Research strategies in social service departments of local authorities in Great Britain

Abstract

In the public service a research strategy is specifically designed to yield information of value to policy-making, that is to management. This is the only ground on which the expenditure of public funds can be justified. The kind of research which I am discussing therefore is not the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake; it is research that is an integral and inseparable part of management. Because research has not often, in the past, been properly related to and integrated with management, it has tended to be regarded as an expendable fringe activity; to be restrained at all times and sacrificed in time of stringency (usually when it is most necessary). This is especially true of local government and the researchers (particularly the research directors) are often as much to blame as their political masters.