annette Boaz and Sandra Nutley Introduction to using research-based evidence In exploring the role of evidence in policy and practice we have drawn attention to the very wide range of types of knowledge that can inform policy makers, practitioners and other stakeholders, while also highlighting the special and sometimes privileged role of research-based evidence. Our argument has been that research-based knowledge only rarely stands alone, and needs to be integrated into wider understandings through being incorporated with other forms
Available open access under CC-BY-NC license. Homelessness is unequivocally devastating. In the UK, people affected by homelessness are ten times more likely to die than their peers in the general population, yet we still miss important opportunities to adequately address the issue.
The Centre for Homelessness Impact brings together this urgent book gathering the insights and experiences of leaders in government, academia and the third sector to present new evidence-based strategies to end homelessness.
Demonstrating why and how a new movement is needed that embraces data and evidence as integral to ending homelessness effectively, this book provides crucial methods to underpin future policy, practice and funding decisions.
321 15 Using evidence in Scandinavia Anne Mette Møller, Kari Tove Elvbakken and Hanne Foss Hansen Introduction to evidence use in Scandinavia The use of evidence is a prominent concern in all the Scandinavian countries. Scandinavian observers have described the development as an ‘evidence movement’ (Hansen and Rieper, 2009) and as ‘the fourth wave of evaluation’ (Vedung, 2010). Evidence-based policy and practice (EBPP) has also been characterised as a ‘master idea’ – that is, an idea that has obtained a high degree of prevalence and legitimacy, but one
337 16 Using evidence in Canada Bev Holmes and Sharon Straus Introduction to evidence use in Canada Scientific integrity was a prominent issue in the Canadian federal election of 2015, with incumbent Conservative Party prime minister Stephen Harper being increasingly criticised for appearing to dismiss evidence that did not support his agenda. In the lead-up to the election, Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau focused on this issue, committing to a number of actions to strengthen evidence-based decision making in Canada. Many believe this played a role in
131 7 Using evidence in education Julie Nelson and Carol Campbell Introduction to evidence use in education This chapter considers the nature of evidence in education and discusses the effectiveness with which it is produced, shared and used within and across different elements of the system. It focuses on mainstream school education – that is, the system that supports children and young people though their years of compulsory school learning. It is based primarily on the English context, but also includes illustrations and developments from other UK
285 13 Using evidence in the UK Jonathan Breckon and David Gough Introduction to evidence use in the UK There have been ups and downs in the history of evidence use in the UK. After the Second World War an appetite for evidence-informed policy gave way to scepticism and a more ideologically driven approach during the 1970s and 1980s, only to be followed by renewed enthusiasm for evidence use again from the mid-1990s (Nutley et al, 2007). Alongside these general trends, there have also been highs and lows in the use of evidence to inform specific policy
351 17 Using evidence in the US Vivian Tseng and Cynthia Coburn Introduction to evidence use in the US Research-based evidence has an important role to play in many sectors in the US, including healthcare, mental health, child welfare, employment, environmental management and criminal justice. However, it is in education that many of the evidence debates are sharpest. In this chapter we focus on the use of evidence to shape public education in the US. In many ways, we are at an inflection point in the use of evidence in US education. Since the early 2000s
171 9 Using evidence in international development Ruth Stewart Introduction to evidence use in international development The field of international development has historically lacked a strong evidence base for both policy and practice (White, 2009; Banerjee and Duflo, 2011; Langer et al, 2015). This is despite the size of the global foreign aid budget, which exceeds $120 billion (about £85 billion) (Glennie and Sumner, 2014). The UK’s own foreign aid budget was £13.4 billion in 2016, in line with the legal requirement to spend 0.7% of gross national
89 5 Using evidence in social care Deborah Ghate and Rick Hood Introduction to evidence use in social care Social care in the UK covers a wide spectrum of caring services provided by a mixed economy of organisations, including central and local government alongside non-governmental organisations, both commercial and not-for-profit. In local authority social services departments, where the legal responsibilities largely reside, social care now generally refers quite narrowly to the services regulated by statute such as out-of-home care for adults and
