Wales Centre for Public Policy
Lead Research Organisation:
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Department Name: Cardiff Business School
Abstract
Wales is grappling with complex and long-standing policy challenges including how to meet the needs of an ageing population, reduce poverty, and increase productivity whilst transitioning to a Net-Zero Carbon economy and dealing with the fall-out from Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) enables policy makers and public services to access and apply high-quality independent research evidence and expertise that helps to improve national and local responses to these and other challenges.
The WCPP has already achieved significant success. We have had a demonstrable impact on a range of policy decisions and our unique, demand-led approach has attracted growing national and international recognition. Our proposal responds to an invitation from the ESRC and Welsh Government to set out plans to sustain and build on this success over the next five years.
We will continue to conduct three distinct but inter-related programmes of work. Our work for the Welsh Government will ensure that ministerial advice, decisions, and policy direction are based on rigorous evidence. We will link policy officials to academic experts and identify opportunities for enhancing policy formulation through research. We will support the development of research capability in the Welsh Government. And, through our Research Apprenticeship scheme, PhD Internships, and the support, mentoring, and career development provided to our team, we will help build a new cadre of researchers who have the skills needed to generate and mobilise policy-relevant research.
We will provide Public Services Boards (PSBs), local government and other public services with rigorous independent evidence about what works in improving long-term cultural, economic, environmental, and social well-being. We will work with our funders, PSBs, and public services to conduct a systematic evidence-needs analysis, and to co-design a programme of activities that helps to support the delivery of PSBs' well-being plans, build local capability and capacity to use evidence, and promote evaluative approaches to assessing implementation and impact.
Our research on evidence use will draw on and contribute to leading-edge academic literature and inform and improve the way we in which work. It will advance understanding of evidence use through analysis of ours and others' experience of mobilising evidence, and it will systematically evaluate the impact and value-added of our work for ministers and public services.
The WCPP's multi-disciplinary team provides a unique blend of experience of working in academia, national and local government, voluntary sector, think tanks and consultancy. This enables us to act as an effective bridge between the academic and policy making communities. It also means we are able to work with colleagues from a wide range of different disciplines. Our established project management processes will ensure effective management of external experts, and our work will be tailored to the distinctive policy agenda in Wales (including the well-being goals and ways of working) and recognise the importance of the Welsh language.
By collaborating with external experts to draw on their existing research, we will provide rapid responses to urgent evidence needs identified by ministers and public services. Alongside this, we will focus on a small number of core topics that are priorities for the ESRC, Welsh Government and PSBs and which we are well placed to provide valuable evidence on. This focused approach will enable us to build up a body of sustained work and develop specialist knowledge and networks. We will work closely with national and local policy makers to co-design projects that support them to understand what will work in their specific political and policy contexts. And through our collaborations with What Works Centres and other strategic networks we will ensure that Wales continues to benefit from the work of other evidence providers.
The Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) enables policy makers and public services to access and apply high-quality independent research evidence and expertise that helps to improve national and local responses to these and other challenges.
The WCPP has already achieved significant success. We have had a demonstrable impact on a range of policy decisions and our unique, demand-led approach has attracted growing national and international recognition. Our proposal responds to an invitation from the ESRC and Welsh Government to set out plans to sustain and build on this success over the next five years.
We will continue to conduct three distinct but inter-related programmes of work. Our work for the Welsh Government will ensure that ministerial advice, decisions, and policy direction are based on rigorous evidence. We will link policy officials to academic experts and identify opportunities for enhancing policy formulation through research. We will support the development of research capability in the Welsh Government. And, through our Research Apprenticeship scheme, PhD Internships, and the support, mentoring, and career development provided to our team, we will help build a new cadre of researchers who have the skills needed to generate and mobilise policy-relevant research.
We will provide Public Services Boards (PSBs), local government and other public services with rigorous independent evidence about what works in improving long-term cultural, economic, environmental, and social well-being. We will work with our funders, PSBs, and public services to conduct a systematic evidence-needs analysis, and to co-design a programme of activities that helps to support the delivery of PSBs' well-being plans, build local capability and capacity to use evidence, and promote evaluative approaches to assessing implementation and impact.
Our research on evidence use will draw on and contribute to leading-edge academic literature and inform and improve the way we in which work. It will advance understanding of evidence use through analysis of ours and others' experience of mobilising evidence, and it will systematically evaluate the impact and value-added of our work for ministers and public services.
The WCPP's multi-disciplinary team provides a unique blend of experience of working in academia, national and local government, voluntary sector, think tanks and consultancy. This enables us to act as an effective bridge between the academic and policy making communities. It also means we are able to work with colleagues from a wide range of different disciplines. Our established project management processes will ensure effective management of external experts, and our work will be tailored to the distinctive policy agenda in Wales (including the well-being goals and ways of working) and recognise the importance of the Welsh language.
By collaborating with external experts to draw on their existing research, we will provide rapid responses to urgent evidence needs identified by ministers and public services. Alongside this, we will focus on a small number of core topics that are priorities for the ESRC, Welsh Government and PSBs and which we are well placed to provide valuable evidence on. This focused approach will enable us to build up a body of sustained work and develop specialist knowledge and networks. We will work closely with national and local policy makers to co-design projects that support them to understand what will work in their specific political and policy contexts. And through our collaborations with What Works Centres and other strategic networks we will ensure that Wales continues to benefit from the work of other evidence providers.
Organisations
- CARDIFF UNIVERSITY (Lead Research Organisation)
- Pembrokeshire County Council (Collaboration)
- SWANSEA COUNCIL (Collaboration)
- OPEN UNIVERSITY (Collaboration)
- Social Care Wales (Collaboration)
- Health and Care Research Wales (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER (Collaboration)
- Centre for Homelessness Impact (Collaboration)
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) (Collaboration)
- Centre for Ageing Better (Collaboration)
- What Works Network (Collaboration)
- Welsh Local Government Association (Collaboration)
- Government of Wales (Collaboration)
- Jahangirnagar University (Collaboration)
- Medical Research Council (MRC) (Collaboration)
Publications
Baan, A-M
(2023)
Report - Implementation-minded policy making - 13 November 2023
Barreto, M
(2023)
Report - Loneliness Inequalities Evidence Review - 9 August 2023
| Description | Impacts on Welsh Government policy across a wide range of devolved responsibilities |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| Impact | The Wales Centre for Public Policy is committed to maximising its 'impact' (defined as the contribution that our research makes to the economy, society, culture, and public policy, beyond academia). The Centre mainly has an impact on Welsh Government policy (e.g., the contribution of evidence provided by us to new or amended law, or to stop a policy) and practice (e.g., public services using our evidence to change how they work), but we may also have an impact on decision-making process and attitudes (e.g., change in attitude of policy-makers towards evidence use). Having an impact is integral to how and why we conduct our work. The Research Team in the Centre (funded by Cardiff University) have recently started a programme of work which is specifically focussed on capturing and improving our impact. Our impact plan includes activities designed to better capture impact, assess the relationship between knowledge mobilisation processes and impact, and learn insights from existing literature and external sources. We have recently introduced an Embedded Impact Researcher into the Centre who provides capacity within projects to support key policy and public service impact capture activities. The Researcher primarily aims to trace process and capture impact during live projects. Specifically, they are assisting teams to conduct impact planning and stakeholder mapping across our Welsh Government and Public Services projects, reflect on our work throughout project stages, and gather feedback from stakeholders via surveys and interviews. We are also building retrospective case studies of impact across our Welsh Government and public services work. This has involved analysing citations of reports using various methods, including Overton, but also conducting interviews and requesting testimonials from key stakeholders. We plan to use short impact summaries on some projects as a way of highlighting the impact of our work to external audiences, including for use in a future Research Excellence Framework impact case study. Our research has a clear impact on a wide range of policy areas which are devolved to Wales. We include examples of this impact below and will be updating these cases and adding new examples of policy impact as they arise. Review of international poverty and social exclusion strategies The Centre was commissioned by the Welsh Government to conduct a review of international poverty and social exclusion strategies, programmes and interventions. A suite of eighteen reports were produced which reviewed evidence at different levels - from individual programmes that aim to tackle specific elements of poverty and social exclusion, through to what makes for an effective, national anti-poverty strategy. This work has directly informed the Welsh Government's Child Poverty Strategy for Wales 2024. In January 2022 in an evidence paper for the Equality and Social Justice Committee in scrutinising the Welsh Government's draft budget 2022-23, it was stated that: "Welsh Ministers have a statutory duty to develop and publish a child poverty strategy and set objectives for tackling child poverty. The current strategy was published in 2015. I am committed to refreshing the Child Poverty Strategy so that it better reflects the issues Wales is currently facing and the options available to us. In doing so, I will build on the findings from the Child Poverty Review and more recently the WCPP work, helping develop a more coherent framework for tackling poverty in Wales and help to maximise the impact of cross-Government interventions and ensure accountability. The Strategy outlines that: "The Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) review concluded that an anti-poverty strategy would by necessity need to prioritise areas for action in order to be effective. It sets out that the views of those with lived experience of poverty and social exclusion should play a critical role to determine what is most important. The WCPP suggested that the Welsh Government might best coordinate its efforts around four areas of focus: Reducing costs and maximising income, 'Pathways' out of poverty, An enabling environment and Mental load and mental health. These four areas informed the development of four 'areas for discussion' that were included in a pre-consultation document used as the basis for engagement sessions to generate evidence to inform a consultation draft of this strategy." The Centre's report was discussed by the Welsh Government's cabinet (5/6/23) and cited in the Equality and Social Justice Committee's report - Calling time on child poverty: how Wales can do better. It states that "The findings of the report bythe Wales Centre for Public Policy are particularly helpful in highlighting areas where anti-poverty spending is at its most effective. Their findings set out a clear justification for prioritising anti-poverty spending in these areas in tough times, and the Welsh Government's next budget allocations should reflect these findings." (2023:40). The report has also been cited in Welsh Parliament debates by politicians (Plenary, 10/01/24). The Centre's recommendations on the Child Poverty Strategy were discussed during a meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee on the cost-of-living (15/1/24). Minutes from this meeting conclude that: "Building on the recommendations of the Wales Centre for Public Policy, a co-constructed strategy with over 3,000 people with lived experience had been developed, which set out cross-government work that contributed to tackling poverty and inequality and which identified priority areas where there was need for a renewed focus to realise the policy ambitions of government and delivery partners." The WCPP's report, Poverty and Social Exclusion: a Way Forward, was referenced by Lynne Neagle MS (Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing) in