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• Support for the idea of university tuition fees has remained consistent over the past decade: the proportion of respondents believing that all university students should pay fees was recorded as 11% in both 2004 and 2013, while the proportion who feel that some students should pay has risen by just one percentage point (from 66% to 67%).
• At 69%, satisfaction with the NHS remains almost identical to that recorded in 2009.
• The  proportion of respondents who believe that taxes should be increased in order to finance more spending on health, education and welfare has risen by just five percentage points over the course of the coalition’s tenure (from 32% in 2010 to 37% in 2014).

These figures seem to conflict with the ‘thermostatic’ model of public opinion put forward by the political scientist Christopher Wlezien, in which it is argued that public opinion responds to changes in government spending. According to this theory, the electorate has an ideal level of spending in mind for certain issues, meaning that when the government spends a reduced amount of money, support for additional spending increases, and when the government spends more, support for increased spending reduces. This model has been tested against British public opinion data from the late twentieth and very early twenty-first centuries: however, the data shown above indicates that this link may, at present, be weakening. However, the report reveals that there is one issue that has engendered a much more significant shift in opinion during the current government’s tenure: support for the concept of a coalition government has declined substantially. The notion of coalition government is unusual in British politics: the current coalition is the first to govern Britain since 1945. In 2007, 45% of respondents to the British Social Attitudes survey stated that they would prefer a coalition government over a single-party administration: however, this proportion has now fallen to just 29%.

The report also predicts several areas that are likely to be of concern to the next government, whatever its eventual composition. These include:

• Funding of the NHS. Almost the entirety of the general public (92%) believe that the NHS is facing a funding problem, with almost three quarters believing that this problem is either “major” or “severe.” However, the various methods of increasing NHS funding which were put forward by the researchers were not particularly well received. Approximately one third (32%) of respondents supported the idea of restricting free healthcare to those on lower incomes, while a quarter (24%) supported the idea of a tax dedicated solely to providing funding for the NHS. Still less popular were the ideas of paying more tax through the current system (17%), introducing charges for visits to GPs and A&E departments (14%) or charging people to cover their food and laundry costs while in hospital (12%).

• The UK’s relationship with Europe. Since 1996, the majority of the British public have either felt that the UK should seek to reduce the EU’s powers or that it should leave the EU altogether. In the most recent British Social Attitudes survey report, respondents were asked to choose from a range of options for the UK’s future relationship with the EU. Of these options, the most popular was to remain a member but renegotiate terms (38%), followed by leaving the EU (24%) and leaving the relationship as it is (18%). The least popular options were to remain in the EU and increase its powers (10%) and to work towards the formation of a single European government (4%). While this euroscepticism is, according to the researchers, a continuation of a longer-term trend rather than a new development, they conclude that the next government is likely to be expected to, as a minimum, retain the UK’s status as a relatively unenthusiastic EU member. Moreover, the report also discusses the rise of UKIP, concluding that this does not, in fact, stem from a surge in euroscepticism among the British public. It states that other key characteristics of UKIP supporters are their social conservatism, their distrust of politics and concern with regard to the uneven distribution of wealth.

• Spending on welfare. With the exception of pensions and support for the disabled, spending on welfare is broadly unpopular among the electorate. The proportion who feel that the government should spend more on welfare has declined consistently over the past few decades: in 1989, the proportion of the electorate who felt this way stood at 69%, compared to just 30% in 2014. While Labour supporters tend to be more sympathetic towards welfare claimants than Conservative supporters, 50% of the former group still agreed with the statement that “around here, most unemployed people could find a job if they wanted to.” The researchers therefore conclude that it would be difficult for the next government to make any substantive changes to the welfare policies imposed in recent years without risking significant public discontent. They also suggest that it may be difficult for the incoming government to continue to meet the expectations of the public with regard to protecting pensions from spending cuts.

For further information about the British Social Attitudes survey, please see http://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/.

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By John Heneghan – Head of Policy & Strategy, Kirklees Council.

We’ve started a major transformation programme in Kirklees, with the aim of creating our ‘New Council’…

We want to become a more enabling council … a council which connects ideas, people and resources, so we can support communities to harness and build on their strengths. This shift of focus is about creating trust and synergy. We will be collaborating – locally, regionally, nationally and internationally – to find new solutions.

To support this vision, we’re developing a new approach to policy and strategy. We see reconnecting policy and practice as a key part of our new council ethos.

Our new approach will be more connected, collaborative and citizen-centred. We will generate solutions through experimentation, prototyping and iteration. It’s a much more dynamic and adaptive process than traditional strategy design and implementation.

Here are some of the key stages in our new strategy model and my reflections on the essential role played by research and intelligence…

Problem framing: We begin by problem framing – because trying to solve the wrong problem is, well, a common problem. Many strategies fail to articulate the problem they are trying to solve or to describe what success would look like.

Does our intelligence, insight and analysis suggest there is a need for a solution?

Using insight from customer or citizen engagement is a critical part of problem framing. By understanding the problem through the lens of the service user, customer or citizen we can avoid creating the perfect solution for the wrong problem.

Ideation: Through collaboration and citizen engagement we seek to generate different perspectives on the problem and ideas for possible solutions. Insight, in its broadest sense, is essential for idea generation – we need to seek out perspectives that are different from our own to avoid fitting the problem to our existing expertise.

