The Audit Commission's national studies programme aims to improve local public services through its independent authoritative analysis of national evidence and local practice. The research identifies practice that works, highlights emerging findings and examines national trends to influence local practice and national policy. Each year 12 to 15 studies are produced, covering local government, NHS finance, housing, community safety and crosscutting issues.
The Audit Commission is committed to improving the effectiveness of national studies. To help us better understand and improve their impact we commissioned the Office for Public Management (OPM) to review the impact of the national studies programme. To achieve this we asked OPM to:
- explore local and national stakeholders' perceptions of the quality and usefulness of the Audit Commission’s national studies programme; and
- identify how to improve the impact of our study findings locally and nationally.
This paper provides a brief overview of the main findings from the review. It will be of particular interest to:
- those who participated in the review, either through the webbased survey or in a workshop; and
- those who are interested in the role, and impact, of evidence in local public services.
The Audit Commission is using the review's findings to inform the development of the national studies programme and is developing an action plan to address the issues raised by the review.
This summary outlines the review’s qualitative and quantitative research findings on the use of evidence, and its impact, among public sector managers. OPM talked to managers working in community safety, health, housing, and local government sectors, as well as those working in national organisations with a remit covering local public bodies. Throughout the summary 'evidence' is used to describe the various outputs from research, whether reports, statistics or improvement tools, while 'national studies' specifically refers to the products which are produced as part of the Audit Commission's national studies programme.