correspondence to the Health and Social Care Committee. It states that "Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) report 'Poverty and Social Exclusion a Way Forward', published in September 2022, sets out the conclusions of a Welsh Government commissioned review. This includes Mental Load and Mental Health - Addressing the emotional and psychological burden carried by people living in poverty and social exclusion through tackling stigma, (re)humanising 'the system' and treating people with the respect and dignity they deserve. These findings will be taken into consideration as we take forward our commitment to a whole government approach to tackling poverty and inequality and the delivery of Programme for Government commitments through a poverty lens, to meet current need and achieve longer term change." "In the shorter term, the findings of the WCPP report have informed initiatives such as the development of the Charter for the Delivery of Welsh Benefits which includes a set of principles that will underpin the delivery of a coherent and compassionate Welsh benefits system." The Centre's research has also been shared with Public Service Boards (PSB). The feedback from practitioners at this event in June 2022 was excellent. The Strategic Planning & Performance Team Leader at Denbighshire Council commented that 'The poverty session that was delivered on June 30th was truly excellent and remains in the fore of my mind, particularly as our PSB is now prioritising poverty as its area of focus for their new Well-being Plan. The presentation that you shared with us has in no small way formed the basis of our Well-being Plan as a consequence". Media interviews on the research were also given to BBC TV and radio in September 2022. Environment and Net Zero One of the Centre's priority areas is Environment and net zero. Our portfolio of work has grown in the last four years as we have developed expertise in the area and cultivated our networks amongst policy makers, researchers and practitioners. These have, in turn, contributed to the impact we have achieved, which has ranged from supporting Welsh Government policy development, thinking and wider network development. Our initial work in 2019 on just transitions and an evidence review and framework for action which identified steps Wales could take to implement a just transition influenced the Welsh Government's approach in this area as outlined in Net Zero Wales: Carbon Budget 2 in 2021. A Welsh Government senior official remarked that their 'approach to testing the use of existing governance provided by the Well-being for Future Generations Act for just transitions was influenced by WCPP's previous work in this area (2019-2021)'. Specifically, our recommendation that the legislative framework provided by the Well-being of Future Generations Act could be adapted to facilitate and (perhaps) mandate a just transition has been influential. This was highlighted by our commission in 2022 to develop an evidence synthesis on International approaches to a just transition. This early research, funded by the ESRC component of our financing, directly led to the Welsh Government requesting evidence syntheses to support the development of their policies. We were commissioned to conduct a rapid evidence review of Net Zero Skills where we outlined the need for better labour market intelligence in order to improve understanding of skills needs. Many of our recommendations for specific sectors are reflected in the annex to the Welsh Government's 2023 Stronger, Fairer, Greener Wales: Net Zero Skill Action Plan, among them embedding net zero and carbon literacy skills in agriculture qualifications, and ensuring that there is clarity on new technologies and options for industry to decarbonise. The Plan states that: "Research and evidence commissioned from the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) has helped inform the [net zero skills action] plan". Our evidence review resulted in the Welsh Government proposing a subsequent consultation to understand sector-specific skills requirements in more detail. Our project on Decarbonising the Welsh Economy allowed us to build networks of researchers and professionals across Wales to further develop our expertise. We organised a conference in January 2023 bringing together almost 300 interested researchers and professionals to discuss ways to decarbonise the Welsh economy. During the day we shared findings from our research, heard policy perspectives from the Welsh Government and listened to others who shared their research and views. Through this we reached a wider audience, disseminated our work and held strategic, longer-term discussions around decarbonisation. Of those giving feedback, 86% learnt a lot from our event, and 93% found the panels and speakers relevant and informative. Three quarters of attendees were more aware of WCPP's work as a result of the event. This expertise, alongside our established reputation as a trusted evidence broker in the Welsh context, resulted in us being commissioned by the First Minister to provide evidence to support the work of the Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group and hosting its secretariat. The Challenge Group ran between 2023-24 and organised its work through a series of five challenge areas covering food, energy, transport, housing, and education and skills. The report on How could Wales feed itself in 2035 outlined significant changes that could be made to farming and land use to achieve net-zero and attracted some traction in the media, for instance being discussed on Radio 4 (29/07/23). The high-profile role in this Group has helped us to cement our place in the policy landscape and provide opportunities for further impact. Preventing youth homelessness Our reports on preventing youth homelessness led to the decision to launch a £4.8 million fund to develop and test new approaches to supporting young people at risk. We worked with world-leading experts from the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and with Llamau and Welsh local authorities. The then Minister for Housing said: "The WCPP report tells me that there is a clear need to promote and encourage new and innovative options to both house and support young people. I am therefore pleased to announce £4.8m of funding to establish a brand-new innovation fund to develop suitable housing and support options for young people". Our research continues to be used by the Welsh Government. In the 2023 Consultation on the White Paper on Ending Homelessness in Wales it states that "Work undertaken by the Wales Centre for Public Policy highlights the importance of "Housing Stabilisation" for young people and the value of housing subsidies and monetary supports, as well as the use of Housing First for Youth initiatives, in order to assist young people into settled accommodation". Four years after the publication of the reports, the Welsh Government highlighted that the Centre's work: "led the Welsh Government to work on strengthening these existing tools and service models to include additional indicators in order to provide a stronger homelessness prevention focus". The introduction of a Youth Engagement and Progression Framework means that "early identification processes are ongoing, rather than an annual 'snapshot' of what is happening in young people's lives, this enables services to intervene as soon as possible, before a crisis point is reached". In the Welsh Government's 2023 Consultation on the White Paper on Ending Homelessness in Wales, it states that using the Centre's research findings they "intend to strengthen existing corporate parenting responsibilities to ensure individuals aged 16 and 17 years who are homeless or at risk of homelessness do not fall between services, and social services and homelessness services work in true partnership to secure suitable accommodation and any broader support these young people's need." Loneliness and Social Isolation Our research on reducing loneliness and social isolation has significantly improved understanding of who is lonely in Wales, the risk factors, and effective approaches to reducing it through community initiatives and the use of technology to enable and support social connection. We have received very positive feedback from the Welsh Government and public services about the impact which this work has had in informing their strategies and activities. Working closely with the Welsh Government's Advisory Group on Loneliness and Social Isolation, our research on how communities and digital technologies were mobilised to enable social connection and mitigating loneliness informed the design of Welsh Government's Loneliness and Social Isolation fund. Specifically, we highlighted the value of small scale and flexible funding pots to enable community initiatives to respond dynamically to new demand for community services and trial and test innovations to meet emergent need. The research also informed the work of the Third Sector Partnership Council's Covid recovery sub-group, and the Wales Council for Voluntary Action has used our findings extensively in its responses to Welsh and UK governments and in presentations on the future of volunteering to four nation and international conferences. The Centre's research on Loneliness and inequalities has fed directly into Welsh Government thinking and been cited in the Government's Wellbeing of Wales 2024 report which outlines progress against the seven national wellbeing goals. The research has also directly informed council strategies on loneliness. For example, the Transformation Manager at Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council stated that: 'When compiling the strategy, I used the insights for the WCPP and appreciated the regular update to the insights. Many of your insights are in the strategy and the work from WCPP was invaluable in comprehending how to use evidence in practice and how to cascade this so that it reaches our front-line workers (2024). We have actively disseminated the research findings from this project. A representative from the Centre was invited to be a keynote speaker at the Campaign to End Loneliness Annual Conference to talk about the evidence review on loneliness inequalities. We have presented our work to the Northern Ireland All Party Group on Loneliness and to the Health and Social Care Regional Integration Fund (RIF) Community of Practice on Community-based Care. Race equality In 2020-21, the Centre undertook a series of seven evidence reviews of approaches to tackling race and ethnic inequality in key policy areas including health, education, criminal justice, and housing. These have directly informed the Welsh Government's Race Equality Action Plan. The Minister responsible for the Plan reported: "All seven of the reports provided by the Wales Centre for Public Policy have been crucial to the development of the Race Equality Action Plan. Policy leads across the Welsh Government have used them to inform the initial development of each chapter of the Plan and the work of the Centre has provided the foundation for the co-construction discussions which have taken place at the development deep dive and roundtable sessions". Evidence from the Education Workforce Council on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic representation within the school workforce in Wales outlines the value of the WCPP research. "The recommendations with respect to education within the Race Equality Action Plan were developed with the support of the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) who produced evidence reviews for the Welsh Government on Improving Race Equality in Education and Improving Race Equality in Employment and Income. The latter considered how recruitment practices could be changed to increase Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic representation within the workplace and measures that could be taken to tackle workplace discrimination". The Action Plan acknowledges the Centre's evidence review of reports and research in relation to race equality. It states: "Research published by the Wales Centre for Public Policy (2021) highlights that in Wales, ethnic minority people are over represented at every stage of the criminal justice system - as victims of crime, in stop and searches, within the prison population and within the probation population". The co-chair of the Welsh Government's external accountability group (Professor Emmanuel Ogbonna) recognised the role played by WCPP: "The approach to developing the plan was collaborative and involved the cooperation of a variety of groups. The Steering Group members recognised the value of evidence-based change from the onset, and it commissioned Cardiff Business School's Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) to assist with the plan. The aim was to provide rapid reviews of evidence on the substantive areas of concern. The evidence helped us to isolate the key problems in the individual policy areas, to understand how these have been interpreted and dealt with in the past, and to understand the intersectional implications of the various courses of action that were being explored. This also involved working with leading race and ethnicity practitioners and researchers not just from business and management backgrounds but also from healthcare, education and other policy areas. These experts were invited to attend meetings with Welsh Government policy leads, and they participated in the numerous roundtable events that were held to shape the plan. Disabled Facilities Grant The Welsh Government commissioned the Centre to explore the implications of removing the means test for small and medium Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs). DFGs are the main source of help for disabled people on the most common types of adaptations, such as stair lifts, ramps and downstairs toilet and washing facilities. Councils have a statutory duty to provide DFGs to eligible disabled people. Our report published in March 2021 used data analysis and an assessment of practitioners' views in England and Wales to outline a recommendation to remove the means test for small and medium grants in Wales. In response to our report, the Welsh Government produced a Written Statement: Removing the means test on small and medium Disabled Facilities Grants which stated that: "Our most recent data shows us that small and medium sized adaptations made up the vast majority of DFGs - 1,507 small and 2,214 medium adaptations, compared with just 269 large adaptations. If we remove the means test, independent research calculates it would cost local