Provocation Panel

Day 1: Thursday, 12 September

How can academia, the civil service and the wider public sector collaborate more effectively to drive evidence-informed reform of government and the public sector to deliver better outcomes for citizens? How can research help us build a skilled, flexible, diverse and inclusive government workforce, and create good work for public sector employees? Do we focus too much on research to inform policy making, whilst under-exploring the systems and structures we need to deliver successful policy? Are traditional notions of evidence and evidence-based practice even fit for purpose when thinking about the future of government, or do we need to challenge these ideas? Led by current civil service leaders working on the future of government, and their academic partners, this provocation panel will bring together civil servants with researchers to explore the challenges associated with developing, mobilising and challenging evidence about the future of government and the government workforce and generate shared commitments to action. Our goal for this session is to catalyse enduring networks through which we can co-construct novel methods for envisioning and building governments of the future that can address the ‘wicked’ problems of the twenty-first century and deliver for citizens.