Public Policy Research Papers and Resources

Critical Analysis for Big Data Studies in Construction: Significant Gaps in Knowledge

Published: December 2020

Author: Upeksha Hansini Madanayake, Charles Egbu,

A significant rise in construction big data research is identified with an increasing trend in number of yearly articles. The main themes discussed in this paper are big data as a concept, big data analytical methods/techniques, big data opportunities – challenges and big data application. The paper emphasises “the implication of big data into overall sustainability” as a gap that needs to be addressed. These implications are categorised as social, economic and environmental aspects.

Energy and sustainability

Digital Dangers and Cyber Victimisation: A Study of European Adolescent Online Risky Behaviour For Sexual Exploitation

Published: December 2020

Author: Jeffrey Nicholas DeMarco, Carly Cheevers, Julia Davidson, Stefan Bogaerts, Ugo Pace, Mary Aiken, Vincenzo Caretti, Adriano Schimmenti, Antonia Bifulco,

The engagement and use of Information and Communications Technologies has increased exponentially across societies worldwide with implications for social and psychological development in young people. In this context, the risk of negative sexual experience and victimisation online is known to have real world consequences for young people. This paper seeks to: explore the nature of adolescent risk taking online behaviour from a group of young adults in different European countries; develop types of online risk profiles; explore the impact of help-seeking and to consider the potential real world harmful consequences.

Justice and home affairs Local government and communities

Energy-efficient Retrofit of Social Housing in the UK: Lessons Learned from a Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) in Nottingham

Published: December 2020

Author:

One of the long-term challenges outlined within the UK Government’s Energy White Paper (2011) is to cut both greenhouse gas emissions and energy bills by improving household energy efficiency. As such, several energy-related initiatives have, in recent years, been promoted including the Community Energy Saving Programme. This paper explores how patterns of user consumption as influenced by occupant awareness and behaviour, can both positively and negatively influence policy initiative delivery.

Built environment Energy and sustainability

Quality of English inpatient mental health services for people with anxiety or depressive disorders

Published: December 2020

Author: D.S. Baldwin, M. Dang, L. Farquharson, N. Fitzpatrick, N. Lindsay, A. Quirk, E. Rhodes, P. Shah, R. Williams, M.J. Crawford,

Clinical audit is a sustained cyclical quality improvement process seeking to improve patient care and outcomes by evaluating services against explicit standards and implementing necessary changes. National audits aim to improve population-level clinical care by identifying unwarranted variations and making recommendations for clinicians, managers and service commissioners. The National Clinical Audit of Anxiety and Depression aimed to improve clinical care for people admitted to English hospitals for treatment of anxiety and depression, to provide comparative data on quality of care, and to support local quality improvement initiatives by identifying and sharing examples of best practice.

Health and social care

The Impact of Academies on School Connectedness, Future Aspirations and Mental Health in Adolescents from Areas of Deprivation in London

Published: January 2017

Author: Caroline Frostick, Jin Tong, Derek Moore, Adrian Renton, Gopalakrishnan Netuveli,

Research shows that school environment impacts significantly on students’ mental health, future aspirations and feelings of school connectedness, which in turn can improve academic outcomes. The UK has seen rising numbers of academy schools in recent years which have been scrutinised for academic performance but overlooked in terms of important aspects of school environment. This paper compares outcomes for mental health, school connectedness and future aspirations in low-socioeconomic status adolescents attending academy and non-academy schools.

Education and employment Health and social care

Cybercrime and Risks for Cyber Physical Systems

Published: December 2020

Author: Abel Yeboah-Ofori, Dr. Jamal-Deen Abdulai, Dr. Ferdinand Katsriku,

Major industries such as industrial plants, transport, national grid, and communication systems depend heavily on Cyber Physical Systems for financial and economic growth. However, these systems may have inherent threats and vulnerabilities on them that may run the risk of being attacked, manipulated or exploited by cyber attackers and commit cybercrimes. This paper seeks to identify cybercrimes and risks that are associated with a smart grid business application system to determine the motives and intents of the cybercriminal.

