Drivers in the West Midlands are speeding less often; installing gates on alley-ways is a cost-effective way to prevent burglaries; and councils from Barnet to Devon and Cornwall have reconsidered their approach to business support.
Just three of the many examples where expert research is helping a wide range of different public bodies improve services. In areas such as policing, local economic growth, and health and social care – public services that spend more than £200bn of taxpayers’ money – the government has published a report on the progress being made as the result of a little-known set of experiments investigating which policies actually work. There is much to applaud.
More than 22,000 frontline police officers are now being issued with body-worn cameras after a trial led by the College of Policing showed cameras resulted in better policing, and reduced allegations against police officers by 33%. Getting drivers to cut their speed was achieved in the West Midlands by sending offenders pictures of lampposts bedecked with flowers and teddy bears, reminding them of the impact of traffic accidents. The reoffending rates for speeding drivers subsequently fell by 20%. Other experiments were less successful – putting inspiring messages on cell walls from an ex-offender about how he broke free from crime failed to change reoffending rates.
If all of this smacks of nudge theory – trying to change the public’s behaviour by prompting them to make better choices – that’s because the driving force behind this work is David Halpern, the government’s national What Works adviser, and director of the world-leading Behavioural Insight Unit. One of the attractions of his nudge unit to governments around the world has been that it seems to offer a cost-effective way to save money on public services.
Chief social worker Isabelle Trowler spoke at an event on 29 January, organised by the Cabinet Office, to celebrate the achievements of the 10 What Works centres across the UK. Trowler pointed out that without hard evidence about what works in the often-fraught relationship between social workers and families, this area could be at a real disadvantage when the spending cake gets cut. Trowler explained that there appears to be a different approach to youth social work, for instance, in each of England’s 152 county and unitary councils, making it almost impossible to know which is the most effective approach. Having evidence is vital when funding decisions are made, such as the £30m programme to help resolve parental conflict in families with disadvantaged children, following a review by the Early Intervention Foundation of the impact on children of unresolved conflict between parents.
But austerity has bit hard and deep into all UK public services. In a government almost completely dominated by Brexit, any minister fighting for funding for their department is going to have a long, hard battle.
There are signs that the Treasury will listen to those that can make the case their services save money. But the call at the Cabinet Office event by Catherine Connolly, deputy director of public spending at the Treasury, for ministers to ensure all policies are based on high quality evidence is not being heard by everyone.
Brexit minister Steve Baker aired claims last week that civil servants had deliberately produced negative reports saying the UK economy would be damaged by Brexit. Baker has now been forced to apologise, but it has left civil servants hopping mad. All the careful evidence in the world won’t help when ministers are determined to drive through their own world view.
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