Unit 4: (Week 07 & Week 08) Evidence and Social Policy

Social policy is problem-oriented, and although the term is treated by some apprehension by social scientists, the analysis of social policy is often ‘positivist’.Empirical evidence is important for social policy, but it cannot establish policy or priorities itself. Empirical material has to be interpreted; problems have to be recognised as important,evidence has to be seen as pointing to some outcome,‘facts’ have to be constructed in a way which relates them to possible policy responses. Policies are evaluated mainly by scrutinising evidence in order to be able to make some judgment about them. This unit ' Evidance and Social Policy'  particulary focuses on following issues related to evaluation of policies:

Week 7: Lecture 7

  • Using empirical evidence
  • Evaluation approaches
  •  Methods of evaluation

Week 8: Lecture 8

  • Analysing policies and services
  • Benchmarking and performance indicators
  • Approaches to evaluation

Required Reading:

Spicker, P. (2014), Social Policy: Theory and Practice. Policy Press: UK 

Recommended Readings:

Dean, H. (2006). ‘What is Social Policy?’ in Social Policy: A Short Introduction. Cambridge, The Polity Press. 

 

 

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