Reflections and observations: An interview with the UK's first Chief Government Social Researcher

Abstract

Sue Duncan's civil service career spans thirty years; she has held posts in Communities and Local Government, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. While at the Cabinet Office, she worked in the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit and was Director of Policy Studies in the Centre for Management and Policy Studies, where she was responsible for good practice in policy making, research and evaluation and for evidence-based policy making. For much of her career she was in the Government Social Research (GSR) service, where she worked closely with senior civil servants and Ministers, providing research-based advice and policy analysis to inform government decision making. Her GSR career culminated in her appointment as the first ever Chief Government Social Researcher, responsible for the thousand or so social researchers working across government. Sue is an active player in the wider research community and has served on numerous committees in the academic, commercial and public sector. She was a Commissioner and a Fellow of the Market Research Society, a member of the Social Research Association and an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University. She has written and lectured widely on policy, research, research utilization and evidence-based policy making and now works as an independent consultant. The interview which follows draws out the themes of Sue's presentation as part of the Plenary Panel, `Sociology, Politics and Public Policy in 21st Century Britain' given to the British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2007 at the University of East London. In the interview, Sue reflects upon the connections between research, politics, sociology, and policy making as well as her own role in taking forwards the Modernising Government agenda of the `New' Labour governments.