government in Wales an additional £238,000 and estimates each local authority would save £6,000-£10,000 in annual administration costs". In July 2021 in response to the Welsh Government Disability Equality Forum's report on the impact that COVID-19 has had on disabled people, the Government stated that: "On the basis of evidence from the Wales Centre for Public Policy, the Minister for Housing and Local Government announced on 10 March an uplift of £400,000 to Local Authorities' Enable grant so that they no longer apply the means test to small and medium Disabled Facilities grants. Removing the means test on the most common adaptations is a significant step that will benefit disabled people across Wales". Electoral reform and democratic health The Welsh Government commissioned the Centre to assess existing evidence around several key electoral issues. Our report on Reform of Electoral Law and Practice examined how Wales can make elections safe, more inclusive, and transparent for candidates and the electorate. This included automatic registration and outlining options to boost voter turnout such as early voting and providing polling stations in different spaces e.g., leisure centres, supermarkets. It also explored whether electoral candidates, especially those from under-represented groups are deterred from seeking election by fear of abuse, including harassment and intimidation. Many ideas from this project have directly informed Welsh Government policy. Electoral pilots have been implemented on (i) early voting; and (ii) combining voting with other activities, which featured in our report. Another recommendation was to provide a process for voters to be able to correct an error made in their Postal Vote Statement to reduce the number of rejected ballots. The Welsh Government are currently "exploring the introduction of a postal vote e-tracking system that would allow for the processing of incoming Postal Vote Statements and provides a mechanism to notify electors of errors so that corrections can be made in time to ensure that their postal votes are counted". In October 2023, Mick Antoniw, the Counsel General, introduced the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill stating that it marks the next step in modernising and reforming Welsh elections following the extension of the franchise to 16-year-olds and foreign nationals. The Bill will implement automatic voter registration. It also aims to improve access for those who are disabled and requires Welsh ministers to establish and operate an online platform with information regarding Senedd, and principal council elections. These were all recommendations for change in our evidence review. One of the Welsh Government's well-being objectives under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 is to "Reform local government elections to reduce the democratic deficit". The Welsh Government state that: "...To support objective monitoring of the democratic deficit, we commissioned the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) to develop a definition and a means of measuring democratic health. The Centre published its' report on defining, measuring and monitoring democratic health in October 2023. It is early days to explore the impact of this report as the Welsh Government are considering the findings, but it has been used in discussions on the Bill and cited in the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales: final report. The research is likely to inform new legislation. Currently, the report has been referred to in the Reform Bill Committee by an expert witness (26/10/2023) who highlighted the merit in putting safeguards in place to future-proof Welsh democracy. She encouraged the committee to see this review happen as part of a broader review of Welsh democracy and pointed to the Wales Centre for Public Policy's report on monitoring democratic health." Organisations have also used the report in their evidence to the committee: The Electoral Reform Society state that: The Explanatory Memorandum details that the review should also take into account 'the extent to which the elements of a healthy democracy are present in Wales'. The recently published Defining, Measuring, and Monitoring Democratic Health in Wales report from the Wales Centre for Public Policy, commissioned by the Welsh Government, has outlined various metrics that could be used to do this. This could be through the inclusion of Wales specific data collection in international projects such as the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project or through data that is already collected on a Wales level such as metrics around the Wellbeing of Wales in the National Survey for Wales or data from the Wales Election StudyWe would urge the Welsh Government to adopt the recommendations of this report." In May 2024, Adam Price suggested in the Local Government and Housing Committee (16/05/2024) that: "There has been quite some coverage on the development of the concept of 'democratic health' in the context of the Senedd reform Bill-work that the Counsel General himself has commissioned and published from the Wales Centre for Public Policy, and also in the context of the work of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales". An amendment was put forward at Stage 3 to the Bill (2/7/24) to ensure that the democracy commission encourages democratic innovation and puts a framework in place as to how the commission should exercise its functions for the democratic health of the nation by establishing a unit within the commission that would have responsibility for co-ordinating a programme of work. "These amendments all build practically on the conclusions of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales, in addition to the excellent work on this subject by other organisations, such as the Wales Centre for Public Policy, commissioned by Government." Determining the Tax Base in Wales The Centre was commissioned by the Welsh Government to undertake a high-level review of the strength of the Welsh tax base. The review analysed the scale and the sustainability of the tax base supporting the major devolved revenue-raising taxes (including non-domestic rates, land transaction tax, income tax, and council tax). It considered the current strengths and weaknesses of the tax base; identified future threats and opportunities; and considered the potential for new revenue raising taxes. The report called 'The Welsh Tax Base: Risks and Opportunities after Fiscal Devolution' was published in 2018, and has been highly influential. A meeting was held with the Finance Minister in July 2018 to discuss the recommendations from the report. The work generated significant interest from members of the Welsh Parliament as well as media attention. The First Minister responding to questions in plenary about the report remarked that: "The Welsh Government commissioned the report to which he refers, and we welcome the contribution it makes to inform the debate on tax in Wales and to support the development of tax policy. The report adds to a growing body of work about Welsh taxes. It's an important part of the report that says to us that we must think about Welsh taxes in the round and that we must be prepared to think about ways in which decisions made on taxes on income can be calibrated alongside decisions made about taxes on property. There are some very interesting parts of the report that refer to the trade-offs that there may be between the one and the other." (18/7/2018). Opposition Welsh Parliament members used the report to push for changes in policy in areas such as Land Transaction Tax (LTT). Nick Ramsay suggested: "The Wales Centre for Public Policy has recently published its report on the Welsh tax base, which has raised a number of salient points about the impact even small changes to the tax system can have on taxpayer behaviour, migration and inward investment. With regard to land transaction tax, the report highlights that, although there were only 45 LTT and non-residential property transactions over £5 million in 2015-16, they accounted for 43 per cent of total transaction value of Welsh LTT. The report also notes that just 10 fewer freehold transactions over £5 million in one year could reduce revenue by £7 million. Taking all that into account, we've asked you previously, and I ask you again: will you, at the very least, monitor the top rate of LTT in this regard within Wales and consider bringing it in line with England or Scotland if the economy does show signs of suffering?" In December 2004, the Welsh Government announced that the higher rate of LTT rates will increase by 1% across all bands, and in December 2024, the Welsh Government announced changes to rates for LTT and Landfill Disposals Tax (LDT) as part of the draft Budget for 2025 to 2026. The media picked up on the report with the BBC highlighted the following: "Reports without recommendations are sometimes the best. They don't come with an agenda and when facts speak for themselves you can come to your own conclusions. There's an excellent example of this published today, produced by the significant brains at the Wales Governance Centre for the Wales Centre for Public Policy" (2/7/18). The research was also covered by ITV and the Western Mail: 'Income tax warning as Wales set to get powers' and ''Soak the rich' won't work in low-earning Wales, key tax report warns'. The report has also had implications on practice. Analysis from the report has informed a tool developed by the Assembly Research Service to enable Welsh income taxpayers to see how much they could be paying towards the Welsh and UK Governments under different rates of income tax, and also where they lie in the Welsh income distribution. Welsh Government officials have cited the usefulness of the report in their work. For example, an economics advisor to the Government said at the Finance Committee that: 'Going back to the importance of the public sector, the statistics I can say is that the Wales Centre for Public Policy, when they did some work on Welsh taxpayers, which is a couple of years old now, found that public sector employment in Wales counted for 27 per cent of our tax base for non-savings, non-dividend income in Wales, and that's compared to the rest of the UK at 19 per cent. So, that's just to back up that point. It's not by band, as you wanted, but that's the kind of information that I think is supporting that point' (12/3/2020). The publication has been used by lobbying organisations and opposition members of the Welsh Parliament to press for changes to taxation in Wales. For instance, the Federation of Small Businesses noted the research in their evidence to the Finance Committee and politicians have regularly used the report as the basis for questions on reforming taxation (in particular to council tax to make it more progressive) to the Government. The Finance Minister explained in plenary in July 2019 that: 'He'll also be familiar, I'm sure, with the Wales Centre for Public Policy's research that it's done on growing our tax base here in Wales, and that's something that we're very much focused on'. The Welsh Government plans to reform council tax in 2028. The Local Government Finance (Wales) Act 2024 will allow for more frequent revaluations every five years. The report was also cited by international experts. One such example was Bert Brys (Head of the Country Tax Policy and Personal and Property Taxes Units, OECD) refers to the work of the WCPP in evidence to the Finance Committee: 'Before I raise a couple of additional issues, I first want to say congratulations to the colleagues from the Wales Centre for Public Policy. I've read the report on the Welsh tax base. It's really, really excellent work; it's got a lot of interesting material. I really enjoyed reading that, and with all the simulations' (27/2/2020). Finally, the report has been actively disseminated. It featured in the Welsh Government Event: Welsh tax policy: current issues and developments in July 2018 and the findings were presented at the Welsh Government Tax Conference in November 2023. The research has also been used to counter 'fake news'. The UK Transport's Secretary (Grant Shapps) made a claim in a BBC interview that a quarter of the Welsh population works in England. "I think I'm right in saying that something like a quarter of the Welsh people actually work in England so there's a lot of connectivity, we want to make it easier for people to get backwards and forwards." But after Cardiff University pointed out that the true figure was below 7%, the claim was deleted from a tweet and the news website. Academic research The Centre's work is also having a significant impact on academic theory. We have published more than 30 peer-reviewed journal papers on topics such as the implementation of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act, how local government has responded to austerity, the role of Knowledge Brokering Organisations, the expansion of policy engagement initiatives across UK universities, the use of different policy tools in a context of multi-level governance, and on policy issues such as addressing homelessness and improving productivity. We have produced a series a blogs on these papers to widen the reach of our work and in 2023 were invited to talk about our work on knowledge brokers on the Science for Policy (SAPEA) podcast. In 2024, a paper called: 'A Place-based System? Regional Policy Levers and the UK's Productivity Challenge' won the 2024 Regional Studies Association Best Paper Award for the journal Regional Studies Policy Debates section. The research also featured in a UK Cabinet Office briefing pack for government officials on Levelling Up. An official from the Open Innovation Team suggested that: "Clients who benefited from the briefing said that it provided nuanced academic insights into the different facets of Levelling Up, and the potential implications for policy making" (3/11/21 Ruth Puttick, HM Government). In September 2024, a paper called: 'Knowledge brokering organisations: A new way of governing evidence', was selected in a collection featuring articles from Evidence & Policy that are showing signs of having an impact in academia or beyond. The Centre's first paper on knowledge brokering which reviewed existing knowledge in the field as well as setting an agenda for future research has received more than 75 citations since 2020. Our unique demand-led approach to creating research impact has attracted national international interest and recognition. The WCPP was awarded Cardiff University's Innovation and Impact prize in 2018. It was a finalist in the ESRC's Celebrating Impact Prize in 2019 for its Outstanding Public Policy Impact. Our work has been featured the OCED as an exemplar in its 2017 report on evidence-informed policy and as a case study in the Academy of Social Sciences' 2022 publication 'The Place to Be: How social sciences are helping to improve places in the UK' and a chapter in 'What Works Centres: Lessons and insights from an evidence movement', published by Policy Press in 2023. We have hosted visitors from Australia, Japan, Mexico, and Ireland who are interested in replicating the WCPP approach to knowledge mobilisation. |
