Reefer madness: seeking the links between evidence, policy and practice
| Published date | 29 January 2010 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.5042/jcs.2010.0016 |
| Pages | 2-5 |
| Date | 29 January 2010 |
| Author | Nick Gould,Ian Butler |
*OURNALOF #HILDRENS 3ERVICESs 6OLUME )SSUE s$ECE MBER¥ 0IER0ROFE SSIONAL,TD
2
10.5042/jcs.2010.0016
of ‘children’s services’ brings people together
from a very wide range of professional and
disciplinary traditions, occupational cultures and
political orientations. These varied perspectives
are reflected in contrasting experiences of using
evidence and different views of what constitutes
evidence, how its quality is judged and how it
should be used. Just as there are a variety of
policies, so there are a variety of ‘evidences’.
We wanted to use the opportunity of the special
edition to explore and articulate any points of
consensus and difference and to consider their
implications for research, policy and practice. We
invited a range of authors who would be able to
contribute at contrasting levels of analysis, from
the abstract and theoretical to the concrete and
empirical.
Every government establishes the approach
to evidence that it needs; as Gouldner (1973)
noted, the ‘flag of truth’ always stands for one
set of ideologies or another (p65). For New
Labour in its early incarnation, it seemed that the
relationship between evidence and the production
and delivery of public policy was linear, rational
and transparent. Thus, the evidence base for a
programme such as Sure Start existed and the
projects could be rolled out with confidence that
they would work. Similarly, the National Institute
for Health and Clinical Evidence (NICE), followed
later by the Social Care Institute for Excellence
(SCIE), would be able to follow the methods
established in evidence-based medicine by the
likes of Archie Cochrane, David Sackett and
others. They would simply be able to search for
high quality evidence, meta-analyse it and publish
Sometime authors or editors get lucky; a
serendipitous event makes their arcane field of
interest appear precisely attuned to the zeitgeist.
We were in the latter stages of editing this special
issue of the Journal of Children’s Services when the
UK Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, announced
that he was sacking Professor David Nutt, the
chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of
Drugs. Professor Nutt’s crime had been to restate
in a public lecture the finding of his committee’s
review of the scientific evidence that the relative
level of risk posed by consumption of cannabis
was at odds with the statutory categorisation of
dangerous drugs. He had, in the view of the Home
Secretary, crossed the line between giving scientific
advice and seeking to influence government policy.
Such a sharp distinction between ‘scientific
evidence’ and ‘policy’ seems to take us a long
way from 1997 when the newly elected Labour
government set out to champion the idea of
evidence-based policy and practice. Government
ministers personally visited our own university
faculty to discuss social policy and listen to the
analyses of academics on such subjects as pensions
policy and international development. The
journey from innocence to experience and to the
sacking of Nutt has been described by no less an
establishment figure than Lord Krebs, the former
chair of the Food Standards Agency, as ‘reefer
madness’ (Times Higher Education Supplement, 12
November 2009).
The intention of this special issue is to focus
on the nature, quality and use of evidence in
the development of children’s services. Our
starting point was that public policy in the field
Reefer madness: seeking
the links between evidence,
policy and practice
Nick Gould and Ian Butler
University of Bath, UK
Editorial
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting