2. Open Policy Making is about opening up the policy process to
new ways of thinking and doing policy, to ensure that we
prepare policy advice for Ministers that is:
Drawn from the best possible evidence
Informed by a range of views and cutting edge thinking
Considered from the user perspective; and
Agile, tested and iterated in the real world
3. It matters because the standard of policy making is not consistent.
Often policy advice is based on too narrow a range of input and
views, prepared behind closed doors and poorly implemented. We
need to:
Acknowledge that we don’t have monopoly on policy making:
we don’t always have the answers
we don’t always know what will work
we often take too long to find new ideas and solutions and put
them to practice
4. This is compounded by the pace of change. We need to turn to
new tools and techniques for policy making to ensure it is cutting
edge, innovative and works:
The world is increasingly networked and the digital revolution and
advance of social media means that we need to understand how to
make policy in a digital age
We need to be more curious and collaborative in our approach and
allow others to come and help solve problems that are deeply
interconnected and complex
We need to learn from approaches and disciplines outside of the civil
service and bring in new insights and expertise
5. Open Policy Making is therefore about better policy making - being
open to new ideas, new ways of working, new insights, new evidence
and experts – through:
1. Broadening the range of people we engage with
2. Using the latest analytical techniques and trends
3. Taking agile, more iterative approaches to implementation
The open policy maker is:
humblehumble – recognising that the civil service
does not have a monopoly on expertise
networkednetworked and collaborative; and
digitally engageddigitally engaged
6. 1. Broadening the range of people we engage with means:
Being networked and connected to experts, thought leaders,
stakeholders and users on an on-going basis
Understanding cutting edge or world class thinking - in the UK or
internationally
Going where the dialogue or debate is already taking place, using
tools like:
• Social media engagement
• Crowd sourcing
• E-consultations
• Collaborative policy processes
7. 2. Using the latest analytical techniques and trends means:
Understanding benefits from insights such as behavioural economics
Being open to new disciplines and learning from other sectors e.g.
design thinking and user led design
Understanding new evidence from What Works centres and data
science
Taking account of wellbeing analysis
Understanding different models for solving problems such as co-
design and co-production
8. 3. Taking Agile, more iterative approaches to implementation
Designing policy with implementation in mind, including rapid or
real time feedback
Adopting Agile (at pace), more iterative approaches and testing
early “prototypes” to ensure better outcomes
Understanding benefits of Randomised Control Trials (RCTs)
Using scenario modelling to anticipate outcomes
9. What Open Policy Making is NOT
A one size fits all approach
A quick fix
Something new and different to good policy making
Synonymous with “public” i.e. being open about everything, to
everyone all of the time
Crowd sourcing or wikis
Something only digital experts can do
10. Open Policy Making is underpinned by a mindset that starts with the
recognition that openness generally is better, but recognises that this
depends on licence and policy context e.g. a spectrum of possibilities
10
Policy contextPolicy context
Sensitive/ classified Public/ routine
LicencetoinnovateLicencetoinnovate
LowHigh
Broadening the range of people we engage with
Using the latest analytical techniques and trends
Taking Agile, more iterative approaches to
implementation
Multidisciplinary team - external
Evidence
gathering
Expert engagement
Consultation
Public engagement
Internal challenge, e.g. policy scrums
Scenario testing
Testing, iterating
Coproduction
Insight tools e.g. ethnography
Bring in external expertise
Stakeholder segmentation
Design tools e.g. user journeys
Crowd sourcing
Publishing the evidence
Policy Labs, “hubs”
Social media listening
Data science
