In this presentation, Ipsos MORI and client Citizens Advice Scotland showcase results from the first-ever study to demonstrate the impact and relative efficacy of different deliberative research methods in addressing 'live' public policy questions. We show the real policy impact the findings have had, including on parliamentary and wider debates; for example, a Scottish Parliament debate on the Scottish Government's Energy Efficient Route Map. In the process, we prove the added value of deliberative methods beyond more traditional research methods for engaging consumers in policy questions, busting some myths along the way.
The starting point for our discussion was the recognition that social change is proceeding faster than at any time in human history. Politicians, administrators, and those involved in the political process are therefore like managers of industrial and commercial establishments in this respect: their 'microcosm' of the world around them, being dependent on previous experience and earlier learning, risks loss of touch with the real world. The role of social researchers is to help those involved in the political process to improve the correspondence between the microcosm and reality. Social research can perform this role in two ways. The first, which is the approach mainly adopted in the papers of this seminar, is the description and analysis of social attitudes and behaviour, over time. The second, which received little attention, is the evaluation of public policy, of the actions of government, extending possibly to the evaluation of social experiments. The second role is perhaps more closely.
The object of this paper is to illustrate how research can assist in the field of public policy. The problems inherent in measuring open-ended situations where demand can be infinite are discussed. The need to use a variety of secondary measures to assess the results of policy where direct primary measures are not possible is pointed out. To set the scene for two case histories the role of the Central Office of Information in London is described. Illustration of the use of indirect or secondary measures in assisting in the implementation and assessment of public policy is made by reference to the Housing Improvement Grants Scheme which began in 1969 and to the Legal Aid and Assistance Campaign which began in 1973. There is a brief conclusion pointing out the risks which can be run if secondary measures are wholly endogenous.