Communities and demographics
Research Topic
Language: English
This is a research topic created to provide authors with a place to attach new problem publications.
Research topics above this in the hierarchy
Research problems linked to this topic
- What does institutional and departmental data show in terms of patterns in, and potential causes of, disparities in service use between different groups?
- What factors influence the recruitment and retention of teachers at all stages of their careers – particularly in schools that serve disadvantaged communities?
- How can DWP best support places, regions and sectors in levelling up? What approaches work best in addressing employment skills development, employment skills shortages and employment skills mismatches across the UK?
- Improving the flow of community intelligence to the police
- How does creative content affect cultural identity at both the national and local level?
- Do different interventions work for different groups and in different contexts?
- Do these differ regionally or for different groups?
- How can levels of civil society and of pride in place in a local area be increased?
- What are the characteristics of those organisations (charities, youth organisations, social enterprises) working across this space?
- Relationship between extremism and integration, dynamics of friendship/familial and community relationships, and links between hate crime, other societal crimes and extremism.
- What are most effective ways to appropriately account for displacement effects (meaning where the expansion of an activity, such as economic activity, in one location has the effect of bringing about a reduction in that activity elsewhere) of levelling up policies and interventions?
- What are the best ways to measure the ‘softer’ outcomes, such as changes in wellbeing, and how to attach a value to such interventions?
- What motivates people to get involved and active in their area? Some people living in poverty and challenging situations do get involved, many do not; why? What can we do to remove barriers or create better conditions for wider engagement from a broader range of people in areas?
- What is the relationship between different models of hyper-local governance and socio-economic outcomes for individuals and neighbourhoods? i.e. what difference does the presence of neighbourhood governance, which communities are engaged and active in, make in terms of more people in jobs, more volunteering, more stable communities, and thriving high streets?
- How can we better capture the comparable value for money and non-monetised benefits of different community-led initiatives and interventions (including those which seek to strengthen social infrastructure and social capital)?
- What can we learn from COVID-19 about helping local areas to be more resilient to economic, and other, shocks? And what is the impact of changes in demand for land, such as office, retail, housing etc in particular locations?
- What could government do additionally, or differently, to facilitate increased use of its data, and longer-term monitoring of trends?
- What works in ensuring that policies are truly inclusive for all parts of a community or place? And how do we shape our interventions to address the different priorities from place to place, or between groups – e.g. health, transport, jobs, education etc?
- What should be the role of communities in the local devolution agenda? What does the evidence suggest works? Does community involvement in public service delivery at the local tier increase efficiency or effectiveness in achieving public value outcomes?
- What’s the best way of tracking the impact of different funding streams on a place?
- What is the impact of micro individual behaviours and interaction with neighbourhood infrastructure and community spaces in creating the conditions for wider societal outcomes (e.g. health outcomes, crime reduction, climate change)? How can we understand where the marginal gains are to be had, i.e. what is the minimum behaviour change needed that creates significant accumulative impact?
- What factors and conditions increase/decrease the chance of successful community-led initiatives (including those which seek to strengthen social infrastructure and social capital) in areas of high deprivation. What makes some areas with the same socio-economics and demographics achieve different outcomes?
- What are the characteristics of public services that should be devolved to the local tier while strengthening local accountability, and which are best delivered at the national level? What can we learn from international comparisons?
- What is the emerging evidence of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economies and productivity of cities and regions, coastal/rural, and deprived areas? How does this vary across the different parts of the UK?
- What innovative methods are being developed on evaluation approaches, which could be applied to our different policy areas? Which experimental and quasi experimental methods can we look to which could be applied to our areas? Are there examples we can showcase and learn from?
- Who is currently engaged with neighbourhood governance (in terms of demographics) and what are the gaps, patterns, trends, needs and preferences of different groups?
- What can we learn from local authority social cohesion strategies about what works to counter-extremism, promote greater community resilience, tolerance and trust? And what benefits does this bring to a place?
- How can we better assess the benefits of an electoral system that is less vulnerable to fraud e.g. in terms of increased trust in government at all levels?
- What does a directly-elected mayor in England need in order to be most effective? Does this differ depending on whether the mayor is of an individual local authority or a combined authority in England?
