This issue

– Social Impact Bonds and evidence
– managing the COVID-19 transition
– insourcing government services
– COVID-19 research round up 
– open data's impact 
Plus what I'm reading.

Research brief: Backing what works? Social impact bonds and evidence-informed policy and practice  ​

Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) offer an opportunity to explore the use of evidence to inform public policy and commissioning decisions. A paper in Public Money and Management identifies how SIBs can promote evidence use and explores the implications for policymakers and public managers. Read our brief on the paper.

Reimagining Government

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of governments in dealing with a society-wide crisis, but also provided us with an opportunity to rethink how they serve their citizens. ANZSOG and the Centre for Public Impact are Reimagining Government in a series of six webinars, which brings together senior practitioners, academics and leading thinkers from across the globe.

These thinkers will be guided by the ‘enablement paradigm’  - the concept that the best role for government is not to manage or control, but to create the conditions that lead to good outcomes for society. The final webinars will be held on 30 July and 13 August and will discuss how governments can reorient to learning.

Managing the COVID-19 transition  ​

Governments around the world have implemented measures to manage the transmission of COVID-19. They have a high social and economic cost, and response strategies are being adjusted. The World Health Organisation recommends that communities should have a voice, be informed and engaged and participate in this transition phase.  

An article in Nature proposes a range of considerations to support this principle. These include:  

1. Implement a phased approach to a ‘new normal’. This will be iterative, involving detailed planning for each stage; stabilising, recapping and monitoring progress. It is also underpinned by clear communication.

2. Balance individual rights with the social good. Adjustments to the response strategy including decisions on temporary restrictions that infringe on individual rights need to be respectful of rights and human dignity. 

3. Prioritise people at highest risk of negative consequences. The greatest negative impact of COVID-19 is among people who experience socioeconomic and equality-related disadvantage. Mitigating the negative consequences will result in individual as well as collective gain. 

4. Build, strengthen and maintain trust. Pandemics create inconsistency and uncertainty of a temporal, spatial and normative nature. Trust in institutions influences risk perceptions, helps people manage complexity and is crucial for legitimising decisions made by authorities. 

5. Anticipate and manage misinformation. The WHO has acknowledged the existence of an ‘infodemic’ in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an overwhelming stream of information including misinformation. Debunking approaches are needed to counter widespread myths and falsehoods. This will be essential when a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available. 

When and how to bring public services back into government hands ​

After decades of governments extending the role of the private sector in government work, there is growing interest in bringing services back into government hands. This can improve quality, increase reliability, improve supply-chain efficiencies and reduce costs. The COVID-19 pandemic has also shown many existing outsourcing models to be unsustainable in a crisis.  

The UK Institute for Government has released a report on when and how to bring services back into government. It identifies four situations where governments should consider returning a service to the public sector:  

1. The market from which government is buying a service is not healthy or competitive 

2. Government needs flexibility to make changes to the design and scope of a service, in view of changing policy and budget priorities 

3. Government lacks the commercial skills to procure or manage a contract successfully 

4. A service could be improved and/or savings made by integrating it with another service. 

When insourcing, governments need to design processes and develop the capabilities to ensure insourcing works while avoiding the potential pitfalls. The reports sets out the following principles for insourcing successfully: 

• develop a rigorous process for making decisions 

• prioritise projects based on finances and staff capacity 

• choose the right approach for insourcing 

• maintain a threat of competition 

• plan for transition and pilot any major changes 

• assess whether savings or quality improvements are realised.  

Consumers: from crisis to recovery 

COVID-19 is amplifying consumer vulnerability due to the scale of job loss and financial concerns coupled with the greater use of services such as energy and telecommunications.  

A new research report from the Consumer Policy Research Centre found: 

• 1 in 4 Australians are struggling to pay for essentials such as energy, groceries and insurance, adding to existing rent and mortgage stress. 

• 12 million Australians are concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on their financial wellbeing; 1 in 5 are ‘very’ concerned. 

• Almost half of Australians (49%) are taking steps to manage their household expenses including dipping into savings (28%) and using credit cards or buy-now-pay-later services (22%). 

The journey from crisis to recovery is uncertain and there is no linear trajectory. Effective consumer support involves both shorter-term responses to shocks, and long-term actions to improve consumer outcomes, confidence and resilience in markets. 

Women's experiences of domestic violence

An Australian Institute of Criminology paper presents the findings from an online survey of 15,000 Australian women about their experience of domestic violence during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was conducted in May 2020. 

In the three months prior to the survey, 4.6% of women who responded to the survey experienced physical or sexual violence from a current or former cohabiting partner. Almost 6% of women experienced coercive control and 11.6% reported experiencing at least one form of emotionally abusive, harassing or controlling behaviour. 

For many women, the pandemic coincided with the onset or escalation of violence and abuse. Two-thirds of women who experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or former cohabiting partner since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic said the violence had started or escalated in the three months prior to the survey. 

Families in Australia  

The Australian Institute of Family Studies surveyed 7,306 participants from around Australia to understand how Australian families coped with the COVID-19 pandemic. Key findings included: 

• The proportion of people always working from home rose from 7% before COVID-19 to 60% during it. 

• Before COVID-19, 30% of families used parent-only care. That rose to 64% of families during COVID-19. 

• While parents worked from home, 40% always or often 'actively' cared for children during work. 

• Young adults were disproportionately impacted by the economic downturn, being almost four times (15% vs 4%) more likely to ask for help from government or NGOs. 

The impact of open data ​

Open data is publicly available government data that can be universally and readily accessed, used and redistributed free of charge. It has spurred economic innovation, social transformation and new forms of political and government accountability. 

GovLab has released a collection of case studies highlighting the benefits of open data with a focus on: 

• Improving government, primarily by tackling corruption and increasing transparency, and enhancing public services and resource allocation. 

• Empowering citizens by enabling more informed decision making and new forms of social mobilisation. 

• Creating new opportunities for citizens and organisations, by fostering innovation and promoting economic growth and job creation. 

• Solving big public problems by allowing citizens and policymakers access to new forms of data-driven assessment of problems and enabling data-driven engagement. 

Case studies are drawn from around the world including Colombia, Denmark, India, Mexico, Canada and New Zealand. Based on the case studies, GovLab identified the enabling conditions and disabling factors that determine the impact of open data initiatives. These are clustered around: 

• problem and demand definition 

• capacity and culture 

• partnerships 

• risks 

• governance. 

‘Til the next issue

Maria Katsonis