| Description | Building a national connective infrastructure between academia and public policy |
| Amount | £5,881,266 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University College London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2025 |
| End | 05/2028 |
| Description | CARELINK Wales - Comprehensive Analysis of Risk factors and outcomes for vulnerable children through LINKed Welsh data. |
| Amount | £416,660 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NIHR156826 |
| Organisation | National Institute for Health and Care Research |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2024 |
| End | 12/2025 |
| Description | Impact Innovations Fellowship |
| Amount | £208,164 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2024 |
| End | 01/2026 |
| Description | Improving the impact of knowledge brokering organisations: learning from research for knowledge mobilisation practice |
| Amount | £4,975 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | H-IAA Strategic Impact Fund (H_IAA SIF) |
| Organisation | Cardiff University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2025 |
| End | 07/2025 |
| Description | Rhondda Cynon Taf Health Determinants Research Collaboration (RCT HDRC) |
| Amount | £5,050,968 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NIHR159018 |
| Organisation | National Institute for Health and Care Research |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2024 |
| End | 12/2028 |
| Description | The International Public Policy Observatory 2 |
| Amount | £1,990,543 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/X008282/1 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2023 |
| End | 12/2024 |
| Description | Centre for Local Governance Discourse (CLGD) |
| Organisation | Jahangirnagar University |
| Country | Bangladesh |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | James Downe, Director of Research, is an honorary adviser to The Centre for Local Government and Development (CLGD). |
| Collaborator Contribution | As above |
| Impact | As above |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | ESRC What Works Innovation Fellowships - Lived Experience |
| Organisation | Centre for Ageing Better |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | There is increasing recognition that the social research community needs to make more progress in embedding equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in its work, and the ESRC's Strategic Delivery Plan (2022) recognises this as a priority. One way of promoting EDI is through greater recognition of the value that lived experience (defined as 'personal knowledge about the world gained through direct, first-hand involvement' (Chandler & Munday, 2016) can bring to the research and policy process (The Young Foundation, 2021). Broader arguments for incorporating lived experience, include a democratic rationale which emphasises that people should be able to influence the decisions that affect their lives (Bell & Reed, 2021) and that people's direct experiential knowledge should be valued alongside other sources of expertise and insight (Beresford, 2003). Involving lived experience in the policy process can also improve policy decisions and outcomes, by ensuring that policy is better attuned to the needs and context of the people it seeks to impact (Smith-Merry, 2020), resulting in policy decisions which are more workable, relevant, and legitimate (Institute for Community Studies, 2020). Around half of the What Works Centres (WWCs) currently have stated aims and active practice in relation to incorporating lived experience into their work, but there is significant scope for identifying, innovating, and spreading effective models of incorporating lived experience into policy research and knowledge mobilisation work. The goal of this Fellowship will therefore be to strengthen the capabilities and skills of the whole What Works Network (WWN) in relation to incorporating lived experience evidence and/or expertise, and by extension the capabilities and skills of the policy-makers and practitioners who work with the WWN. This will be achieved through a combination of original research exploring current practices, reviewing existing literature and guidance, knowledge mobilisation, experimentation and reflection. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Hosting of the Fellowship, including line management and incorporation into the WCPP Tackling Inequalities programme of work. Designing and input into report. |
| Impact | Detailed position statement paper for internal use initially on the use of lived experience evidence and lived experience expertise. Phases one and two of the fellowship have been completed, including interviews with What Works Centres and a desktop scoping review |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | ESRC What Works Innovation Fellowships - Lived Experience |
| Organisation | Centre for Homelessness Impact |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | There is increasing recognition that the social research community needs to make more progress in embedding equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in its work, and the ESRC's Strategic Delivery Plan (2022) recognises this as a priority. One way of promoting EDI is through greater recognition of the value that lived experience (defined as 'personal knowledge about the world gained through direct, first-hand involvement' (Chandler & Munday, 2016) can bring to the research and policy process (The Young Foundation, 2021). Broader arguments for incorporating lived experience, include a democratic rationale which emphasises that people should be able to influence the decisions that affect their lives (Bell & Reed, 2021) and that people's direct experiential knowledge should be valued alongside other sources of expertise and insight (Beresford, 2003). Involving lived experience in the policy process can also improve policy decisions and outcomes, by ensuring that policy is better attuned to the needs and context of the people it seeks to impact (Smith-Merry, 2020), resulting in policy decisions which are more workable, relevant, and legitimate (Institute for Community Studies, 2020). Around half of the What Works Centres (WWCs) currently have stated aims and active practice in relation to incorporating lived experience into their work, but there is significant scope for identifying, innovating, and spreading effective models of incorporating lived experience into policy research and knowledge mobilisation work. The goal of this Fellowship will therefore be to strengthen the capabilities and skills of the whole What Works Network (WWN) in relation to incorporating lived experience evidence and/or expertise, and by extension the capabilities and skills of the policy-makers and practitioners who work with the WWN. This will be achieved through a combination of original research exploring current practices, reviewing existing literature and guidance, knowledge mobilisation, experimentation and reflection. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Hosting of the Fellowship, including line management and incorporation into the WCPP Tackling Inequalities programme of work. Designing and input into report. |
| Impact | Detailed position statement paper for internal use initially on the use of lived experience evidence and lived experience expertise. Phases one and two of the fellowship have been completed, including interviews with What Works Centres and a desktop scoping review |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | ESRC What Works Innovation Fellowships - Lived Experience |
| Organisation | Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | There is increasing recognition that the social research community needs to make more progress in embedding equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in its work, and the ESRC's Strategic Delivery Plan (2022) recognises this as a priority. One way of promoting EDI is through greater recognition of the value that lived experience (defined as 'personal knowledge about the world gained through direct, first-hand involvement' (Chandler & Munday, 2016) can bring to the research and policy process (The Young Foundation, 2021). Broader arguments for incorporating lived experience, include a democratic rationale which emphasises that people should be able to influence the decisions that affect their lives (Bell & Reed, 2021) and that people's direct experiential knowledge should be valued alongside other sources of expertise and insight (Beresford, 2003). Involving lived experience in the policy process can also improve policy decisions and outcomes, by ensuring that policy is better attuned to the needs and context of the people it seeks to impact (Smith-Merry, 2020), resulting in policy decisions which are more workable, relevant, and legitimate (Institute for Community Studies, 2020). Around half of the What Works Centres (WWCs) currently have stated aims and active practice in relation to incorporating lived experience into their work, but there is significant scope for identifying, innovating, and spreading effective models of incorporating lived experience into policy research and knowledge mobilisation work. The goal of this Fellowship will therefore be to strengthen the capabilities and skills of the whole What Works Network (WWN) in relation to incorporating lived experience evidence and/or expertise, and by extension the capabilities and skills of the policy-makers and practitioners who work with the WWN. This will be achieved through a combination of original research exploring current practices, reviewing existing literature and guidance, knowledge mobilisation, experimentation and reflection. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Hosting of the Fellowship, including line management and incorporation into the WCPP Tackling Inequalities programme of work. Designing and input into report. |
| Impact | Detailed position statement paper for internal use initially on the use of lived experience evidence and lived experience expertise. Phases one and two of the fellowship have been completed, including interviews with What Works Centres and a desktop scoping review |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre |
| Organisation | Health and Care Research Wales |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | James Downe, Director of Research, has joined the Centre's Advisory Group and continues to meet with them to discuss our respective programmes and how we assess the impact of our work |
| Collaborator Contribution | As Above |
| Impact | As above |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Joseph Rowntree Foundation |
| Organisation | Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | An ESRC Policy Fellow is seconded to the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) to enhance the understanding, capabilities, and skills of knowledge brokering organisations in involving people with lived experience in our work. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Expert advice is provided by Sarah Campbell, Head of Participation at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, |
| Impact | As above |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | PolicyWise |
| Organisation | Open University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Advice to Open University senior staff on establishing the PolicyWise initiative. Advice on foci for initial six policy learning workshops. Help sourcing experts to participate in learning events. Brokering contacts within the Welsh Government. Keynote presentation to a learning workshop. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We are active participants in the PolicyWise initiative Funding and organisation of the first six workshops. |
| Impact | Six learning workshops to facilitate knowledge exchange between researchers and policy makers and cross-jurisdictional learning among the four nations of the UK plus Ireland. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Resourceful Communities Partnership Wales |
| Organisation | Pembrokeshire County Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Collaboration on a research project aimed at better understanding the role of multisectoral collaboration in supporting community action that enhances wellbeing. The project involves two phases: 1) A review of evidence published since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic on the role and effect of multisectoral collaboration on community action from: practice-based case studies across Wales; UK-based academic literature; and grey literature (e.g., practice-based reports and blogs) This evidence review is accompanied by a state-of-the-art summary of pre-pandemic literature on collaboration in community action, which is being conducted by the Centre for Health Promotion Research at Leeds Beckett University. 2) A workshop to engage with key findings from the evidence review and explore what they might mean in different contexts across Wales. |
| Collaborator Contribution | See above. |
| Impact | Joint hosting of multi-sectoral workshop to examine initial outputs from multi-sectoral collaboration research and to inform development of next stages. https://www.wcpp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/RCP-workshop.pdf The findings from both the review of the evidence and the workshop have been developed into a report - 'Multisector collaboration to improve community wellbeing'. An accompanying summary of pre-pandemic evidence on this topic was developed by Leeds Beckett University and has been published alongside the main report. The findings from the evidence review and the workshop have been developed into a 'Framework for Action' resource aimed at helping to identify tangible actions that can be taken in different contexts to develop multisector collaboration that enhances community action and wellbeing. Rather than merely describing what good multisector collaboration looks like, it aims to outline some options for achieving it. Outputs can be found here: https://wcpp.org.uk/publication/community-action/ |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Resourceful Communities Partnership Wales |
