The impact of participatory policy formulation on regulatory legitimacy: the case of Great Britain’s Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem)

Energy markets policy in Great Britain has been largely delegated from elected representatives to a market regulator: the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem). Regulatory legitimacy requires due process and appropriate expertise to expose the regulator to democratic influence. As the legitimacy of regulatory participation processes start to be discussed more intensively in the European context, this timely article examines the relationship between the use of policy formulation tools and the resulting legitimacy gained by an independent market regulator. It employs a detailed case study analysing how participatory policy formulation tools – deliberative focus groups with members of the public, and stakeholder consultations – were used in energy markets policy formulation in Ofgem between 2007 and 2016. Through assessing the actors, venues, capacities and effects associated with selection and use of the tools, it finds there were inequalities of influence between different policy actors which posed a significant challenge to legitimacy

Embedding ecosystem services ideas into policy processes: an institutional analysis

What helps or limits the use of ecosystem services ideas in practice? In this paper we develop and test a new institutionalistbased analytical scheme to explore how ecosystem services as a “new” policy idea might interact with established policy regimes, processes, and norms. The scheme is based on three different decision-making levels: micro, meso, and macro. To test the plausibility of the scheme, it is applied to the case of the UK where a specific ecosystem services framework (ESF) was prioritized as a new way of doing environmental policy after 2011. Drawing on findings from 32 elite interviews, the paper shows how dynamics at all three levels intersect with differing institutional explanations. It helps explain important factors for embedding, or restricting embedding, of the ESF in policy making. The scheme provides a useful way to link analysis of the “lived experience” of policy actors implementing the ESF with the institutional landscape they occupy, and allows for a nuanced and integrated analysis of the potential barriers faced by ecosystem services ideas generally

Use of quality information in decision-making about health and social care services - a systematic review

User choice and personalisation have been at the centre of health and social care policies in many countries. Exercising choice can be especially challenging for people with long-term conditions (LTC) or disabilities. Information about the quality, cost and availability of services is central to user choice. This study used systematic review methods to synthesise evidence in three main areas: (i) how people with LTC or disabilities and their family carers ?nd and access information about the quality of services; (ii) how quality information is used in decision-making; and (iii) what type of quality information is most useful. Quality information was de?ned broadly and could include formal quality reports (e.g. inspection reports, report cards, etc.), information about the characteristics of a service or provider (e.g. number and quali?cations of staff, facilities, etc.) and informal reports about quality (e.g. personal experience, etc.). Literature searches were carried out using electronic databases in January 2012. Thirteen papers reporting ?ndings from empirical studies published between 2001 and 2012 were included in the review. The majority of papers (n = 9) had a qualitative design. The analysis highlighted the use of multiple sources of information in decision-making about services and in particular the importance of informal sources and extended social networks in accessing information. There is limited awareness and use of ‘of?cial’ and online information sources. Service users or family carers place greater emphasis on general information and structural indicators. Clinical or quality-of-life outcomes are often dif?cult to interpret and apply. Trust emerged a key issue in relation to quality information. Experiential and subjective information is highly valued and trusted. Various barriers to the effective use of quality information in making choices about services are identi?ed. Implications for policy and future research are discussed

Knowledge Brokerage at the Science-Policy Interface: case studies of tools and policy impact assessment

The swift rise of policy appraisal in recent years – to the status of legal requirement in many countries - has been mirrored by development of many support tools such as environmental models. However, there is a widely- observed gap between extensive supply of such tools, and patchy demand for them; their use is influenced by many technical, procedural, conceptual and political factors. How and to what extent can the relationship between appraisal tools and policy-making be developed, particularly the type of expertise required for addressing complex policy problems such as climate change? This paper addresses this question within the wider concept of science-policy interaction as a fluid and porous interface, and also as a shared, multi-actor process of addressing policy problems. The paper employs a knowledge-brokerage (KB) approach, where the linear model of ‘speaking truth to power’ is challenged by a more reflexive approach to the interaction. To do this, and to reflect the many context-specific forms of the science-policy interface, we focus on case studies of six different policy problems at different decision making levels and jurisdictions. We assess the most appropriate KB strategy in each case, and critically evaluate the KB approach – how it worked, what factors influenced it and how effective it was. Using the preliminary case study results, we describe a preliminary typology for different 'modes' of SPI operation, and discuss how institutional setting affects the process, governance and success of knowledge brokerage. Work is ongoing, but initial results show that the 'test case' concept acts as a flexible conceptual and practical guidance for researchers in science policy interactions in policy appraisal processes, and can help facilitate the relationship between scientists and policy makers. The approach yields conceptual learning about the science-policy interface, and reveals different actors' conceptual models of knowledge production and application

Developing an Easy Read version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT)

Background: This paper reports the experiences of developing and pre-testing an Easy Read version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) for self-report by people with intellectual disabilities. Method: The study has combined survey development and pre-testing methods with approaches to create accessible information for people with intellectual disabilities. A working group assisted researchers in identifying appropriate question formats, pictures and wording. Focus groups and cognitive interviews were conducted to test various iterations of the instrument. Results: Substantial changes were made to the questionnaire, which included changes to illustrations, the wording of question stems and response options. Conclusions: The process demonstrated the benefits of involving people with intellectual disabilities in the design and testing of data collection instruments. Adequately adapted questionnaires can be useful tools to collect information from people with intellectual disabilities in survey research; however its limitations must be recognised

The history of institutions in Hungary: what can we learn from it for the future?

This presentation provides an overview of the history of long-stay institutions for people with intellectual disabilities in Hungary. It discusses reform attempts to change institutions and why these failed. It also reflects on the role of disabled people’s organisations and self-advocates in promoting change

Potential impacts of climate change on the energy balance of UK livestock

The wide-ranging potential impacts of climate change on both ecology and human infrastructure have led to a large amount of research; however, studies of the projected impacts on agricultural systems have so far focussed mainly on crops. Given the proven adverse effects of extreme weather conditions on the productivity and welfare of livestock, this thesis assesses the potential impact of such a change on the thermal balance of livestock in the UK. A series of mathematical models was designed to predict the metabolic rate and occurrence of thermal stress in sheep and cattle outdoors, and pigs and broiler chickens indoors by solution of the energy balance equations. The models run on commonly-available hourly weather data, and as far as possible were based on the physics of heat and mass transfer rather than empirical relationships. The animals were modelled as systems of geometrical shapes, incorporating the underlying tissue, a coat and the external environment. Physiological responses to hot and cold conditions, including panting, sweating, vasomotor action and shivering were parameterised. Validation of the model output showed good agreement with measured data. The climate predictions for the year 2050 were reduced to synthetic hourly weather data using a stochastic weather generator and several simple downscaling techniques. The climate change impact assessment was made for an upland and a dry lowland site in the UK. There are two main conclusions to the work. First, climate change is predicted to have little effect on ruminants outdoors, or on the suitability of a site for grazing livestock. Second, animals indoors will experience significantly more heat stress under climate change, probably since indoor animals are at greater risk of heat stress in the current climate than those outdoors. In the next fifty years, pig and broiler chicken farms will have to introduce methods for alleviation of heat stress to avoid economic and welfare problems. Future work will need to focus more on collection of accurate heat balance data rather than on more mathematical modelling