The RSA Blog

Has the Department of Health been misusing behavioural economics?

Blog

26 Mar 2012

Atif Shafique

It seems that as soon as Andrew Lansley announced plans to “nudge” the population towards healthier and more socially responsible behaviour, scathing criticisms have been levelled at the alleged naivety – and to some the danger – of his policy backing for voluntary pledges, grounded in nudge theory. The Commons health select committee criticised the Department of Health’s (DH) Public Health Responsibility Deals as ineffective for tackling health and social problems such as smoking, excessive drinking and obesity – warning that they could widen health inequalities; that self-interested companies should not be allowed to set the agenda; and that the government should use legislation if “nudging” fails. The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee similarly questioned the efficacy of using voluntary mechanisms without sufficient regulatory measures to achieve behaviour change. Even internally within government the idea has had little traction; a National Audit Office report last year noted government departments were not consulting the Behavioural Insight Team on issues around alternatives to regulation at the assessment stage. Oliver Letwin even acknowledged that it was “open to question whether any of this would have any effect whatsoever.” The Behavioural Insights Team itself cautioned that “’nudge’ approaches should not be seen as a hard alternative to other policy approaches, but a useful complement or additional tool.”

In folly ripe, in reason rotten

Blog

08 Mar 2012

Benedict Dellot

While being interviewed earlier this week by David Wilcox about our new report, RSA ChangeMakers, he asked me whether by identifying and subsequently supporting the ‘ChangeMakers’ driving positive change in Peterborough we were inadvertently helping to entrench existing power structures. I responded by saying that the method we devised for identifying ChangeMakers was intended to do the opposite. Yes, we first asked those in the Council and the Local Strategic Partnership who they would consider to be a ChangeMaker. But we then asked those who were named for their own suggestions of ChangeMakers, and then asked those new people that were named for theirs, and so on over a number of waves. The idea being that we would be able to get further away from the ‘status quo’ and identify individuals lying under the radar.

This new escapism

Blog

26 Feb 2012

Benedict Dellot

Are we increasingly berating others to escape from the grim reality of an unjust social and economic system? A couple of recent events indicate that such a phenomenon may indeed be taking place.

Maid Credits: Tory Feminism?

Blog

16 Feb 2012

 

Work hard, be nice to people and remember to write down some maxims

Blog

12 Feb 2012

Benedict Dellot

In the great bustle of day-to-day living, it’s easy to lose track of the lessons we accumulate over the years. Whether it’s a crisis at work, a trauma in our family lives or some other form of struggle, there will nearly always emerge out of the chaos a stream of new maxims that we feel should shape our actions from that point onwards.

Sunderland City Council’s Community Leadership Programme: Big Society, but with the politics?

Blog

10 Feb 2012

Atif Shafique

It is now stating the patently obvious to say that the public policy and public services landscape – especially at a local level – is undergoing a transformative change. Austerity, fiscal pressures, political shifts in Whitehall and a raft of social, political and demographic changes and pressures are forcing decisionmakers and public managers to rethink the way services are designed and delivered. “Public service innovation” has become a buzz-term, and councils are at the forefront of attempts to re-design services in the context of massive fiscal squeezes, ageing populations and rising demand for services. This is why 38% of all local authorities in England and Wales applied to be a part of the LG Group and NESTA’s Creative Councils programme last year – with the hope of implementing radical innovations to meet these challenges.

Lest we forget

Blog

27 Jan 2012

Emma Lindley

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. As I write, the phrase is trending on Twitter, as is 'Alain de Botton'.

The untenable defence of unpaid internships by some of the 'charity' sector

Blog

10 Jan 2012

Atif Shafique

Thomas Lyttelton has recently put up a blog defending the use of unpaid internships by the ‘charity’ sector, including the Young Foundation.

The Silver Foundations of the Big Society

Blog

07 Jan 2012

Benedict Dellot

Anyone over the age of 45 may have had the wind taken out of their sails this week. The findings of a longitudinal research study just released by UCL indicate that memory loss begins at a much earlier age than previously thought.