- What specific measures would most increase efficiency in electoral registration for administrators?
- What does ‘good’ look like for engagement of citizens in the performance and accountability of their local authority? What methods and approaches work best and what can we do to improve citizen engagement?”
- What does the evidence show about stability or changes in the population’s identification with local democratic institutions and the strength of their democratic engagement? How has that changed during the pandemic and how is it likely to change in the wider context over the next few years? What does the international evidence show, given the different governance structures?
- What can we learn from best practice in public service delivery from across the UK?
- What does good design and delivery of local public services to better meet the needs of those from different ethnic backgrounds look like?
- What has the pandemic taught us are the necessary pre-conditions for effective devolution of a public service to the local tier? Within that, what has the pandemic taught us about how accountability, such as managing public money, should be managed? And where does the evidence show that centralisation is more appropriate?
- What are the skills challenges and opportunities related to net zero, and how do they differ by geography?
- To what extent is housing tenure (e.g. social rented, private rented, home ownership etc) driven by choice? What drives people’s choices? For example, is private renting seen as a ‘stepping-stone’ to home ownership? And how does this vary across different geographical areas?
- What is the role of commercial property development in supporting growth in places? And what does the evidence suggest about how this may change going forward?
- What are the best ways of ensuring local growth interventions benefit intended beneficiaries in an area (e.g. disadvantaged local residents) rather than inward commuters?
- What can we learn from the COVID-19 shielding programme and other programmes that supported our most vulnerable groups during the pandemic? What were the costs and benefits of different interventions?
- What are the likely longer-term consequences of COVID-19 for vulnerable groups and communities in terms of the volume and type of need? What new considerations does this introduce in terms of central government’s role, and that of other levels of government and other providers?
- How does well-being matter in the context of levelling up? What are the most effective levers for government (central and local) to affect well-being? How does well-being interact with other place based interventions such as housing and regeneration?
- What is the evidence that culture-led regeneration is effective?
- What does the evidence show about how the pandemic has affected people’s preferences about where they live and where they are able to work (e.g. rural areas versus cities)? How are these preferences different across cohorts, such as socio-economic, and locations? Are any such trends likely to be long-term?
- What does the evidence show are the factors that create the greatest potential to build agglomeration economies that benefit local areas and residents in question? And what are the key elements that bring agglomeration benefits– housing, transport, local skills, R&D and business dynamics? Are there costs to agglomeration that that worsen outcomes for residents and neighbouring areas?
- How can government finance regeneration and recycle the benefits to reduce the costs to taxpayers?
- Following COVID, the shift to online retail and increasing densification of cities, what does the evidence show that sustainable urban living looks like, to cater to society’s economic, environmental and social needs?
- To what extent, and how, can regeneration drive productivity, including the contribution from physical and broader regeneration initiatives?
- What are the international examples of effective interventions to regenerate town centres and cities? What does this show us about the roles of the public and private sectors, the type of investment required, and in different contexts?
- What more we can do to improve the evidence base for local decision-makers, and to deepen our knowledge of the interactions between different aspects of society and the economy that have led to economic and social disparities?
- What does the evidence show is most effective in improving economic, social and other outcomes for Mayoral Combined Authorities in terms of devolved powers, budgets and accountabilities?
- Which factors, or characteristics, make some areas perform better than others at different spatial scale (towns, cities, regions)?
- What are the estimated social gains to R&D in the UK? What is the estimated value of spillovers, and how important is geographical proximity to their capture?
- What are the determinants of people’s subjective sense of satisfaction in the place in which they live? What matters most to different cohorts at different times in their lives in different places?
- What behavioural and technical interventions will improve the safety of public spaces and the public’s perception of their safety?
- Better understand and quantify the extent to which investment in grassroots facilities improves participation, including for underrepresented groups and in different parts of the country.
- Examine how sport, and interventions in sport, affect pride in place, levelling up, and other wider societal outcomes.
- What works in terms of improving diversity (defined as representation of protected characteristics and socio-demographic background to the UK population) within the creative industries sectors’ workforce to bring it closer to being representative of the UK workforce and audiences?
- What are the benefits of greater equality of access?
- Who accesses the services of charitable and voluntary organisations and social enterprises?
