WGPlus (Archive)

Government trying to stop ‘re-inventing the wheel’

Cabinet Office Minister Grant Shapps has announced that £bns of taxpayers’ money could be saved & spent more effectively thanks to findings from the government backed What Works Centres.  The What Works Network, set up in 2013, was created to allow policy decisions to be made based on robust & insightful evidence allowing government and local decision makers to improve public services while making sure that taxpayers’ money is spent effectively.

One of the key roles of the Network is to take complex & previously inaccessible evidence findings and turn them into practical and useable tools for decision makers.  Top findings from the What Works report include:

  • more lives could be saved or improved if people with acute heart failure were routinely treated by specialist heart failure teams
  • the use of peer tutoring in schools, where young people work together in small groups, has a high positive impact on achievement
  • repeating a year at school is an expensive intervention that has consistently been found to have a negative impact on attainment
Researched Links:
Spotlight on women at Serco – Anita’s story