This paper recommends five things the What Works centres need to do to ensure they maximise their impact, and avoid the mistakes of past evidence initiatives.
This paper recommends five things the What Works centres need to do to ensure they maximise their impact, and avoid the mistakes of past evidence initiatives.
Key findings
The What Works centres should:
- Consider all relevant kinds of evidence. This includes communicating what doesn’t work as well as what does – and not shying away from being blunt.
- Involve the likely users of evidence in the shaping of work programmes, prioritisation and governance.
- Try to influence the creation of new evidence – to ensure it addresses live compelling problems. Evidence also needs to support innovation and experiment – not crush it.
- Be ready to adapt – the What Works Network should reflect on its own impact, learn from the evidence about evidence, and respond to what is and isn’t effective.
In March 2013, Nesta hosted the launch of the What Works Network. Led by the ESRC, Cabinet Office and the Big Lottery Fund, these new centres have the ambitious task of improving the links between the supply, demand, and use of evidence in policymaking. These will complement existing bodies – NICE in health, and the Education Endowment Foundation in schools, orchestrating evidence across the areas of ageing, early intervention, policing and local economic growth.
This short paper recommends five ways that the What Works centres can maximise their impact, and avoid the mistakes of past evidence initiatives, which were often overly focused on supply rather than use, and on academic research to the exclusion of other types of evidence.
Authors
Ruth Puttick and Geoff Mulgan