- What are the benefits of increased levels of civil society participation and of pride in place, overall and in more localised areas?
- What works in addressing barriers and increasing engagement of specific groups?
- What are the barriers to different groups engaging with civil society and youth sectors?
- What are the impacts of lower/greater rates of engagement with voluntary sectors?
- What are engagement levels across different groups?
- How can collaboration between organisations, commissioners and other funders across CSY sectors and actors be enhanced at local levels to support better outcomes?
- What is the level of voluntary, community and social enterprise resilience at the sector level?
- What services are provided by those within this sector and how can these be enhanced?
- Analyse and explain the role and drivers of AHT sectors in creating a greater sense of pride in place in communities?
- What are the social and cultural impacts of digital engagement and how do they differ from or compliment physical engagement?
- How can schools and local partners work together effectively to reduce persistent and severe absence?
- What interventions can support communities to tap into and take ownership of social investment at local and “hyper-local” levels?
- How do issues related to CSY’s policy responsibilities affect pride in place and social capital at the local level?
- What principles should be used to delegate responsibilities to local communities, and how can these areas be empowered to deliver?
- What are the major barriers to volunteering for different demographic groups?
- Supporting partners and communities to reduce crime and vulnerability
- To what extent does greater voluntary, community and social enterprise participation in procurement lead to better outcomes for people and communities including young people?
- What is the quality and value of services provided by the sector, relative to those offered by other sectors (eg. public sector)?
- What are the drivers of demand for services in this sector taking into account the needs of different groups?
- What affects and supports resilience at the organisational level?
- What might a new more effective/efficient approach or dynamic between central government, local authorities and other partners (including communities/residents themselves) look like, and how could this help to improve specific outcomes in a place?
- How representative are existing governance structures (elected and appointed) of the communities they seek to represent, and what are the impacts of that? What are the barriers and enablers of good representation of communities in their governance structures?
- What can DLUHC learn from other organisations who are using a data science approach? What drives organisations to develop cutting edge data science? And how can this support delivery in our policy areas?
- Which methods could be best implemented and provide robust estimates of in person engagement with cultural events, especially when activities are unticketed?
- How can we better monitor and evaluate the impacts of road schemes, and other large-scale infrastructure projects, on the local environment and those who use and live in that that environment e.g., on cultural heritage sites in the area; on local residents, in terms of well-being and on local biodiversity?
- What is the potential for using ethnographic and qualitative techniques to support policy development, so it is more user centred and we understand our customers’ needs better?
- What are the alternative data sources, from outside government, that would help DLUHC answer any of the questions outlined in this ARI document? What is the evidence that these sources can provide additional value?
- How can counterfactuals (against which to assess the impact of policy interventions across different spatial levels) best be defined and measured?
- How should the change in value of an amenity best be assessed where a change of use of a property takes effect (for example, where it becomes housing)?
- What analytical approaches can best demonstrate the impact and value of policies that seek to prevent such problems arising?
- What examples are there of methods that can best help the department to manage future uncertainty (such as a pandemic), to improve its performance and resilience?
- How can we ensure an elections and registration system that is accessible for all, and maintains integrity, public confidence and trust through minimal potential for fraud?
- What can we learn from international models of local social infrastructure, local governance and devolution of power to communities?
- What does the evidence show are the principal causes of deprivation?
- How can government (central and local government) systems and processes work more effectively, to build a more integrated and socially cohesive society
- What are the factors which make integration and cohesion mutually beneficial? And what community capacity/development is most effective to support that?
- What work has already been done to bring together evidence and analysis comparing impact of policy variation in different policy areas across the UK?
- What is the evidence on which decision making structures (at which geographies) work best to deliver effective public services to citizens and level up communities?
- What interventions effectively incentivise and support local councils in England to improve performance?
- What are the most effective ways to identify and measure climate risk to communities?
- What role can the planning system play in supporting levelling up? What are its limits?
- How might the COVID-19 pandemic affect homelessness and rough sleeping in the longer term?
- What emerging evidence is there about the future housing market in a post-pandemic world? And how will net zero carbon emission homes affect this?
- How is the strategic regeneration of large areas best managed over the long term?
- More generally, what international evidence could be relevant to inform decisions in the UK?