Developing Effective Policies: Analysis, Evidence and Impact

Dates:

• 12 - 16 May 2025 - London (£2,850)
• 13 - 17 October 2025 - London (£2,850)

Course Outline

The most robust policies are underpinned and driven by strong and demonstrable evidence. This five-day course will help all those within governmental, public, private or NGO organisations who are responsible for the design, planning and implementation of policies, to improve their decision-making skills throughout the different stages of the policy process.

Focused on addressing the problems faced by delegates in their policy, programme or project challenges, on this course you will choose a real-life issue to work through over the week. Delegates will explore all stages of policy-making, from initial planning through to post implementation monitoring and evaluation. The different types and resources of evidence will be examined to assess their value and contribution, and how they can best be combined with other factors that affect the policy-making process.

This course will cover areas such as: systematic reviews; data from censuses and surveys; experimental evidence; economic appraisal methods; implementation evidence; qualitative methods and public consultations. This highly practical workshop also includes guidance on how to improve your communication of policy ideas to decision makers, including Ministers.

Course Objectives: 

On completion, you will be able to:

• Understand and implement the benefits of evidence-based policy making
• Use the best available evidence to improve your decision making around policies and their substance
• Appraise the worth and quality of available evidence
• Understand the various factors that can influence policy making
• Commission and manage research, evaluation and analytical services

Key Topics

• Using research evidence to develop, implement and monitor robust and strategic policy
• The different types of research and evaluation
• Compiling high-quality evidence in performance-managed government and resource allocation
• Reviewing examples of evidence-based policy-making from different countries

This is week one of The Policy Toolkit: Evidence, Evaluation and Impact Assessment.