Effectively articulating public good in your project
Once you have identified that your research is proportionate, followed by the potential public good that your project provides balanced against any potential risks, it is important to clearly and effectively articulate this within project documentation (e.g., using the UK Statistics Authority’s ethics self-assessment tool or similar materials).
When articulating the public good that you anticipate your project will provide, key aspects to focus on include:
- Type of Impact: The overall way in which you are contributing to public value (e.g., are you primarily influencing decision-making, service delivery or policy development, or focused more on extending understanding, replicating, validating, challenging or improving statistics or research?). Remember, public good can be achieved by doing just one of these things or all of them.
- Scale of Impact: The likely size of the public benefit that you expect to achieve (e.g., is this work potentially influencing a policy that will have substantial social or economic impact?).
- Population Coverage: Who will likely benefit (e.g., are the benefits focused on a particular group within society or will they impact the population as a whole?).
- Impact Strategy: What practical steps might you take to ensure that the research is seen, and that the public good of the research is realised?
Make sure that you use sufficient detail to describe the proposed benefits of the project to the public so that you are able to fully justify any potential risks.
The key aspects above are emphasised below using a fictional project example to demonstrate how these different aspects can be incorporated. All of this information can contribute to understanding the public good of a project and reflects a culmination of different items within the UK Statistics Authority’s ethics self-assessment tool.
Be specific about the type of impact that you expect your project to have and the context of your work, including relevant statistics where possible:
This research aims to improve and challenge current understanding of the effectiveness of drug treatment services, contributing to service delivery and policy development, whilst extending understanding of the relative effectiveness of these services. In [date], [XX%] of offenders tested positive for Class A substances post arrest and were offered access to specialist support and treatment services. By producing aggregate statistics related to the uptake of these services, as well as listening to the views of those who are most impacted by them, we will be better able to understand how these services work and whether they are seen to be helpful by service users. In turn, the understanding gained will contribute to improved service delivery, ensuring that the service is useful, effective for users, and economically efficient.
Try and be as specific as possible about the population who will benefit and the likely scale of any impact – this relates specifically to the population coverage item within the UK Statistics Authority’s ethics self-assessment tool:
From [X date] to [Y date], [Z number of] offenders were referred to government run drug support services after being arrested for related offenses. This represents a relatively small, but nonetheless important, population who could directly benefit from any changes in service delivery that may arise as a result of the research. In addition, wider social and economic benefits may arise related to reduced drug use and reduced reoffending rates.
Emphasise how the methods used within the research will ensure that the public good of the work can be realised – this relates specifically to the potential to realise benefits item within the UK Statistics Authority’s ethics self-assessment tool:
To ensure that the public good benefits of the research are realised, an [X and/or Y] methodological approach is used, which enables a range of data to be collected and analysed in relation to the relative use of these services and user perceptions and experiences related to this. This data will be analysed using [X and/or Y] techniques, which represent established methods of analysis for the research questions posed.
Be specific about how you will engage different audiences to ensure that the research is seen and public benefit maximised, including specific reference to any organisations or groups that you will directly engage with:
To ensure that the public good benefits of the research are maximised, the research team have engaged with a number of organisations including [X, Y and Z] who are responsible for the development of policy in this area or manage the delivery of such services. Quarterly research update meetings will be held with these organisations to maximise the potential impact of the work. Results will also be disseminated via peer-reviewed academic journals, conference presentations, stakeholder summaries and open blog pieces to reach a diverse audience. In addition, the research team will host a consultation event in partnership with current service leaders, policy-makers, and other interested parties in [approximate date] once the research has been completed.
Below are some examples of different ways in which the public good of projects has been concisely articulated in previous project applications. These provide clear information on the anticipated benefits of the work in different ways, allowing these benefits to be considered in relation to any potential harms.
Further information regarding each of these projects can also be found by searching the list of accredited research projects under the Research Strand of the Digital Economy Act.