Justice and home affairs

Academic Ableism in Higher Education

Published: January 2021

Author: Dr. Shrehan Lynch, Dr. John Macklin,

This paper argues that universities and by extension all educational establishments need to address inequitable systems and pedagogic practices to ensure they promote inclusive opportunities, where achievement and success are available to all students and staff. Part of this process includes reflecting to ensure we do not replicate cultural and societal norms concerning disability.

Education and employment

Inclusive Growth: the Economy, Wellbeing, Agency and a Comprehensive Green Agenda.

Published: February 2021

Author: Adrian Webb,

A Post Covid19 Vision: Executive Summary. An economic strategy cannot stand-alone; it must drive a wider vision. The emerging Welsh vision includes renewal based on economic, social and environmental justice. That should have merit beyond Wales. So how could the Welsh commitment be developed as a wider national coherent programme for renewal? Four great upheavals currently shape our future and our daily lives: globalisation, Brexit, Covid-19, and the implications of climate change and the existential threats to the natural world. To build back better we must learn lessons from each of them. None of them are indiscriminate. All affect nearly everyone but bear most heavily upon the poor and the vulnerable and accentuate huge pre-existing inequalities.

Built environment Education and employment Energy and sustainability Justice and home affairs Local government and communities

Socitm Policy briefing - Digital trends in local public services 2021

Published: February 2021

Author: Jos Creese,

The report, produced in association with the Linked Organisation of Local Authority ICT Societies (LOLA) and Major Cities of Europe (MCE), takes a distinctive position, focusing on local public service and place-making outcomes. Easy to digest key messages are set within detailed analysis from author and Socitm associate director Jos Creese, who describes what the digital future holds, following the rapid public sector response to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Supported with personal contributions from UK local authorities and others around the world, the report provides a comprehensive look at the opportunities for the public sector. It highlights the crucial role of local authorities in helping communities to reset, reform and renew themselves and to become more resilient to future shocks.

Built environment Education and employment Energy and sustainability Health and social care Justice and home affairs Local government and communities

Bentley White Paper - Going Digital with Big Data

Published: May 2020

Author: Mark Coates,

The British government believes that the data economy is crucial to the United Kingdom’s growth and future prosperity, with data benefitting the economy by up to GBP 241 billion (USD 295 billion) by 2020. In addition, the British government believes that the effective use of data could create GBP 66 billion (USD 80 billion) of new business and innovation opportunities in the United Kingdom. In the construction industry, big data refers to the huge quantities of information that have been stored in the past and that continue to be acquired today. This data can and will come from a range of people, sensors, computers, machines, and any other data-generating device. This Bentley white paper investigates how to harness the value of big data to improve design, construction and operation.

Energy and sustainability

Bentley White Paper - Why You Should Avoid Data Silos for Truer Project Oversight

Published: May 2020

Author: Mark Coates,

Since the start of the 21st century, the market and industry experts have told us that data should unlock value. However, are we using it in its present form to free up time and resources for other useful activities? We know that male site workers in construction are three times more likely to commit suicide than the average UK male, so should data give us back some breathing space? Gartner has forecast that, by 2021, artificial intelligence (AI) augmentation should generate GBP 2.3 trillion (USD 2.8 trillion) in business value and recover billions of worker productivity hours. This Bentley white paper outlines why we should stop fixing piecemeal problems and look at the entire ecosystem to unlock the value of data.

Energy and sustainability

Bentley White Paper - Single Source of Truth

Published: May 2020

Author: Mark Coates,

With so many data inputs and sensors, it has never been more important for designers and contractors to use a single source of truth. Recently in New York City, we learned that the building of glass skyscrapers could be banned as part of a bid to cut greenhouse emissions by 30%. Mayor Bill de Blasio said that all-glass facade skyscrapers are “incredibly inefficient” because so much energy escapes through the glass. This Bentley white paper outlines how a single source of truth can transform the infrastructure design industry.