We must use ideas which flow from customer insight; to bring in fresh perspectives by working collaboratively; and to ensure that our ideas are not just top-down. To do this, we need to use approaches which engage the whole workforce and are highly participative.

We rely on our research, intelligence and analysis to test if the ideas that emerge are credible hypotheses, not random shots in the dark.

Logic model: The logic model or “theory of change” gets us to focus on how we will evaluate potential solutions and how we will measure success. It aims to develop a logical proposition – we believe that if we do x it will lead to y – and a clear relationship between our activities, outputs, outcomes and longer term impact. It challenges us to isolate metrics for all our activities – describing what we will measure and developing a plan for how we will collect this data.

There are three big reasons why measuring impact is important:

• Measuring impact allows us to check and see if we’re on track, and this can inform whether or not we should adjust our plans.
• Having clear goals and ways to measure our progress towards them helps bring stakeholders together around a common purpose. It keeps everyone focused on the end goal, which is very important when working with multiple partners.
• Having data to help tell our story gives us a clear and compelling way to communicate what we’re doing, what we’re going to achieve and what we have achieved so far.

Altogether, this helps us to gain support for the programme both internally and externally.

Hypothesis testing: Traditionally, we write a strategy, consult on it, refine the strategy and then implement it through a delivery plan. We take a different approach now, taking a cue from The Lean Start Up, Eric Ries’s bible for entrepreneurs. Ries recommends seeing business as a real-world experiment and making a hypothesis about what will work – a minimum viable product – to test with real consumers.

We need to acknowledge that all strategies – and, I would argue, most of our projects and programmes – contain assumptions. Too often though, it’s not until we’re well into our delivery that we realise our assumptions were wrong, and the strategy is not having the traction or impact we had planned for. Experimentation and prototyping are key for making our strategies less risky. Using these methods, we can test our core assumptions in a small way early on, experiment to see what works in the real world, then iterate or pivot until we can show success.

Our capacity for research, intelligence and insight is central to this and to all the stages in our new strategy model. It really is the engine of effective strategy implementation and public sector innovation.

(Photo credit: Ray Morris1, Byram Arcade – Huddersfield)

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From Analysis to Action: Connecting Research and Local Government in an Age of Austerity

This report by the Local Government Knowledge Navigator, steered by Solace and the LGA, examines how to achieve a wider and more productive engagement between local government and the research community. It looks at local government’s research needs and internal capacity, the supply and funding of research, the value of research and local government collaboration and the barriers that need tackling

Collaboration in Action: Local authorities that are making the most of research

This evidence review by the Local Government Knowledge Navigators, steered by Solace and the LGA, examines evidence of successful Local Authority and research collaboration. The review examines 16 case studies of local authorities making effective use of research and uses these to identify key ingredients for successful collaboration.

Photo credit: The Old Royal Navy College by Nicholas Schooley

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Photo credit: Castle Hill, Huddersfield by Urban Outlaw

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“Some councils have talked about creating a team tasked with gaining insight on citizens and the way they access services, but we have yet to see a council take a radical approach to understanding the people it serves.”

Do you agree?

Photo credit: Hyroglifics, British Museum, London by LARIA photo

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So, what are the three lessons?

1. Focus on people rather than organisations. Many speakers emphasized the importance of focusing on society and people rather than the specific councils and organisations the delegates worked for. Many agreed that by concentrating directly on the people and places they lived, their research would be more valid and personalised—and, therefore, more likely to influence decision making effectively.  This is true in marketing also: by focusing on your consumers’ needs, you can better show the value of your research. If your company is used to making decisions through gut feeling, focusing on customers can help validate your instincts or flag potentially catastrophic business decisions.
2. Demonstrate a link between research and outcome.In a recent study of SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives) members, 4 out of 5 heads of local government in the UK acknowledge the importance of robust evidence in decision making. During the conference, we also heard several examples that demonstrated a direct link between research and government action. The research conducted by local authorities is important: it directly impacts how organisations in the public sector manage future demand, allocate resources, and evaluate the success of policies.To remain relevant in their companies, researchers also need to make the connection between their work and how it moves the needle. Data is only important if it manages knowledge and if it can be presented as evidence. If you’re a researcher, you have to present your insights in an easy-to-understand format, making sure that it comes back to key performance indicators that decision makers in your company care about.
3. Build engagement.The constant need for citizen engagement was particularly evident when listening to various presentations and speaking to local authority researchers. Attendees want to get a deeper understanding of the public wants and needs and be able to do this in a time and cost effective way.Engagement is not new to researchers and marketers, and this is where insight communities can play a role. Given their ability to facilitate ongoing two way conversations, insight communities can increase dialogue, build relationships and close the loop on engagement.

Hannah Mumby writes; “The conference showed that local researchers are proud, passionate and enthusiastic about their work—as they should be. In the age of public disengagement, the need for insight-led policy is more important than ever, and local researchers play a critical role in facilitating this. Similarly, as consumers become more fickle and sometimes disengaged, researchers can help ensure the customer’s voice remains top-of-mind for the marketing team and the rest of the C-suite.”

Do you have any lessons to share? 

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