1. What Works Scotland (WWS)
What Works Scotland (WWS)
Public Service Reform, Collaborative Inquiry and Third Sector ‘impact’
James Henderson

2. 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 …

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. ‘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

7. 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

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

9. 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

10. 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)

11. Action research – ‘capacity-building’

12. 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?

13. ‘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)

14. Interim stage of WWS research
: 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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?

18. 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?

19. 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 …