Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods
Sefydliad Ymchwill Gymdeithasol ac Economaidd, Data a Dulliau Cymru
www.wiserd.ac.uk

Section 3: Events and Projects

WISERD is currently developing a joint policy seminar programme with the Welsh Government and a regular calendar of events co-sponsored with the Wales Governance Centre.

Events have included:

  • ‘Exploring institutional and organisational boundaries across Wales’, seminar hosted by the WISERD Hub ar Cardiff Uninversity on 15th December 2010 (click here for more details)
  • ‘Funding devolved government in Wales: challenges for the future’, workshop series hosted by WISERD and the Wales Governance Centre, January, March and May 2010 (see attached programme).
  • ‘Small countries and the global crisis: challenges and opportunities?’, conference hosted by the Wales Governance Centre, WISERD and the Welsh Government, 1st July 2009 (see attached programme).

A number of specific projects were initiated or conceptualized throughout the existence of WISERD, either conceived of as WISERD projects, or, more generally, using WISERD in partnership with other Centres.  The following projects have involved members of the Cardiff Policy team.

Devolution and the Civil Service in Wales (Professor Alistair Cole, Cardiff School of European Studies, Cardiff University)

Devolution in the UK has attracted considerable attention beyond the narrow field of scholars of British politics and administration. One relatively under-researched dimension has been the adaptation of the civil service in Wales and Scotland to the changing political and constitutional circumstances of the UK constitution, the work of Parry (2001, 2005, and 2008) representing a notable exception (see also Prosser, 2006). The project endeavours to present the moving object of devolution over its first decade mainly from the perspective of civil servants in Wales. Three distinct avenues of investigation are proposed, involving perspectives on the first decade of devolution (what happened); foresight (what is likely to happen), and user engagement (what questions ought to form part of a major survey of the civil service in Wales).  Within this broad framework, questions will seek to elicit practitioner opinion on issues involving professional ethics, role perceptions, management practices,  interactions and (devolved) institution building, inter-governmental and multi-level relationships. These dimensions will provide the core both of the current round of semi-structured interviews and a more structured survey to be designed once this round of interviews has been carried out.

Initial output from this project included a WGC working paper and an academic journal article. This pilot stage is intended, however, as a prelude to a more extensive survey, which will produce a dataset for the WISERD data archive, to be accompanied by appropriate documentation and forms of dissemination.  In the first instance, it is expected that the round of interviews will give rise to a Chatham House style seminar.  The panel of interviewees includes a mix of those following a classic civil service career trajectory with experience of the former Welsh office; those coming to the Welsh Government (WG) from previously constituted organisations; and those who have joined the organisation from outside the civil service.

10 pilot interviews were carried out in total, including the Permanent Secretary, 4 Director Generals, and 5 Directors.  These interviews each have a substantial policy intent, with detailed information in the fields of education, economic development, transport, environmental policy and constitutional affairs.

States of Convergence: Territorial Governance and the Politics of Public Service Delivery in France and the United Kingdom

This project was submitted to the ESRC as part of the Open Research Area call, in association with a French team submitting to the Agence nationale de recherché.

The bid is for £469180 over 24 months (the French team asking for an additional  361555 euros)

Alistair Cole (PI), Steve Martin and Ian Stafford (for the UK team); JC Nemery, R.Pasquier, JM Bricault for the French team

The project is concerned with territorial governance and the politics of public service delivery in France and the United Kingdom. Traditional understandings of territorial relations in these two states have been challenged by the consequences of three decades of decentralization in France and by the far-reaching neo-liberal and constitutional reforms of the 1979-1997 and 1997-2010 periods in the UK. In both countries, domestic pressures on the State are intensified by the wider context of the current fiscal crisis and a transformed trans-national policy setting.  The core of the project revolves around a central question in the form of an apparent paradox: why has the French model of territorial governance ostensibly shifted from a paradigm of public service to one of (new) public management and productivity, while devolved governments in the UK (but less so local authorities or agencies in England) have distanced themselves from a discourse of performance management?

We use the concept of convergence as a tool to compare processes of local government and public service reform in the UK and France. We adopt an approach called States of Convergence, understood as a typology which analyses variation between places, countries and policy fields. The typology identifies four distinct forms of policy convergence and divergence.  In addition to providing a framework to analyse processes of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ convergence, the typology will also identify the structural, political and contextual factors that drive ‘constructed’ and ‘positive’ divergence. Our favoured hypothesis is that of ‘soft’ convergence which occurs when common pressures, fashions and dialogues over time dilute the barriers represented by distinctive institutional and ideational contexts. Reforming local government and the territorial state under Sarkozy in 2010 has clear parallels of Thatcherite reforms of the 1980s in the UK. A secondary hypothesis (‘constructed divergence’) attempts to capture divergence within these two EU member states, specifically by contrasting the management of local government and public services in England and post-devolution Wales.

We investigate these four positions by in-depth analysis of four case studies of territorial and administrative reform and public service delivery. Our case studies of states of convergence involve separate yet cognate processes of territorial and administrative reform and public service delivery: the policy review (RGPP) and territorial reform (2010-11) in France, the 1998, 2000, 2001, 2006 and 2008 Local Government White Papers in England, and the local government measure introduced by the Welsh Government in 2009. Four functionally equivalent regions are selected in France and the UK: Wales and Brittany; Champagne-Ardennes and South-west England. In each member-state, we select one strong identity region (Wales and Brittany), and one ‘instrumental’ region (South-west England and Champagne Ardennes); this comparative mix allows logically for variation to be captured. The choice of cases allows for similar logics of scale between Wales and Brittany (both close knit policy communities with powerful local government lobbies), as well as between South-west England and Champagne-Ardennes (with more fragmented local government communities).   Around 120 interviews will take place in the four regions, to be accompanied by a stakeholder survey.

Learning to Improve: An Independent Assessment of Welsh Government Policy for Local Government (project based in the Centre for Local and Regional Government Research, led by Professor Steve Martin)

The Welsh Government has commissioned researchers from the Centre for Local and Regional Government Research at Cardiff University to conduct a longitudinal evaluation of its policies for local government.

The research covers the period April 2008 to March 2012, and is focusing on the three themes emphasised in the 2007 policy statement A Shared Responsibility:

  • Collaboration between public service providers;
  • Citizen centred policy and delivery; and
  • Effective partnership working between central and local government.

The study will analyse:

  • the ways in Welsh Government policies are developed and communicated;
  • how local authorities interpret, implement and respond to these policies;
  • what impacts and outcomes they have on local services, local democratic engagement and perceptions of economic and social well being.

The study is being overseen by a steering group which includes representatives of the Welsh Local Government Association, One Voice Wales and the Welsh Government.

The research team will produce annual interim reports, and a Shared Intelligence (a consultancy specialising in knowledge transfer) are working with the Welsh Government and local authorities to enable them to use the findings.

Data are being collected through:

  • National surveys of heads of services and elected members in all 22 unitary authorities in 2008 and 2011;
  • 18 in-depth case studies of partnerships (including Local Service Boards and regional partnerships), approaches to citizen engagement; and examples of central-local interactions in 2009 and 2010; and
  • Semi-structured Interviews with key policy makers in local and national government and the private and voluntary sectors in 2009 and 2011.

The study is being led by Professor Steve Martin, Cardiff Business School.

Email: MartinSJ@cardiff.ac.uk