Using evidence : how research can inform public services / Sandra M. Nutley, Isabel Walter and Huw T.O. Davies.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nutley, Sandra M.

Contributor:

Walter, Isabel, 1972-

Davies, H. T. O.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public administration--Great Britain.

Public administration.

Great Britain.

Political planning--Great Britain.

Political planning.

Physical Description:

xii, 363 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Bristol : Policy Press, 2007.

Summary:

There is widespread commitment across public service agencies in the UK and elsewhere to ensuring that the best available evidence is used to improve public services. The challenge is not only making research evidence accessible and avilable but also getting it used.

This book provides a timely and novel contribution to understanding and enhancing evidence use. It builds on and complements the popular and best-selling What works?: Evidence-based policy and practice in public services (Davies, Nutley and Smith, The Policy Press, 2000), by drawing together current knowledge about how research gets used and how this can be encouraged and improved. In particular, the authors: explore various multidisciplinary frameworks for understanding the research use agenda; consider how research use and the impact of research can be assessed; summarise the empirical evidence from the education, health care, social care and criminal justice fields about how research is used and how this can be improved; draw out practical issues that need to be addressed if research is to have greater impact on public services.

Using evidence is important reading for university and government researchers, research funding bodies, public service managers and professionals, and students of public policy and management. It will also prove an invaluable guide for anyone involved in the implementation of evidence-based policy and practice.

Contents:

1 Using evidence - introducing the issues 1

Research (sometimes) matters 1

Introducing this text 2

Settings of interest 4

Research use and the evidence-based policy and practice agenda 10

How does research fit with evidence? 20

Our own ways of knowing 29

2 What does it mean to 'use' research evidence? 33

The different ways research can be used 34

Research use typologies 36

From fixed typologies to fluidity and ambiguity in research use 45

Research use as a series of stages 46

The 'misuse' of research 51

Research use as replication or innovation 53

3 What shapes the use of research? 61

The routes through which research enters policy and practice 61

Factors shaping the use of research 66

Research use realities 81

4 Descriptive models of the research impact process 91

Models of the research-policy relationship 92

Models of the research-practice relationship 111

Understanding research use - the importance of interaction 119

Postmodern accounts of research use 120

5 Improving the use of research: what's been tried and what might work? 125

Taxonomies of strategies to improve the use of research 126

What works? Evidence on the effectiveness of different strategies and mechanisms for promoting the use of research 130

6 What can we learn from the literature on learning, knowledge management and the diffusion of innovations? 155

Learning: individual and organisational 156

Knowledge management 168

Diffusion of innovations 176

7 Improving research use in practice contexts 195

Multifaceted initiatives: combining different mechanisms to promote research use 196

Ways of thinking about and developing research-informed practice 199

The research-based practitioner model 205

The embedded research model 210

The organisational excellence model 214

Hybrids and archetypes 218

The role of government in promoting research use in practice contexts 221

8 Improving research use in policy contexts 231

Research supply-side initiatives 233

Research demand-side initiatives 240

Assumptions embedded in supply and demand perspectives 245

Between supply and demand 246

Managing supply and demand, and the potential politicisation of research 252

Improving research use by drawing on broader models of policy influence 254

The national policy context 263

9 How can we assess research use and wider research impact? 271

Why assess research impacts? 272

The purpose and focus of assessing impact 273

Approaches to assessing impact 275

The importance of conceptualising research use when exploring research impact 282

Methodological considerations in research impact assessment 287

Reflective questions to aid impact assessment design 290

10 Drawing some conclusions on Using evidence 297

Research does matter - but research, and its uses, are diverse 298

Research use is complex and contingent 300

Insights for developing research use strategies 305

Practical implications for increasing research use 311

Inclusive views of research - implications for wider evidence 315

Research use requires more study 316.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-354) and index.

ISBN:

1861346646

9781861346643

9781861346650

1861346654

OCLC:

123340096