Seminar series

This series of seminars helps you benefit from the knowledge and learning across the GSR community. They cover topics from research methods and techniques to professional standards to cross-cutting issues. Some are aimed solely at GSR members whilst others will also be of relevance to other government analysts and to policy makers.

New seminars are always in development and will be added to the series here. The seminars will usually take place between 12 and 2 at HM Treasury and are free of charge – places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis and booking will be available only in the four weeks prior to each seminar. To request a place please email us at gsru.seminars@hm-treasury.x.gsi.gov.uk.

Previous seminars

Dealing with the external research community

25 November 2008

Making the most of the external research community to help develop research is easier said than done. Despite a desire on the behalf of many in government to draw on the knowledge of external experts – especially those in academia – it is often very difficult to find experts with the right expertise and skills.

At the same time, some academics feel frustrated that their research and knowledge is not taken seriously enough by those within government. The result can be a frustrating gap between academia and government.

This seminar provided three perspectives on academic involvement. Guy Rubin spoke about the MoJ’s capacity building exercise, Jan White explained DCLG’s use of expert panels, and Philip Cowley, GSRU’s placement fellow on secondment from Nottingham University, provided an academic’s perspective.

Mentoring scheme

21 October 2008

GSRU is offering to facilitate a formal developmental mentoring scheme for and between members of GSR.

The purpose of this scheme will be to help mentees make decisions and take action on their career development, and to allow mentors to use their skills and knowledge to help others.

This seminar explained in more detail about what mentoring means, the roles of mentors and mentees, and how the GSR scheme will work, to help participants decide whether to take part.

You can download the presentations given at the seminar below.

Customer insight and social research working together

26 September 2008

Government is becoming more customer focused – the needs, expectations and beliefs of the public must be understood in order to design and deliver services which meet the needs of the population. This is demonstrated by the fact that the commitment to build services around the needs of citizens and businesses will be integral to the achievement of each of the 30 cross cutting PSAs.

The disciplines of Customer Insight and Social Research (as well as the other analytical professions) have much to gain from working together to achieve a better understanding of the customer, improve the measurement of public perception as well as evaluating the impact of services and interventions.

This seminar provided an overview of customer insight and provided current examples of where departments have brought insight and social research, and other analysis together to good effect. There was also the opportunity for discussion on the issues around bringing the two disciplines together – and the challenges this may bring – with social researchers working in customer insight and customer insight colleagues.

Behaviour Change Knowledge Review

23 July 2008

Seminar that presented findings from the recent GSR Knowledge Review.

Andrew Darnton, an independent consultant who carried out the review gave an overview of Behaviour Change models and theory and Rachel Muckle from DEFRA discussed how the models had been applied in a government setting.

Rapid Evidence Assessment Toolkit launch

14 April 2008

Seminar to launch the GSR REA Toolkit.

Designed as a web-based resource to enable Government Social Researchers to carry out or commission REAs. Nathanael Bevan, who led a group of GSR members in developing the Toolkit, introduced the resource, followed by James Hodgkinson from Government Office West Midlands, Home Office who discussed the benefits and challenges of carrying out an REA. 

Developing for SCS

11 March 2008

Presentations from people already working in the SCS provided ‘food for thought’ on development, and the chance to find out about opportunities across the civil service to get training and experience relevant to achieving aspirations.

Propensity Score Matching

19 February 2008

Lorraine Dearden gave an overview of Propensity Score Matching and discussed how it can be used to measure the impact of government policies. Mike Daly from DWP presented details of how PSM was used to evaluate the New Deal for Lone Parents looking at the strengths of the method but also some of the difficulties of implementing the method.

Horizon Scanning

8 January 2008

Professor Sandy Thomas, Director of Foresight at the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills discussed Horizon Scanning and the role of Foresight and how social researchers could work more effectively together.

Deliberative Research

15 November 2008

Presentations from Fiona Wood, Director of Research at the Central Office of Information (COI) on some of the methodological issues these techniques present and Lee Smith and Louise Taylor from the Social Research and Evaluation team at the Department for Transport on how they are being used in government in relation to current DfT research on road pricing, and attitudes to climate change and the links to transport behaviour.

Policy evaluation

There is growing recognition that despite an increase in certain types of policy evaluation, there is a need for government to review what has been learned about: the quality of UK policy evaluations, the capability and conditions needed to conduct well designed evaluations, and the infrastructure available to departments, to design and deliver scientifically robust large-scale policy evaluations.

A major Treasury-sponsored seminar was organised by the Government Social Research Unit (GSRU) and the Government Economic Service Team (GEST) in October 2008 to explore the topic in more detail.

Got an idea for a seminar?

The seminar series is for you to share and discuss issues and ideas. If you have any thoughts about useful or interesting subjects/topics for future seminars or would like to share your experiences and learning with your peers, or even if you have been to a seminar you think was particularly worth repeating for GSR members, please get in contact with us atgsru.seminars@hm-treasury.x.gsi.gov.uk