Policy Hub
These publications emanate from various programmes of work that GCSRO (now GSRU) co-ordinated up to March 2005, to improve standards of evaluation and research in government and enhance the contribution of high quality research to policy making.
| PUBLICATION DATE |
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December 2003 |
Trying it out: the role of 'pilots' in policy-making: report of a review of government pilots |
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- review of the use of policy pilots in the UK government and devolved administrations for developing and evaluating policy initiatives. Commissioned by GCSRO, chaired by Professor Roger Jowell, City University, and supported by a panel of senior figures from inside and outside of government. The report makes 27 recommendations about the role of pilots in policy making, pre-conditions and key properties, methods and practices in pilots, and the use of results. |
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| Full downloadable version (271kb) |
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November 2003 |
Large scale social experimentation in Britain: what can and cannot be learnt from the Employment retention and advancement demonstration? (Occasional Paper Series; 3) |
- discusses the strengths and limitations of using social experimentation in policy evaluation and analysis in the design of the Earnings, Retention and Advancement Project (ERA). ERA is a large scale social experiment into the retention and advancement of low-wage, low-skilled workers at the margins of the labour market. ERA is currently tested in the Department for Work and Pensions. ERA was designed in GCSRO and the report is part of the output of the design phase. The authors of the report were members of the ERA design team. |
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Full downloadable version (300kb) |
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| August 2003 |
Quality in Qualitative Evaluation: A Framework for Assessing Research Evidence |
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- provides guidance for assessing the credibility, rigour and relevance of qualitative research evaluations. GCSRO commissioned The National Centre for Social Research to carry out a methodological review of quality standards in qualitative evaluations and to develop a framework for assessing quality. The resulting framework proposes eighteen appraisal questions, based on four guiding principles. The framework and report contribute to the ongoing debate on the quality in qualitative evaluations. They aim to stimulate further debate and developmental work on these issues. |
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| Full downloadable version(624kb) |
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| 15 July 2003 |
Employer Perspectives on the Recruitment, Retention and Advancement of Low-Pay, Low-Status Employees (Occasional Paper Series; 2) |
| The Institute for Employment Studies was commissioned by GCSRO to examine UK employers' attitudes to and perceptions about retaining and advancing employees in low-skilled and low-wage jobs in their organisations. The report fed into the design of the Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) demonstration project |
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| Full downloadable version (336kb) |
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| 2 May 2003 |
Designing a Demonstration Project: An Employment, Retention and Advancement Demonstration for Great Britain (Occasional Paper Series; 1) |
| - provides a detailed description of the design phase of the Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) Demonstration Project. ERA aims to improve job retention and advancement among low-skilled and low-waged workers. ERA was designed as a large scale social experiment between 2001 and 2002 in GCSRO and was tested subsequently in the Department for Work and Pensions. The ERA design report describes the intervention and the components of the evaluation. |
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