Our research seeks to improve understanding of the prevalence, nature and impacts of ZHCs on workers. There are widespread calls for policy interventions concerning ZHCs and the likelihood of such interventions in the medium term on ZHCs and other non-guaranteed hours contracts is high (e.g. consider the Taylor review recommendations). It is therefore crucial that we improve our understanding of ZHCs and their effects if any such policy interventions are to be evidence-based. This project will contribute to that end. It is also important to better understand whether minimum wage increases lead firms to increase use of ZHCs. Again, that is one of the aims of this project. ZHCs are also used in public sector jobs and in private sector jobs purchased by councils etc. for the purposes of public service delivery (e.g. social care, NHS). A better understanding of how the use of ZHCs in these kinds of jobs respond to budgetary and political pressures across councils can help councils and other bodies to anticipate how service providers may respond to future changes. If ZHCs impact on worker wellbeing, then public service delivery in these areas may also be affected via this route.
- Provide an evidence base for how your project will support public policy decision making.
The project will contribute towards informing a key Ministry of Justice (MoJ) priority: the effective and efficient delivery of justice and promoting confidence in the criminal justice system and the rule of law. The project is also relevant to a key area of research interest for the MoJ, as it speaks to a potential driver of future demand on the justice system and can provide important insights into how the courts might better respond to SOC offending.
- Provide an evidence base for how your project will support public service delivery.
The project is also aligned with the strategic objectives of other criminal justice agencies; for example, the National Crime Agency’s latest Strategic Assessment highlights the need to better understand the nature and extent of the threat posed by SOC to the UK’s communities, economy and institutions.
- Provide an evidence base for decisions which are likely to significantly benefit the UK economy, society or quality of life of people in the UK.
Given the considerable social and economic costs associated with levels of SOC in the UK (estimated at £37 billion in 2015), the proposed project will contribute to expanding the extent and depth of data required to inform a more effective understanding and response to this growing problem.
- Provide an evidence base for how your project will replicate, validate or challenge existing research.
We believe our approach is justified since HM Government has long recognised that “Substantial gains can be made through better use of existing data (both intelligence…and administrative, such as criminal convictions data)” (Home Office, 2011: 8) and that “it is a priority to increase collaboration between intelligence data holders and researchers in academia…to support better exploitation of data” (Ibid: 9). Our proposal offers considerable potential for generating new insights to inform answers to many of the gaps in our knowledge and understanding of SOC and responses to it.
- Provide an evidence base for how your project will significantly extend the UK’s understanding of social or economic trends or events by improving knowledge or challenging widely accepted analyses.
By drawing upon a large and representative sample of cases, the proposed project seeks to provide an authoritative assessment of the prevalence and incidence of SOC prosecuted through the higher courts in England and Wales, and their associated outcomes. It presents and opportunity to quantify, for the first time, the levels of crime related harm associated with these cases, their attrition through the trial process (and the reasons for this), and the nature and extent of any repeat use of the courts over an extended period of time.
- Provide an evidence base for how your project will improve the quality, coverage or presentation of existing statistical information.
Working with the Administrative Data Research (ADR) UK Communications and Engagement Team, the project will lead to the production of a number of ADR UK/MoJ Data First specific outputs that will seek to improve the quality, coverage and presentation of statistical information derived from the magistrates’ and Crown Court datasets.
- Provide an evidence base for public policy decision-making.
We will make widely available the ways in which the pandemic is impacting the working lives of women and men and identify the ways in which government and employers can support workers.
- Provide an evidence base for decisions which are likely to significantly benefit the UK economy, society or quality of life of people in the UK.
We will expand our understanding of the gender impacts of C0VID-19 on working lives in the UK, aiding the government and business mitigating response. We will significantly extend understanding of social or economic trends or events by improving knowledge or challenging widely accepted analyses. We will expand our understanding of social and economic trends by improving knowledge of the gender impacts of C0VID-19.
- To improve the quality, coverage or presentation of existing statistical information.
Code and resulting datasets will be made openly available to other researchers via the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway and the GitHub platform. Findings will be made available to the public via simple and interactive data visualisations and infographics.