What Works Scotland (WWS) whatworksscotland.ac.uk @WWScot What Works Scotland (WWS) Public Service Reform, Collaborative Inquiry and Third Sector ‘impact’ James Henderson

In this presentation … Generate an initial understanding of What Works Scotland – it’s a complex research programme … get you thinking about how it might be further relevant to third sector Reflect on … ‘inquire’ … as to opportunities for third sector impact and evidence use … questions to wrestle with … and keen to hear your thoughts …

What Works Scotland is … A three-year project led by researchers at University of Glasgow and University of Edinburgh Funded by the ESRC in UK and the Scottish Government To support and improve public services in Scotland

Local authority partners Working with these four areas in order to learn what is and what isn’t working in their local area encourage collaborative learning better understand what effective policy interventions and effective services look like promote the use of evidence in planning and service delivery help organisations get the skills and knowledge they need to use and interpret evidence and embed its use in their everyday working practices create case studies for wider sharing and sustainability

collaborative and networked governance Context: public service reform - internationally Demographic change Rising inequalities Globalisation and insecurity Technological change Climate change Reductions in public spending collaborative and networked governance A focus on key approaches and methods … explain these Place – focus for Coordination of public services (give tangible examples) and Communities having an influence An emphasis on place Coordination of public services (give tangible examples) Communities having an influence Scotland – place -based – other countries focus on a service area or theme

‘Christie agenda’ Prevention Partnership Performance Participation The policy context: Long-term public spending reduction Demographic change – growing and ‘ageing’ Stubborn inequalities – economic, social, health … impact on outcomes elusive A need to improve the quality of public services Developing a ‘Scottish Approach’ to public service reform – system change The Christie Commission resulted in four pillars of reform

Christie and Collaborative Governance Strong emphasis on: collaboration, partnership and local partnership, joint-working, integration, com. engagement, independent com. action But … Means many things … a ‘space for dialogue’ Mixing with other forms of coordination: top-down, bottom-up, budgets and markets Centralisation & localism – both are active

WWS research includes Prevention Community engagement and third sector Leadership and Governance Evidence into action/evidence-use Evaluation Workforce Spread and sustainability

WWS research includes … Action research projects in 4 CPPs Capture learning across projects Disseminate across partners, CPPs, etc. Collaborative Action Research A focus on ‘action learning’, capacity building and research impact: Sharing evidence and learning as we go: e.g. evidence reviews, ‘think-pieces’, case studies, blogs Hosting and holding regular policy and practitioner events: knowledge exchange, debate

WWS aspirations for action research ‘Family of approaches’ (Reason & Bradbury, 2006): eclectic, pragmatic, emancipatory, ‘participatory worldview’ Double Loop Learning (Argyris, 2004) … pragmatic; ‘critical’ – reframing, alternatives A dual strategy: focused collaborative inquiries e.g. group; and capacity-building within the partnership(s)

Action research – ‘capacity-building’

Action research - collaborative inquiries Phase 1: Preparing the ground Where are we now? What are our key concerns? What would success look like?   Phase 2: Exploring the evidence How do we exploit internal and external knowledge? What further evidence do we need? What new insights do we have? Phase 3: Testing change What changes do we need to make? How do we lever and embed change? How do we know we have made a difference?

‘Wicked issues’ and AR "social issues and problems are intrinsically wicked or messy, and it is very dangerous for them to be treated as if they were 'tame' and 'benign'. Real world problems have no definitive formulation; no point at which it is definitely solved; solutions are not true or false; there is no test for a solution; every solution contributes to a further social problem; there are no well-defined set of solutions; wicked problems are unique; they are symptomatic of other problems; they do not have simple causes; and have numerous possible explanations which in turn frame different policy responses; and, in particular, the social enterprise is not allowed to fail in their attempts to solve wicked problems.“ (Curtis, 2010)

Interim stage of WWS research 2015-16: Events, case-sites work, survey work, national partners – building understanding of policy and practice and generating evidence 2017: analysis of learning and moving to engage others with this learning

National ‘layer’ of research Prevention: series of national events with NHS Scotland … economics of prevention; working Community engagement: TSIs – local democratic CPPs Community anchors Evidence-use: Reviews on partnership-working … still to come: outcomes, com. engagement

Case-site work e.g. A’shire Community Capacity-building ‘inquiring’ Community Link worker research HSCP – thinking further on strategic approach Valuable links to AVA and Rural Partnerships Multi-layered preventative partnership-work Learning Days re. Christie … and Development Days with Board Collaborative discussions re. LOIP and CCB Reports Published: Community Linking; Beyond Action Learning In the offing: Prevention; Community Capacity-building; Collaborative Partnership-working

In a spirit of inquiry: re. third sector impact and evidence And a wrestling with ‘wicked issues’ … challenging my own thinking … How can WWS’s work help? National, Local and case-sites, Evidence base … What are we learning about collaboration – in what ways is it useful?

Third sector impact (1) How can third sector play a greater role in HSCI and Community Planning? ‘Christie spaces’: Local democracy; Community anchors; Welfare reform … how useful in practice? ‘Sanction and Sanctuary’: who is offering this? WWS events and evidence in 2017 … how can these be useful?

Impact (2) What’s the evidence for Prevention (as reducing inequalities), Health and Well-being, Quality of Life, Community Assets? NHS Scotland (Craig, 2014) evidence-base … Is prevention all the same ‘thing’? May sound like but complex policies and practices Being part of the debate and developing dialogue as to ‘what matters’ is crucial …