Dr Inez Bailey – Knowledge Brokerage: Supporting the implementation of excellent public services on the island of Ireland through evidence-informed policy and practice

At the Centre for Effective Services we believe that government policy informed by evidence creates better outcomes for the population. This approach has been developed in other countries, such as the USA and South Africa.

CES supports policy makers and service providers to use research evidence to inform policy and practice, both North and South, aimed at tackling chronic issues like domestic and gender-based violence, homelessness, mental ill health, and the legacy of the conflict.

Yet there remains a significant challenge in how to fully bring research evidence to bear when tackling these common societal problems. Barriers include a mismatch in the timescales of research and policy cycles, communication methods, and the skills and capacity to translate and embed evidence into policy and practice. Service providers and communities, who hold a great deal of knowledge of what works, rarely get the opportunity to contribute to an evidence base.

CES proposes it is timely to consider an all-island evidence hub on issues of common concern – one central source of facts and data, lived experiences and practitioner wisdom, that policymakers can access when making decisions and designing policy.

A hub could be supported by opportunities for researchers, policymakers and practitioners to come together to explore how to interpret and translate evidence into everyday reality, and to learn from implementation and evaluation.

A shared evidence hub would also be a great boost to fostering efforts for shared understanding and reconciliation on the island of Ireland.

What is Knowledge Brokerage?

Knowledge brokerage is the act of connecting relevant evidence and knowledge to the development and implementation of policy and practice.

Effective knowledge brokerage needs to understand the information needs of policymakers as well as the format, language and timing that is most useful.

In parallel, knowledge brokerage needs to understand the variety, type and format of knowledge generated by researchers and be able to interpret and augment that knowledge for use in practice by policy makers.

Knowledge brokerage makes evidence more useable by policy makers and enables them to access evidence from a variety of sources, and supports universities and academic researchers to develop research with high societal impact.

How can the challenges be overcome?

Often, complex exchanges between policymakers and researchers require the help of specialist organisations serving in knowledge broker or intermediary roles.

Neal, Posner and Brutzman have identified the most common approaches of these specialists. Most are facilitating relationships between the academic community and policymakers and practitioners, and translating and communicating evidence outwards. Many seek to create alignment between these diverse stakeholders. Some organisations offer capacity building among knowledge producers and knowledge users to understand each other’s needs and bridge the gap. A few are using evidence to directly inform decision making, such as the Wales Centre for Public Policy which supports the Welsh Government to develop evidence-informed policy.

CES as a Knowledge Broker

CES has been operating as a knowledge broker in Ireland and Northern Ireland since our establishment in 2008. We perform six main functions:

1. synthesise knowledge and findings
2. research and analyse interventions
3. translate knowledge to policy makers and/or practitioners
4. advocate and communicate findings
5. advise on implementation of evidence-based policies
6. support collaboration and networks across the knowledge interfaces

One example where we have made evidence accessible to decision-makers and practitioners is our work with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on the What Works programme and Festival of Learning Delivering the What Works Programme – evidence informed practice.

You can find more examples of our work in brokering knowledge here.

We are the only independent organisation doing this work on an all-island basis. We are doing this through our charitable, social enterprise endeavours and without core public funding.

So, what next?

We would be interested in having a wider discussion with anyone delivering public services to local communities, developing policy or conducting research.

We would like to hear your views on whether an all-island evidence hub or network, and a knowledge brokerage mechanism would be of benefit to your work – particularly with a cross-border or all- island lens.

Dr Inez Bailey is Chief Executive of the Centre for Effective Services (CES) and can be contacted at ibailey@effectiveservices.org

(1) The-Power-of-Evidence-to-Drive-Americas-Progress-Results-for-America.pdf (results4america.org)