| Organisation | Social Care Wales |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Collaboration on a research project aimed at better understanding the role of multisectoral collaboration in supporting community action that enhances wellbeing. The project involves two phases: 1) A review of evidence published since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic on the role and effect of multisectoral collaboration on community action from: practice-based case studies across Wales; UK-based academic literature; and grey literature (e.g., practice-based reports and blogs) This evidence review is accompanied by a state-of-the-art summary of pre-pandemic literature on collaboration in community action, which is being conducted by the Centre for Health Promotion Research at Leeds Beckett University. 2) A workshop to engage with key findings from the evidence review and explore what they might mean in different contexts across Wales. |
| Collaborator Contribution | See above. |
| Impact | Joint hosting of multi-sectoral workshop to examine initial outputs from multi-sectoral collaboration research and to inform development of next stages. https://www.wcpp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/RCP-workshop.pdf The findings from both the review of the evidence and the workshop have been developed into a report - 'Multisector collaboration to improve community wellbeing'. An accompanying summary of pre-pandemic evidence on this topic was developed by Leeds Beckett University and has been published alongside the main report. The findings from the evidence review and the workshop have been developed into a 'Framework for Action' resource aimed at helping to identify tangible actions that can be taken in different contexts to develop multisector collaboration that enhances community action and wellbeing. Rather than merely describing what good multisector collaboration looks like, it aims to outline some options for achieving it. Outputs can be found here: https://wcpp.org.uk/publication/community-action/ |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Resourceful Communities Partnership Wales |
| Organisation | Welsh Local Government Association |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Collaboration on a research project aimed at better understanding the role of multisectoral collaboration in supporting community action that enhances wellbeing. The project involves two phases: 1) A review of evidence published since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic on the role and effect of multisectoral collaboration on community action from: practice-based case studies across Wales; UK-based academic literature; and grey literature (e.g., practice-based reports and blogs) This evidence review is accompanied by a state-of-the-art summary of pre-pandemic literature on collaboration in community action, which is being conducted by the Centre for Health Promotion Research at Leeds Beckett University. 2) A workshop to engage with key findings from the evidence review and explore what they might mean in different contexts across Wales. |
| Collaborator Contribution | See above. |
| Impact | Joint hosting of multi-sectoral workshop to examine initial outputs from multi-sectoral collaboration research and to inform development of next stages. https://www.wcpp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/RCP-workshop.pdf The findings from both the review of the evidence and the workshop have been developed into a report - 'Multisector collaboration to improve community wellbeing'. An accompanying summary of pre-pandemic evidence on this topic was developed by Leeds Beckett University and has been published alongside the main report. The findings from the evidence review and the workshop have been developed into a 'Framework for Action' resource aimed at helping to identify tangible actions that can be taken in different contexts to develop multisector collaboration that enhances community action and wellbeing. Rather than merely describing what good multisector collaboration looks like, it aims to outline some options for achieving it. Outputs can be found here: https://wcpp.org.uk/publication/community-action/ |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Resourceful Communities Partnership Wales 2.0 |
| Organisation | Pembrokeshire County Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | WCPP worked in conjunction with Resourceful Communities Partnership (RCP) Wales to co-design research and practice findings related to multi-sector collaboration to improve community wellbeing. This work was led by Dr Hannah Durrant, Senior Research Fellow at WCPP. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Input from multi-sectoral partners to understand what effective collaboration looks like and learn what underpins it. What are the things that effective collaborations do well that make them work and how to make collaboration in other places work better. |
| Impact | WCPP produced reports and a practical 'Framework for Action' to support and improve vital collaboration between public services and community organisations in Wales. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Resourceful Communities Partnership Wales 2.0 |
| Organisation | Social Care Wales |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | WCPP worked in conjunction with Resourceful Communities Partnership (RCP) Wales to co-design research and practice findings related to multi-sector collaboration to improve community wellbeing. This work was led by Dr Hannah Durrant, Senior Research Fellow at WCPP. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Input from multi-sectoral partners to understand what effective collaboration looks like and learn what underpins it. What are the things that effective collaborations do well that make them work and how to make collaboration in other places work better. |
| Impact | WCPP produced reports and a practical 'Framework for Action' to support and improve vital collaboration between public services and community organisations in Wales. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Resourceful Communities Partnership Wales 2.0 |
| Organisation | Welsh Local Government Association |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | WCPP worked in conjunction with Resourceful Communities Partnership (RCP) Wales to co-design research and practice findings related to multi-sector collaboration to improve community wellbeing. This work was led by Dr Hannah Durrant, Senior Research Fellow at WCPP. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Input from multi-sectoral partners to understand what effective collaboration looks like and learn what underpins it. What are the things that effective collaborations do well that make them work and how to make collaboration in other places work better. |
| Impact | WCPP produced reports and a practical 'Framework for Action' to support and improve vital collaboration between public services and community organisations in Wales. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Tackling Poverty Stigma |
| Organisation | Swansea Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Co-produced a 'How can public services help tackle poverty stigma?' workshop in Wrexham in 2024 with the Swansea Poverty Truth Commission. Delivered a Phase 2 Rapid Evidence Review, commissioned by Welsh Government, to inform national and local policy and practice on tackling poverty stigma. Attended meetings every 2-3 months to bring evidence users together with academics, practitioners, and experts by-experience, through the Poverty Stigma Insight Network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Swansea Council, Swansea Poverty Truth Commission and Swansea Council for Voluntary Service contributing to a place-based project, Swansea Poverty Truth Commission, co-producing the 'How can public services help tackle poverty stigma?' workshop in Wrexham in 2024 |
| Impact | As above |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | UK Prevention Research Partnership |
| Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
| Department | UK PRP |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Dan Bristow, Centre Director, is on the advisory group on the TRUUD project - Tackling Root Causes Upstream of Unhealthy Urban Development |
| Collaborator Contribution | As above |
| Impact | As above |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Wales Productivity Forum |
| Organisation | University of Manchester |
| Department | Productivity Institute |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Helen Tilley, Senior Research Fellow at Wales Centre for Public Policy is a member of the Wales Productivity Centre Forum |
| Collaborator Contribution | As above |
| Impact | As above |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Welsh Economic Statistics User Group |
| Organisation | Government of Wales |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Jack Price is a member of the Welsh Economic Statistics User Group |
| Collaborator Contribution | As above |
| Impact | As above |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) |
| Organisation | Welsh Local Government Association |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), in collaboration with the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP), has established a working group which includes elected leaders and chief executives of Welsh local authorities, along with independent experts, to develop a clear vision and set of proposals that can support a sustainable future for local government in Wales. Steve Martin, former Centre Director, is chairing the working group, with WCPP research providing the most up-to-date and relevant evidence to inform the work of the group and generate strategic discussion between the local government actors and independent experts. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The group meet regularly with the aim of completing a set of proposals for consideration ahead of the Senedd elections in May 2026 |
| Impact | Evidence gathered by the WCPP supports the widely-held view that the current model for local government in Wales is unsustainable and that, a new, longer-term vision is essential if local authorities are to continue to play a critical role in understanding and responding to the needs of their communities. A workshop with WLGA and Local Authority leaders and Chief Executives was held in November 2025 and further work will continue until 2026 |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | What Works Network |
| Organisation | What Works Network |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Centre staff organise a group of What Works Centres examining impact. James Downe is a member of the What Works Academy which consists of the Heads of Evaluation (or similar) across the What Works Network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | As above |
| Impact | The What Works Strategy recommended that Centres have more collaboration with international partners; WCPP joined the Global Commission on Evidence. Sharing of practice, research and expertise. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | 'WCPP is 10' - Hiraeth Podcast - 4 December 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | One hour podcast reflecting on the first 10 years' work of the WCPP. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Advisory group for implementation project - 29 March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We convened a group of representatives from Welsh Government, Local Government, academia, and the What Works Network to support our work to synthesise literature on policy implementation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan: Research Subgroup Meeting - 12 September 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | WCPP was invited to present on the final research findings and recommendations that stemmed from our IPPO-WCPP project on increasing ethnic minority access to childcare. We were asked to present to disseminate the findings and inform participants about our October 3rd launch event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Appearance on Hiraeth podcast about net zero - 10 November 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Appeared on the Hiraeth Podcast with Jane Davidson to discuss the work of the WCPP in supporting the Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | BBC interview - 19 February 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | interview with the BBC regarding the Future of Local Govt project, in the context of a story about LG finance. The interview was on BBC Breakfast and on the Today programme. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Beyond borders: Strengthening EU-UK Research Collaboration - 24 November 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | International conference featuring examples of effective research-policy engagement. Outcome - raised awareness of the WCPP model of demand-led evidence mobilisation and led to discussion of joint work with other organisations on the role of AI in evidence synthesis. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | CACHE Wales Hub Presentation on Temporary Accommodation Scoping Research - 29 January 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We were invited by CACHE Wales Hub to present and test our preliminary scoping research on temporary accommodation with their Wales Hub stakeholders which included WG officials, third sector organisations, housing related public organisations, and third sector organisations. This presentation directly led to three follow-on meetings including one with WG housing officials. It has also confirmed that there is continued demand for WCPP and is shaping the direction of this potential work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | CAPE event: Advancing Academic-Policy Engagement - 5 November 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Attended event organised by the CAPE project to discuss the advancement of academic-policy engagement. Raised profile of WCPPs approach to policy engagement with research in Wales, and led to further discussions about establishing a national community of practice for knowledge mobilisation and impact. