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...

Janet Grauberg (an organisational learning consultant working in children’s services) explains why Action Learning is an ideal way to embed evidence-informed practice. Most days, I don’t have time to read all the interesting bulletins that land...

At the Alliance we have been arguing for ages that the evidence community needs to learn more about the use of research by policymakers and professionals. What exactly helps people to use evidence? We need more...

Last month the Alliance’s Senior Research Officer Emma Taylor-Collins was invited to speak about evidence at a Citizens Advice Research & Campaigns Forum in Bristol.  The event, focusing on using evidence to influence policy, brought together...

The What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care shares its next steps. Today is World Social Work Day – an event that encourages the celebration and promotion of the profession’s contributions to individuals, families, communities and...

Earlier in the year, we invited people from practitioner, policy and professional bodies with an interest in using evidence to a Scottish Evidence Summit. The day was organised in partnership with Iriss. Thirty senior representatives, from...

Richard Clubbe discusses the mixed findings of Sense about Science’s spot check on how transparent government departments are about their evidence use. Last week Sense about Science published a report on how transparent the UK government...