This round table, held in partnership with advanced analytic leaders SAS, will address the question: How can civil servants use big data to create a stronger evidence-base for policy decisions?
Whether evaluating the impact of policy changes on different parts of society or assessing the areas most in need of new services, we expect the government to consider the best evidence before it decides how to spend ever-shrinking public funds. But of course it’s much easier to espouse the benefits of evidence-based policy making than it is to achieve it in practice.
Aside from political considerations, policy makers face the challenge of finding appropriate evidence to inform decisions – in the past they were often reliant on commissioning specific research or finding best-fit evidence that could be applied to the question at hand. Today, however, the growth of big data – huge data sets collected by organisations in the public and private sectors – and the increasingly sophisticated technologies available to analyse this data, have the potential to significantly bolster evidence-based policy making.
Some of the topics for discussion will include:
What benefits can analytics bring to policy-making?
What kinds of big data might policy makers use to inform policy decisions?
What skills will be needed to understand this data?
Lunch will be provided for all attendees.
If you are interested in attending this discussion please RSVP to Laura Thompson on 020 7593 5621 or please email roundtables@civilservicenetwork.com