Insecure lives and the policy disconnect: How multiple insecurities affect Levelling Up and what joined-up policy can do to help
Lead Research Organisation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Department Name: Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclus
Abstract
Introduction
Millions of UK residents are worrying about multiple issues such as money, housing, health and caring responsibilities. Individual insecurities may build up and combine. They may prevent households using their opportunities, including the primary education, adult skills training and work opportunities which Levelling Up aims to provide. They may harm well-being, and limit productivity. Perceived insecurities may have different psychological and behavioural effects to other kinds of disadvantages. Insecurities may mean some people may not be able to benefit from Levelling Up, and Levelling Up may not be able to achieve its full potential.
Policy background: Many past local growth and regeneration projects have been very successful, but many have not met all their goals, and progress has been more difficult for some so-called 'left behind' areas and so-called 'hard to reach' groups of people. Multiple insecurities may provide a partial explanation. Some key individual insecurities have grown in prevalence over time.
The research questions
Our two main research questions are:
1. How do people's experiences of multiple insecurities in a place impact their ability to participate in and benefit from Levelling Up?
2. How can policies and policymakers reduce insecurities and join-up better to improve well-being, opportunity and Levelling Up?
In addition, we want to know how many people experience multiple insecurities, in what combinations, where are they, and what are the implications for those who experience them? And what is the lived and felt experience of multiple insecurities, what policies and stakeholders are implicated in these risks, and what can they do together to de-risk lives and aid Levelling Up?
Research methods
We will focus on certain insecurities (food insecurity, debt, income fluctuations, eviction or loss of housing, problems with health and caring responsibilities), and outcomes relevant to Levelling Up (performance at primary school, skills, employment and wellbeing). Over ten months, we will explore multiple insecurities using mixed methods, including:
-Discussion with policymakers about multiple insecurities, and what they know and want to learn about them,
-Evidence reviews of individual and multiple insecurities, their prevalence and impacts, and of promising approaches in addressing multiple insecurities,
-Quantitative analysis on the same topics across the UK using Understanding Society supplemented by other sources,
-New qualitative data collection, which will involve researchers talking with 24-30 people experiencing multiple insecurities in three diverse areas in England about their lived experience of insecurities, the effects, and who might be able to mitigate them, with an artist drawing alongside to record responses and to elicit new insights, and other visual and story methods,
-Discussion with policymakers and people identified as potential 'risk influencers' on what they could do to 'derisk' people's lives, based on personas created from case study stories.
We have considered and tried to mitigate risks, and ethical concerns. We have some evidence of policymaker and practitioner interest in our ideas, although its origins did not allow comprehensive consultation.
Outputs and dissemination
The call demands thought leadership, and we hope to provide this through developing and evidencing a new interdisciplinary concept, 'multiple insecurity'. We have built dissemination to some policymakers into the project. We will also produce final presentations to policymakers; a final report and policy briefs; mapping, and other visual and story information; academic seminars, conference papers; working papers and journal articles; and material for deposit with UK Data Archive. We hope to see growth in the use of the concept, citation of our work, some changes in Levelling Up policy and some changes in practice, as a result of our work.
Millions of UK residents are worrying about multiple issues such as money, housing, health and caring responsibilities. Individual insecurities may build up and combine. They may prevent households using their opportunities, including the primary education, adult skills training and work opportunities which Levelling Up aims to provide. They may harm well-being, and limit productivity. Perceived insecurities may have different psychological and behavioural effects to other kinds of disadvantages. Insecurities may mean some people may not be able to benefit from Levelling Up, and Levelling Up may not be able to achieve its full potential.
Policy background: Many past local growth and regeneration projects have been very successful, but many have not met all their goals, and progress has been more difficult for some so-called 'left behind' areas and so-called 'hard to reach' groups of people. Multiple insecurities may provide a partial explanation. Some key individual insecurities have grown in prevalence over time.
The research questions
Our two main research questions are:
1. How do people's experiences of multiple insecurities in a place impact their ability to participate in and benefit from Levelling Up?
2. How can policies and policymakers reduce insecurities and join-up better to improve well-being, opportunity and Levelling Up?
In addition, we want to know how many people experience multiple insecurities, in what combinations, where are they, and what are the implications for those who experience them? And what is the lived and felt experience of multiple insecurities, what policies and stakeholders are implicated in these risks, and what can they do together to de-risk lives and aid Levelling Up?
Research methods
We will focus on certain insecurities (food insecurity, debt, income fluctuations, eviction or loss of housing, problems with health and caring responsibilities), and outcomes relevant to Levelling Up (performance at primary school, skills, employment and wellbeing). Over ten months, we will explore multiple insecurities using mixed methods, including:
-Discussion with policymakers about multiple insecurities, and what they know and want to learn about them,
-Evidence reviews of individual and multiple insecurities, their prevalence and impacts, and of promising approaches in addressing multiple insecurities,
-Quantitative analysis on the same topics across the UK using Understanding Society supplemented by other sources,
-New qualitative data collection, which will involve researchers talking with 24-30 people experiencing multiple insecurities in three diverse areas in England about their lived experience of insecurities, the effects, and who might be able to mitigate them, with an artist drawing alongside to record responses and to elicit new insights, and other visual and story methods,
-Discussion with policymakers and people identified as potential 'risk influencers' on what they could do to 'derisk' people's lives, based on personas created from case study stories.
We have considered and tried to mitigate risks, and ethical concerns. We have some evidence of policymaker and practitioner interest in our ideas, although its origins did not allow comprehensive consultation.
Outputs and dissemination
The call demands thought leadership, and we hope to provide this through developing and evidencing a new interdisciplinary concept, 'multiple insecurity'. We have built dissemination to some policymakers into the project. We will also produce final presentations to policymakers; a final report and policy briefs; mapping, and other visual and story information; academic seminars, conference papers; working papers and journal articles; and material for deposit with UK Data Archive. We hope to see growth in the use of the concept, citation of our work, some changes in Levelling Up policy and some changes in practice, as a result of our work.