Energy and sustainability

Bentley White Paper - Why You Need to Get the Design Process Correct

Published: May 2020

Author: Mark Coates,

Today's use of data and 3D models, can actually make things more complicated than now outdated means of keeping data records on paper. However, there is a solution for avoiding these complications. Software like ProjectWise and SYNCHROTM let the design team build in 3D before actually building and distributing that data in a controlled and collaborative way. This practice not only improves commu-nication between stakeholders and the entire design team but can also reduce the stress of the variations present on every project. We know from our studies, as well as the ones conducted by companies like McKinsey, that 20% of larger projects overrun and 80% go over budget. This Bentley white paper outlines how a single source of truth can streamline your design process for better project delivery.

Energy and sustainability

Bentley White Paper - Poorly Communicated Design Information is Costing Your Projects

Published: May 2020

Author: Mark Coates,

If you read some of the international studies on how much rework is costing the construction industry, these reports suggest that the measured direct costs of avoidable errors are approximately 5% of the project value. Working that figure into the wider market, this percentage adds up to approximately GBP 5 billion (USD 6.1 billion) per annum across the United Kingdom. If you then account for the number of profit warnings being issued, this value is a higher than the average profit levels of most of the contractors working in the tier-one market. This Bentley White Paper explores how construction projects are becoming more complex and why a connected data environment is the solution.

Energy and sustainability

Freshworks Accelerating Digital Transformation in Public Sector

Published: March 2021

Author: Freshworks,

The world is currently transitioning through a period of change. A time where technology has taken front seat in enabling every-day functioning. The pandemic may have influenced or acceleratedthis change, but the fact is that time proved to be a launchpad for adoption of technology. The wait in the wings is over.

Built environment Education and employment Energy and sustainability Health and social care Justice and home affairs Local government and communities

Bentley White Paper - How Going Digital Can Reverse Your Engineering Challenges

Published: May 2020

Author: Mark Coates,

Nearly all engineering, architecture, and construction (AEC) professionals focus on finding new ways to increase margins and reduce liability in their businesses. As technology moves so quickly, it can be difficult because there are so many available sources of information. It becomes a case of making time to use it. But how does it relate to our day-to-day market? This Bentley White Paper explores why connected data environments don’t just talk the talk but also walk the walk on your construction projects.

Energy and sustainability

Bentley White Paper - How Insurers and Banks Will Drive BIM for Asset Management

Published: June 2020

Author: Mark Coates,

Do you know what’s inside your building and what it’s made of? Do you have the data to verify it? Insurers are starting to ask, and BIM holds the key.

Energy and sustainability

Bentley White Paper - Reimaging the Office After COVID

Published: June 2020

Author: Mark Coates,

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the office was where millions of us spent just under a third of our average working week sat behind a desk of sorts. Since the lockdown, however, of the 32.6 million in employment in the UK, around 8.7 million people say that they have worked from home; this is less than 30% of the workforce. Some companies have already intermated that this situation could become the future. With the easing of the lockdown, what is the “new normal” for site construction and maintenance?

Energy and sustainability

Bentley TwinTalks #13 Highlights: Advancing BIM through Digital Twins

Published: April 2021

Author: Mark Coates, Antony Oliver,

Highlights from an interview with Rachel Skinner, president of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Rachel Skinner is the 156th president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the youngest-ever president and only the second woman to hold the post in its 203-year history. In her presidential address, Skinner highlighted the overwhelming need for infrastructure professionals to place tackling climate change and meeting global net-zero carbon targets at the heart of their decisions. She warned that, as a profession and as a society, “We still aren’t doing enough about the biggest, most urgent, and most complex problem to ever face the world.”

Energy and sustainability

What is the moral purpose of education research?