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | CAPE event: Future of academic-policy engagement - 19 November 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Attended a CAPE workshop on the future of academic-policy engagement. Raised profile of WCPP approach to knowledge mobilisation. Establish new relationships, requests for further information and for participation in additional networks, and led to further discussions about a national community of practice for knowledge mobilisation and impact. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | CCR LEAP meeting - 22 January 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of our work to the CCR LEAP group |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Cardiff University Social Science Research Park (SPARK)/Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Diversity Research Group (MEAD) Race Equality research workshop - 10 November 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Provided advice to academic researchers on the policy relevance of their research and how to better connect academic work with policymaking audiences, supporting them to achieve impact. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) Policy roundtable - 6 March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Participation in a roundtable for the CAST Centre with policymakers/practitioners and academics to inform their research on transport decarbonisation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) workshop on environmental activities - 20 July 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | A workshop to discuss how waste disposal activities occur in Wales. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Centre for Policy Futures workshop - 7 June 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Workshop on regional/devolved policy engagement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Closed Theory of Change workshop: increasing ethnic minority access to early childhood education and care in Wales - 11 July 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This Theory of Change workshop tested the preliminary research findings and recommendations from our IPPO-WCPP project with WG officials and wider stakeholders. We used the session to co-create a theory of change, inform our findings and recommendations, and produce a Wales-focused project output outlining proposed next steps. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Connecting through culture as we age - Policy Advisory Group - 17 May 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Member of the Connecting Through Culture as we age (CTC) project Policy Advisory Group. CTC is a three year UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge funded project exploring how participation in all forms of arts and culture, particularly those accessed digitally, can influence wellbeing and feelings of social connection. Our role was to connect this project with policy agendas to tackle loneliness in Wales. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Creating Better Evidence in Government - 25 March 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Purpose to raise awareness of the What Works Network. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Democratic Health of Wales Roundtable |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The Roundtable shared draft findings from a Welsh Government funded project examining Democratic Health in Wales. It examined what a healthy democracy could look like in Wales, how data could best be collected and reported to measure Wales' democratic health, and how can Wales' democratic health best be monitored. The audience consisted of policy-makers, academics, practitioners and interest groups. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) Tackling Loneliness Evidence Group - 11 May 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Formal meetings of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) Tackling Loneliness Evidence Group. This is a group of UK Officials from various UK Government Departments and Agencies and research experts to discuss policy priorities, evidence and evidence gaps related to tackling loneliness. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| Description | Developing a UPEN learning community: Workshop - 2 December 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We co-convened a workshop with UK university, What Works Centre and other knowledge mobilisers to establish a community of practice (CoP) on knowledge mobilisation and impact. A workshop report was produced which forms the basis for the future CoP. This led to WCPP's involvement in the successful UPEN RED/ESRC bid to establish a sustainable policy engagement infrastructure, and funding to develop the CoP. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | ENCAP PhD training event - 11 June 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A presentation to PGR and Masters students in the School of English, Communication and Philosophy on tips and suggestions for pursuing a career in public policy research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | ESRC Policy Fellowship 2nd Working Group - 4 June 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Online working group to share progress and findings of ESRC policy fellowship to date. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Economic inactivity roundtable - 16 October 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Roundtable to share research on economic inactivity to feed into policy design |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Equity in Tertiary Education event - 23 October 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | To share our research and the current evidence with leading experts in the field and with WG and Medr. From the post-event survey, attendees have said they found the data/research useful for their work and had more of an awareness of the evidence as a result of the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Evidence ecosystem roundtable - 21 April 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Seminar to discuss proposals to develop a project to map the evidence ecosystem in Wales. Outcome- agreement to proceed with the development of the project in collaboration with other research centres. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Follow-on workshop for senior WG officials on IPPO ECEC findings and next steps for Wales - 6 February 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | We were invited by the supporting officials to design and deliver a follow-on workshop on our ECEC findings and recommendations with the aim of raising awareness and engagement with the work. Officials wanted colleagues to leave the workshop with a clearer sense of direction and ownership over the outcomes of the work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Free School Meals task and finish group - 27 March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | To discuss our work with the local authorities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | How to grow a policy engagement function - 11 July 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation as part of a panel discussion on how to develop and maintain a policy engagement function. Raised profile of our research and practice on policy engagement with research. Built networks and relationships with HE knowledge mobilisation community, university leaders, policymakers and funders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | IFG annual conference - 23 January 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | National conference exploring the policy making challenges for the UK government in 2024 including 'How to Fix Public Services', reform of Whitehall. Outcome - Improved understanding of how the WCPP's work fits into the broader picture of public policy challenges in the UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | IPPO Advisory Group - 25 March 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Purpose to steer IPO work in 2024. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | IPPO Winter School - 18 January 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Attended and presented at a Winter School for senior officials in the Northern Ireland civil service. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Interview for a research project on net zero buildings - 15 January 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Participation in a research interview for an MSc project on net zero building regulation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Key note speech and panel event at the Welsh Local Government Association annual conference - 13 September 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Delivered a key note speech at the conference and organised/ran a panel event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Knowledge Exchange event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 30 people attended an event organised to share learning from respective research projects between Cardiff University and Glasgow University (Prof Katherine Smith) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | LPIP Hub event - 4 November 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Attended event/workshop on the Local Policy Innovation Partnerships (LPIPs). Raised profile of WCPP approach to place-based policy engagement with research among other knowledge mobilsers, policymakers and funders, and generated new relationships and networks. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | LPIP net zero working group - 15 August 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Participation in working group to design future research |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Launch event for ESRC-funded project examining the impact of What Works Centres |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A launch of a research project examining the impact of What Works Centres. Held in the Evidence Quarter in London, it bought together representatives from 11 What Works Centres to discuss what impact looks like across the Network, examine the different impact strategies and practices in use, and learn from each other on best practices. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Loneliness Inequalities - Lunch 'n' Learn (Equalities & Human Rights Division) - 25 April 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presented research on loneliness inequalities at a Lunch n' Learn session organised by the Equalities and Human Rights Division of Welsh Government. Presentation was followed by a facilitated interactive session to capture information on what delegates found useful about the research and how they might use it to support policy development. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Loneliness Inequality presentation for Welsh Government Cohesive Communities Division - 16 April 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presented our Loneliness Inequality international evidence review and facilitated an interactive session to support engagement with the research and its implications for and applications to the policy priorities of the teams with the Welsh Government Cohesive Communities Division. These teams include those working on Asylum, Refugee and Vulnerable Migrant policy, Violence against Women & Girls & Domestic Abuse and Communities Policy in Wales. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Looking Beyond Growth workshop - 15 November 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A workshop to share understanding of alternative approaches to economic growth, to inform research findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Masters Seminar: Research Applications Course - 29 February 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presented a seminar on evidence-based policymaking and our Centre to postgraduate Cardiff University course on applications of research in practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Measuring Wellbeing Economy - meeting with researchers - 19 January 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Sharing thoughts on a project approach to inform its direction. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Medr Workshop - 11 March 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Delivered a workshop to Medr using the Centre's implementation work and other relevant WCPP work |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | NZ2035 Climate Change Cabinet Members - 10 May 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | To increase awareness amongst local government of our net zero work |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Nature finance task and finish group - 13 June 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Contributing to the work of the T&F group |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Net Zero Innovation Institute - Presentation on policy engagement - 5 June 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A presentation to, and discussion with, members of the Net Zero Innovation Institute (predominantly natural and physical scientists) on WCPP's experience in policy engagement and influence, to help them upskill and achieve more impact with their work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Net zero 2035 challenge group - 12 June 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Support to the challenge group - ongoing monthly meetings |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Newcastle Policy Fellows 2024 - 22 May 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Newcastle Policy Fellows programme runs yearly, and WCPP are asked to present devolution and policymaking in Wales. The programme is for non-policy academics and professionals who are interested in policy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Online IPPO event on Evidence Ecosystems: What have we learned, what makes them work? - 9 April 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Purpose to discuss ways to improve evidence use by policy makers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | PSB learning event - community wellbeing and inequalities - 22 February 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Workshop and presentations related to community wellbeing and tackling poverty. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Panel at Plaid party conference - 3 March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Invited to participate in a panel discussion organised by NESTA about encouraging policy innovation in Wales. