Policy Hub
Evidence is one factor that contributes to policy making, implementation and delivery. The following diagram indicates other important factors:
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Evidence-based policy has been defined as 'the integration of experience, judgement and expertise with the best available external evidence from systematic research' (Davies, 19991). This involves a balance between professional judgement and expertise on the one hand and the use of valid, reliable and relevant research evidence on the other.
Gray (1997) has suggested that evidence-based policy and practice involves a shift away from opinion-based decision making to evidence-decision making.
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(Source, Gray, J.A.M., 19972) |
Evidence-based decision making draws heavily upon the findings of scientific research (including social scientific research) that has been gathered and critically appraised according to explicit and sound principles of scientific inquiry. The opinions and judgements of experts that are based upon up-to-date scientific research clearly constitute high quality valid and reliable evidence. Those opinions that are not based upon such scientific evidence, but are unsubstantiated, subjective and opinionated viewpoints do not constitute high quality, valid and reliable evidence.
Different types of evidence are generated by different types of research methods and research designs.
Experimental and quasi-experimental evidence is generated by research methods such as:
These methods provide valid and reliable evidence about the relative effectiveness of a policy intervention compared with other policy interventions, or doing nothing at all (sometimes called the counterfactual). They provide appropriate evidence about questions such as: is a personal adviser service more, or less, effective than providing skills training, or doing nothing at all, in terms of advancing low paid people in the labour market?
Evidence from social surveys and administrative data are often used in experimental and quasi-experimental studies. However, they also provide valuable information in their own right about the nature, size, frequency, and distribution of a problem or a topic under investigation. The General Household Survey, for instance, provides a wealth of evidence about income, employment, housing, lifestyles, health and illness and many other aspects of everyday living based upon a sample of households throughout the U.K. Administrative data, such as the New Deal Database collected and maintained by the Department of Work and Pensions, provides valuable evidence about people's entry to, exit from, and participation in the labour market. Other important sources include 'raw' administrative data sets such as Housing Benefits Claimants, reported crime, claimant counts, and applications as homeless people.
Evidence is also often required about why a policy works (or fails to work), how it works, for whom, and under what conditions it works or fails to work. This involves eliciting evidence of the opinions, attitudes and perceptions of different stakeholders in the policy process. Such evidence is particularly important for the successful implementation and delivery of policies, especially across a range of populations and sub-groups. The following qualitative research methods provide such evidence:
Policy making, implementation and delivery, inevitably involves decisions about the use and allocation of scarce resources. Consequently, evidence is required about the most cost-effective way of achieving a given objective, and about the greatest benefit and utility that can be achieved from the available resources. Such evidence is provided by economic evaluation methods which include:
Policy making takes place against a background of values, including beliefs, ideologies and aspirations. Consequently, evidence is often required about the range of values involved in a policy decision or initiative, and about ways of adjudicating between competing values. Such evidence requires the methods of political and moral philosophy and ethics. These include:
Evidence from single studies have the limitations of being sample specific and often time- and context-specific. Also, not all research studies are carried out to the highest standards of validity, reliability, analysis and presentation. Consequently, not all single studies are of equal value and some can be statistically and scientifically biased.
Systematic reviews of research literature attempt deal with these problems by establishing standards of inclusion and exclusion of single studies, separating high quality from low quality research evidence, and providing syntheses of what the high quality evidence is telling us about a topic or policy area. There are different types of review evidence including:
These are some of the types of evidence used in evidence-based policy making, implementation and delivery. More detailed information about these different types of evidence are found in the Magenta Book. These types of evidence are not exhaustive and this page will be updated as other types of evidence used in policy making are identified.
The Government Social Research Unit provides seminars and training in most of the types of evidence presented above.
References
1. Davies, P.T. 1999. 'What is Evidence-Based Education?', British Journal of Educational Studies, 47, 2, 108-121.
2. Gray, J.A.M. 1997. Evidence-Based Health Care: How to Make Health Policy and Management Decisions, New York and London, Churchill Livingstone, 1997.