Published: May 2021

Author: Professor Sonia Blandford,

Professor Sonia Blandford has had a firm belief throughout her research journey: that education research has a moral purpose strongly related to the moral purpose of education, to improve the lives of all learners. Fairly confident in her own position, Sonia put this question to colleagues engaged in education and education research to collate and analyse the responses.

Education and employment

Policy ‘Meandering’: The Influence of Mental Health and Well-being in Educational Policies

Published: March 2021

Author: Danilo Di Emidio,

This article contextualizes, and contests, the use of the terms mental health (MH) and well-being in ideologically driven educational policies and practices, market oriented, individualistic and measurable. Alongside an unprecedented worldwide trend to establish an educational ‘turn’, so called ‘therapeutic education’, it is argued that educational policies in the UK have arbitrarily merged, or ‘yoked’, the terms MH and well-being with ethical implication for policy implementation.Through ethnographic and participative methodologies, involving the main social actors to mobilize expert knowledge in two educational settings, the ‘yoking’ of MH with well-being becomes apparent and catalyst for further yoking. Hence, more policies and new concepts emerge as manipulations of school/colleges’ initiatives, such as achieving good results or promoting ‘character’ to engineer next generation citizenry. Juxtaposing the terms MH and well-being to education calls for clearer re-definitions of the aims of education.Every effort should be made by policy makers to keep the two terms independent from each other and well-articulated with performance indicators such as resilience that do not undermine the value of vulnerability. New definitions of MH and well-being should guide policy making and implementation in schools/colleges, to avoid lumping up together heterogeneous and multilayered terms that deserve distinct attention and application.

Education and employment Health and social care

The Future of Local Government 2021 Post-Event Report

Published: June 2021

Author: Institute of Government & Public Policy,

The Institute of Government & Public Policy organised and hosted The Future of Local Government 2021 with the aim of exchanging expert knowledge, opinions, as well as updates on developments regarding the Local Government’s current services, mechanisms, and practices as well as their future outlook. The post-event report includes a summary of the event, results of the live consultation questions, plus case study reports from the event exhibitors.

Local government and communities

Race, Inclusion, and Diversity in the Workplace 2021 Post-Event Report

Published: June 2021

Author: Institute of Government & Public Policy,

The Institute of Government & Public Policy organised and hosted the Race, Inclusion, & Diversity in the Workplace 2021 on the 27th of May 2021. The event was conducted online due to current restrictions surrounding COVID-19, and hosted 13 speakers and was attended by 447 delegates. The post-event report includes a summary of the event, and results of the live consultation questions.

Built environment Education and employment Energy and sustainability Health and social care Justice and home affairs Local government and communities

Building A Better Social Housing Future 2021 Post-Event Report

Published: June 2021

Author: Institute of Government & Public Policy,

The Institute of Government & Public Policy organised and hosted the event of “Building a Better Social Housing Future 2021” with the aim of exchanging expert knowledge, opinions, as well as updates on developments regarding the Social Housing sector in the United Kingdom. The event took place on the 21st of April 2021. The event hosted 119 delegates and 12 speakers from central and local government, as well as the social housing sector. The post-event report includes a summary of the event.

Built environment

The Future of Higher Education 2021 Post-Event Report

Published: July 2021

Author: Institute of Government & Public Policy,

The Institute of Government and Public Policy organised and hosted The Future of Higher Education 2021 with the aim of exchanging expert knowledge, opinions, as well as updates on developments around the Higher Education sector in the United Kingdom. Addressing the key issues and challenges is more important than ever as the sector has been severely impacted by and adapted to the current pandemic and its consequences. The event took place on the 27th, 28th, and 29th of April 2021, hosting 169 delegates and 19 speakers from the Higher Education Sector, consultancies, non-governmental organisations, and universities. The post-event report includes a summary of the event, and results of the live consultation questions.

Education and employment

Research

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