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Panellist presentation on key findings for increasing access to ECEC for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic children and families - 3 October 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was an IPPO launch event to launch the final policy summary and associated outputs for increasing ECEC for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Children and Families. WCPP provided the presentation on the research findings and recommendations followed by a response by WG officials and three invited panel speakers from different vantage points (third, provider, and anti-racism). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Participation in roundtable on creating a Welsh Public Sphere - 2 July 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Participation in a roundtable organised by academic colleagues in Philosophy on creating a public sphere for Wales, attended by a range of audiences including a Member of the Senedd |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Political Studies Association Annual Conference, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow - 26 March 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Purpose to discuss a new research agenda on Positive Public Policy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Poverty Stigma Insight Network - 25 September 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The PSIN exists to bring together stakeholders across the UK with an interest in using insight and evidence to help tackle poverty stigma. It is being established as a space for sharing learning and good practice and joining up efforts and initiatives. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Poverty Stigma Insight Network Design Session - 6 June 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The purpose of the session, which was held online, was to discuss and share ideas about how the network could be run and structured, its aims and ways of working, and what it will work on. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Power of public value podcast - 18 June 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Podcast interview |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation at the All Wales Heads of Children Services group - 15 September 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We presented the findings from our work on multi-agency working, and discussed the findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation of research findings to Medr - 2 October 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A presentation of findings from our Equity in Tertiary Education project to senior leaders/managers/staff members in Medr, the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation on ETE research to internal WG policy webinar - 17 January 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on poverty stigma at WG Community of Practice |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Presentation on IPPO ECEC to the Early Education Network - 21 November 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We were invited to give a presentation on a network webinar alongside another research project with recent findings. The primary intention was dissemination and awareness raising of the IPPO work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation on Loneliness Inequalities for Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) Cost of Living Group - 27 September 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation and engagement on WCPP loneliness inequalities research to the Welsh Local Government Association Cost-of-Living group. The aim was to share the research and influence views, opinions and policy/practice decisions on the interpersonal and structural causes of loneliness. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation on Loneliness Inequalities to Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) Tackling Loneliness Officials Group - 31 October 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation and engagement on WCPP loneliness inequalities research to a Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) convened group of cross-UK Government officials. The aim was to inform views, opinions and policy decisions on the interpersonal and structural causes of loneliness. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation on Loneliness Inequality to University of Bath led Healthy Later Living network - 28 February 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presented WCPP research on loneliness inequality to University of Bath led Health Later Living network. Aim was to share and engage on findings from the review about the interpersonal and structural causes of loneliness inequality. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation on WCPP approach to policy engagement to Institute for Government Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Fellows - 29 February 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation for Institute for Government to AHRC Fellows on engaging with government. Aim of this talk was to share expertise and experience of policy engagement to support research leadership development of early career researchers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation on Welsh devolution and WCPP's work at the Newcastle Policy Academy Fellows Programme - 24 May 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation delivered on Welsh devolution and the Centre's work at the Newcastle Policy Academy Fellows Programme. Presented via Zoom with Q and A session about our work afterwards. Research Apprentice attends each year to do this. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation on our knowledge mobilisation approach in relation to child poverty at NIHR symposium - 20 November 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on our knowledge mobilisation approach in relation to child poverty at NIHR symposium |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation on poverty stigma at WG Community of Practice - 29 January 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on poverty stigma at WG Community of Practice |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Presentation on poverty stigma work as part of RCP webinar - 4 December 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on poverty stigma work as part of RCP webinar |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation to Children in Wales' LGBTQ+ advisory group - 15 February 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Sharing our research (question, strategy, search terms) with CiW LGBTQ+ advisory group to inform them about the research. There was an invite any thoughts or feedback to inform the strategy (e.g. any missing key search words) but we did not receive any comments |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation to ESRC Education Research Centres: Practices of Knowledge Mobilisation - 20 January 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presented on practices of knowledge mobilisation to an ESRC Education Research Centres event. Raised awareness and profile of WCPP and the Centres approach to policy engagement. Audience reported changed views on how to do knowledge mobilisation and requested additional involvement with the Centre. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Presentation to Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postdoctoral Development Programme - 5 December 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on WCPP approach to knowledge mobilisation to ESRC Postdoctoral development programme cohort. Aim to share expertise and learning on policy engagement to enhance research leadership capability among ESRC early career researchers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation to UK Climate Change Committee - 24 March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presenting our work to the UK Climate Change Committee. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation to WG stakeholder group - 10 July 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | WCPP school guidance team and RREAL presented the SG report to WG's external stakeholders. The report was not final but we shared the strategy and purpose of the report, as well as some findings |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation to Welsh Treasury Directorate - 17 July 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of our work |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation to the Learned Society of Wales - 8 May 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A presentation to an audience of early career researchers (based in the UK and internationally) on the work of WCPP and how we engage with policymakers, and how they could do the same. Invited by the Learned Society of Wales. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation to the Welsh Local Government Association SMT - 6 November 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to WLGA SMT on WCPP priorities and areas of work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Public Health Wales Future of Healthy Homes Workshop - 27 November 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Networking about WCPP work on homelessness. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | RCP Resource Design Workshop 1 of 3 - 11 December 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was the first of three workshops WCPP is hosting with public services stakeholders to codevelop a tool/resource based on our 2024-25 multi-sector collaboration findings. The workshops aim to understand user needs, build momentum for this work, and directly inform if/what WCPP commissions next to accelerate the impact of the research and move evidence to practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | RCP Resource Design Workshop 2 of 3 - 6 February 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was the second of three workshops WCPP is hosting with public services stakeholders to codevelop a tool/resource based on our 2024-25 multi-sector collaboration findings. The workshops aim to understand user needs, build momentum for this work, and directly inform if/what WCPP commissions next to accelerate the impact of the research and move evidence to practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | RCP Steering Group - 21 February 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | WCPP to gain insight into 1. how people found the workshop (30th Jan) and 2. Sharing a draft 'resource' that can be used by practitioners to test if this is useful to service users and hear any suggestions on ways to improve this. Impact - BCT planning to write letter to FM on why community action should be prioritised (Dormant Assets Scheme) and keen to situate that in the context of this work and our findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Resourceful Communities Partnership meeting - 8 March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Formal meetings of the full Resourceful Communities Partnership (RCP) and Governance Group throughout 2023 and 2024. The RCP is a national (Wales-wide) forum for public and third sector organisations that help develop and promote local activities and action that improves wellbeing in communities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| Description | Roundtable - Diversity in Recruitment - 11 April 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A roundtable to share best practice and information about how public services, business and the Welsh Government are trying to increase workplace diversity, with a focus on race/ethnicity and disability. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Roundtable - Free School Meals - 20 June 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A roundtable event disseminating our research on free school meals and discussing further aspects of the research and findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Roundtable - Probation - 30 May 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A roundtable supporting WCPP's project on Devolution of Probation, with input from experts, third sector, policymakers and academics as well as practitioners from Belgium and Slovenia. Participants shared findings, best practice and recommendations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Roundtable discussion on Equity in Tertiary Education - 28 June 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A roundtable discussion convened by WCPP with presentations on our research, research and expertise from other academics and practitioners, to inform Welsh Government / Commission for Tertiary Education and Research thinking on equity in tertiary education, as part of a wider programme of work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Roundtable discussion on Higher Education delivery models in Wales - 20 November 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Participation in a research roundtable to inform work being carried by an external organisation on Higher Education delivery models in Wales. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | SHAPE and place event: Tackling complex challenges in Wales and beyond - 26 May 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Seminar convened by the British Academy as part of series of events to explore the role of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts for People and the Economy (SHAPE) disciplines in place-based policy making and how they impact and are impacted by the localities in which they are taught and researched. Outcome - Identification of ways in which SHAPE disciplines contribute to place-based policy making agenda to feed into the Academy's outputs from the projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Series of engagements with Welsh Government officials around IPPO priorities - 2 May 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We convened groups of Welsh Government officials on IPPO themes to talk about priorities and how IPPO could support these. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Skills for the Just Transition Conference - 21 November 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented research from our work package to a conference of academics, policymakers and business in Scotland and elsewhere. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Solace Wales Meeting - 26 September 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A presentation by Dan Bristow on the challenges facing local government, and participation in a workshop about the future of local government in Wales. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Support for communities in research evaluation - 14 May 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on the Multisector collaboration to support community action project with a focus on co-productive research process. Purpose was to provide participants with example of research supporting community action and wellbeing. Led to relationship with Together for Change who are establishing a network of HEI providing research and evaluation of value to community organisations and communities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Tackling loneliness inequalities: evidence to inform housing policy and practice - 5 July 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | WCPP was invited by Community Housing Cymru to design a workshop for their annual One Big Conference that brings together their members (housing associations and third sector partners). We presented the key findings from the Loneliness Inequalities evidence review and used the workshop format to pilot a knowledge mobilisation 'tool' we had developed aimed at helping stakeholders move from evidence to action. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Tackling poverty stigma - in person workshop - 10 November 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This workshop brought together local and national policymakers, practitioners, academics and people with lived experience of poverty, to build collective insight into poverty stigma, how it emerges and how it affects people and the role of government and public services in preventing and addressing it. This was to inform the direction/generate ideas for further work WCPP could do to support public services to develop evidence-based approaches to tackling poverty stigma. Together with the follow up online event, the workshop has helped inform a programme of work we are now taking forward to support public services to tackle poverty stigma more effectively, and has created connections, energy and momentum among key partners to support that work. We are also aware of at least one local authority partner who has developed focused work on poverty stigma as a result of attending. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Tackling poverty stigma - online workshop - 5 December 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This was an online follow up to the in person workshop in Wrexham, to explore ideas for further work WCPP could do to support public services to develop evidence-based approaches to tackling poverty stigma. Along with the in person event, the online workshop has helped inform a programme of work we are now taking forward to support public services to tackle poverty stigma more effectively, and has created connections, energy and momentum among key partners to support that work. We are also aware of at least one local authority partner who has developed focused work on poverty stigma as a result of attending. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | The Art and Craft of Knowledge Mobilisation: IPPO event - 4 December 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given at an IPPO event on the art and craft of knowledge mobilisation. Raised the profile of WCPPs approach to knowledge mobilisation and established new relationships and networks among knowledge mobilisers. Led to a request to present to ESRC Education Research Centres event on impactful practices of policy engagement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | The Universities Policy Engagement Network Annual Conference - 19 June 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | National conference on effective approaches to evidence use in policy making. Our contribution was to a panel discussion on evidence use in devolved governments as one of four key speakers. Outcome - Raised awareness of WCPP's work and shared challenges involved in evidence mobilisation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | The Welsh Local Government Association Budget Seminar - 23 November 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Day-long seminar with local government leaders, chief executives and finance to analyse fiscal challenges facing local government and strategies for addressing them. Outcome - Strengthened links with local authority leaders and enhanced understanding of issues to include in IPPO/WCPP project on local government finance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Thinking Ahead workshop - 24 April 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | A workshop to discuss the future impact of our engagement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Thinking Differently: Workshop for Spark Induction Programme - 3 October 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This 60 minute workshop was targeted at Spark-based professionals/academics and provided an introduction to design thinking and how it can be used for knowledge mobilisation and research based on previous projects (WCPP and Y Lab engagements). The outcome was more awareness raising and supporting the Spark community. The presentation was a key component of the Spark Induction Programme which had a day dedicated to Thinking Differently. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | UPEN Conference: Policy engagement and the future of devolution - 9 July 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation as part of a panel on devolved academic policy engagement. Outline the approach of WCPP to working with policymakers and practitioners in Wales and highlight the role of knowledge mobilisation in evidence use. Raised the profile of the Centre and built relationships with place-based knowledge mobiliers, policymakers and funders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | UPEN Members Meeting - 6 November 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Attended UPEN Members Meeting and presented on WCPP approach to measuring and demonstrating impact. Raised profile of WCPP approach to impact monitoring and capture and importance of better understanding the impact of knowledge mobilisation on evidence utilisation. Led to further discussions with UK HE-based knowledge mobilisers on impact and plans to establish a national community of practice for knowledge mobilisation and impact. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Understanding the impact of Knowledge Brokering Organisations - Presentation to What Works Network Impact Group - 30 October 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Alexis Pala presented their research paper on the Impact of What Works Centres to the group of impact practitioners from across the network. Afterwards the slides were shared with everyone who was invited to the meeting. This forms part of wider engagement with the What Works Network around these issues that Eleanor MacKillop is leading. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN) annual conference - 19 June 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Delivered a panel on local, regional and devolved policy engagement at the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN) annual conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Universities Policy Engagement Network Executive and full network meetings - 28 March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Formal meetings of the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN) Executive and full network meetings. UPEN is a community of UK universities committed to increasing the impact of research on policy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| Description | Vale of Glamorgan Council Scrutiny Committee Session - 20 November 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | WCPP provided a response to the Vale of Glamorgan's Carbon Management Plan which was discussed at the Council's Scrutiny Committee with a response from officers and recommendations taken to Cabinet. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | WCPP Presenting our work and scoping to North Wales 2025 Senior Leadership Group - 1 December 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a presentation to build a relationship with the 2025 Senior Leadership group so they could learn about WCPP, our work, and also inform our housing inequalities scoping. This has led to an established relationship with the group work could lead to further work (ongoing). We have also had follow-up conversations with group members interested to learn more about WCPP. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | WCPP roundtable on international responses to ageing population - 6 September 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | WCPP held a roundtable to bring together WG and academics to discuss learning from elsewhere that could be applied in Wales in relation to an ageing and declining population (as part of the wider project). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | WCPP-RCP workshop on improving multisector collaboration - 30 January 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Workshop to contextualise evidence review findings and test what works to support multisector collaboration between public, third and community sectors. Positive feedback on the workshop and interest from other orgs in working with us on this in the future e.g. Future Gens Office. We also used the workshop as an opportunity to find out what WCPP could do next that would be practically useful in this area. Led to us developing a resource that can be applied in different contexts. Also allowed us to develop a stream of work for the next phase of the project (developing a toolkit). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | WLGA Local government finance seminar - 21 November 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | WCPP colleagues presented to WLGA's local government finance seminar on the Future of local government project, aiming to gather data and secure buy-in from council leaders / chief executives to support the development of the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Wales Centre for Crime and Social Justice Conference - 29 April 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Greg Notman and Jack Price presented at the Wales Centre for Crime and Social Justice Conference on the devolution of probation to Wales to inform academics and policymakers of our work. We received a good response from officials and academics, with discussions about future work and how our work has influenced their wider thinking. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Wales Centre for Public Policy 10th anniversary |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An event held at the Welsh Parliament to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Wales Centre for Public Policy. Attendees heard speeches from Mark Drakeford FM, Wendy Larner (Cardiff University VC), Andrew Morgan (Leader of the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA)), and James Canton (ESRC). They discussed the role of evidence and the part the Centre plays in Welsh policy-making. We also launched our work with the WLGA to help the public sector reach net zero. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Wales Net Zero 2035 challenge group meeting - 8 March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Regular participation in the monthly meeting of the group to share the work of WCPP and learn from and relay any points from the Group back to the WCPP team. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Wales Productivity Forum meeting - 4 September 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Contributions to the work of the group, including developing a narrative on productivity |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Wales productivity forum - 11 October 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Sharing of work to inform the research of the group, which in turn aims to inform policy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Wales' pathway to net zero - CARBS briefing - 27 November 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Jack Price attended a briefing held by Jane Davidson on the Net Zero 2035 Wales Challenge Group and hosted a stand for WCPP, connecting people with our work in this area. Jack shared our work with a range of people including politicians, the public and researchers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Welsh Government Schools Research Network - 24 September 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A research network run by Welsh Government to share details of research being carried out in the education sector by public bodies and similar organisations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Welsh Government Schools Research Network - 26 June 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A research network run by Welsh Government to share details of research being carried out in the education sector by public bodies and similar organisations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Welsh Local Government Association Land Use task and finish group - 4 October 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | To share our work with the task and finish group. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | What Works Network Local Government Working Group - 25 September 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Working group of What Works Centre representatives to share expertise and experience in engaging with local government. Discuss common and different approaches and opportunities and share good practice, including toolkits and training. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| Description | What Works anniversary conference - 17 April 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | National conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the What Works network. The event included reflections from the Minister, the Permanent Secretary and Heads of What Works Centres on the achievements and future challenges for the network. We provided an exhibition featuring our work. Outcome - raised awareness of What Works Centres including the WCPP. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Workshop on Multi-agency working in Cwm Taf Morgannwg - 7 March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We convened a workshop to discuss challenges to multi-agency working to support children and young people in Cwm Taf Morgannwg; and potential solutions to the same. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | World Health Organisation Expert Consultation to Develop a Knowledge Translation Research Agenda - 26 March 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | To advise the WHO on its research priorities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
