Six months ago this week, I walked into the What Works Centre’s office on my first day as Executive Director – excited about the work ahead, and daunted by the scale of the challenges in front...

Nominations are now open for the Political Studies Association Awards 2019, and once again we’re supporting the Best Use of Evidence category. This award recognises a politician or elected official who’s made a policy decision clearly...

‘If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself’, according to captain of industry and business magnate, Henry Ford. Over seventy years after Ford’s death, policy learning is the premise of intermediary organisations...

Last month Belfast hosted a second What Works Summit. Similar to the Summit in February, Campbell UK & Ireland invited What Works Centres (WWC), local researchers, practitioners and policy makers to share and discuss what works...

As Brexit sucks all the oxygen out of British government, it’s easy to miss an important success story. The UK has set up ten What Works Centres (WWCs) to orchestrate the best evidence for frontline professionals...

Giving prizes to those who use evidence well is one of the ways that we can incentivise and normalise informed decision-making in many areas of policy. So earlier this year we were pleased to partner with...

The U.S. recently passed bipartisan legislation which embeds and systematizes the way evidence is used in decision-making. The act passed with overwhelming support, indicating the power that rigorous, credible research evidence has on traversing a polarised...

Practitioner toolkits have become the hallmark of the What Works Network. They allow frontline workers to compare the effectiveness of different practices and programmes. But what’s it like to create one of these resources? What challenges...

The results of one of the most complex evaluations ever attempted in social policy were published this week. Based on a specially built dataset with over a million cases and over 3,000 variables, its focus was one...

Earlier this month the What Works Summit – Early Years in Belfast brought together local researchers, decision-makers and practitioners to meet four of the ten UK What Works Centres: Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP), Early...

We live in an era where trust in political institutions is low and declining. It has been suggested that this lack of trust extends to experts too. For too long evidence has been seen as the...

People are hacked off with politicians. Whether it’s hurling abuse at MPs outside the House of Commons, or the burning barricades of Gilets Jaunes in Toulouse, discontent is in the air. The evidence movement must respond...

In his first blog as Executive Director for the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care, Michael Sanders spells out what success will mean for the Centre and for those we’re here to support. Today is...

Academics and policymakers alike are facing mounting pressures to improve the supply of rigorous evidence for decision-making. Yet improving the supply of good evidence is not the same as translating that evidence into meaningful changes in...

A growing wariness between what is fact and what is fiction in recent years has been highlighted by increased political polarisation, a fractured media and the accelerated pace of technological change. The Evidence Initiative, the recently launched...

This week marks International Open Access Week 2018. At the Alliance for Useful Evidence, we’re big supporters of the principles behind the open access (OA) movement: scholarly research should be available to everyone, not just to...

Jonathan Breckon provides a guide to the Results First Clearinghouse Database, which brings together the evidence base for over 2,500 US programmes. Could it provide a model for something similar in the UK? Earlier this summer,...

Those working to increase the use of evidence need to understand the internal journey that’s required for people to change their behaviour, writes Kerry McCarthy. Back in 2015 I started to wonder what, as an evaluation...

For the third time, the Alliance for Useful Evidence is pleased to be partnering with the Political Studies Association on their Annual Awards, to celebrate the successful use of evidence in policy-making. Nominations are now open...

The authors of the report ‘UK What Works Centres: Aims, methods and contexts’ share the findings of their research and the lessons that can be learnt by the wider sector. The UK is unique in having...

Changing the way that decision-makers engage with evidence is no easy task. For all our efforts, making high quality evidence available and accessible often just isn’t enough. What motivates a politician to commission a review, or...

Ruth Puttick, author of our report ‘Mapping the Standards of Evidence used in UK social policy’ discusses the differences in Standards of Evidence in more depth. Over the past decade, Standards of Evidence have become increasingly...