Research units A-Z

Workstrand 1 works with our Policy partners in the Scottish Government, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Sheffield City Council to understand their policy systems and evidence needs.

This helps us to appreciate the various political priorities, goals and constraints, and how these develop over time in different organisations. Gaining an in-depth understanding of the political and organisational contexts and decision making processes, as well as the areas in which evidence is most urgently required, helps ensure that the rest of the work in SIPHER is as relevant and useful for our policy partners as possible.

Using a combination of qualitative methods, Workstrand 1 provides information on the landscape for each policy topic and works with our SIPHER embedded researchers to provide ongoing updates on the changing policy context.

The qualitative methods that we use to develop this understanding include interviews, observations, analysis of documents and participatory systems mapping.

Workstrand 1 is supporting the whole SIPHER team to develop a detailed understanding of the policy landscape for our three policy topics.

• Inclusive Economies: Sheffield, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and Scotland. In Scotland, this work includes supporting policy efforts to achieve reductions in Child Poverty.

• Housing: Sheffield and Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

• Public Mental Health: Scotland.

This work provides a foundation for SIPHER’s quantitative modelling outputs and is also developing qualitative systems science outputs.