Social Policy: Research Contribution, Methods, and Pressure Groups

This presentation provides an overview of social policy, defining it as the policies within a political or governmental setting that address social services and welfare. It explores the contribution of research to policy initiatives and examines the policy process, including issue identification, policy formulation, adoption, implementation, and evaluation. The presentation highlights the impact of research by Carol Hedderman and Paul Spicker, emphasizing how research informs policy decisions and strengthens the link between research and policy. It also discusses the role of pressure groups in social policy, differentiating between insider and outsider groups. Finally, it outlines various research methods, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, used to contribute to social policy development. The presentation concludes by emphasizing the significance of research and pressure groups in effective policy making and resolving societal issues.

Policy In Context

Table of Content
 Introduction
 Social Policy
 Policy Process
 Contribution of Research to Social Policy
 Role of Pressure Groups in Social Policy
 Research Methods Used to Contribute to Social Policy
 Conclusion
 References

INTRODUCTION
Social policy is defined as the policy within political or governmental
setting like study of social services and welfare state. This presentation
is based on social policy in which the contribution of research to
emergence of policy initiatives and understanding of main methods that
are used by social science researches are included (Crescenzi and Giua,
2016). This presentation includes brief introduction of social policy as
well as the policy process.

Social Policy
Social policy is associated with the ways in which societies exist across
the world mitigate needs of the humans for education, work, security,
health and wellbeing. This policy addresses the way societies and states
respond to the challenges associated with economic, demographic and
social change, and of globalization, migration and poverty that are exist
globally (Antonescu, 2014). The policy analyses distinct roles of
international organisation, and civil society in administering support
and services across the life duration from childhood to old age.

Policy process
The process of policy making include several steps which are
mentioned below:
 Issue identification and agenda developing: Many issues are exist
in the United Kingdom among which few of them make it onto the
agenda of social policy. The issues that move on to agenda of policy
should be first determine salient issues.
 Policy formulation: It is the second stage of process of policy and
includes proposal of answers to the issues of agenda.

Continue…
 Policy Adoption: In this step of the policy process, policies are
accepted by governmental bodies for the future execution (Forster,
International Business Machines Corp, 2016).
 Policy Implementation: It is the second last stage of policy process
in which adopted policies are executed.
 Policy Evaluation: This is the last stage in which the policy must be
evaluated after it was executed.

Contribution of Research to Social Policy
In the research, Carol Hedderman has highly contributed in providing
the knowledge and understanding about various areas through their
research (Crescenzi and Giua, 2016). The research done by Carol
Hedderman states about the reason women going to Prison raised so
steeply. The research done by him brings changes in sentencing
policies as well as government responses towards women offenders. In
the sentencing environment, various legislative changes have been
made which have had significant implications in sentencing of women.

Continue…
In the social policy, research will contribute in making better decisions.
In order to strengthen their link between policy and research,
maximizing the accessibility of study is important (Smith, Hadfield and
Dunne, 2016). The accessibility of research will help in reveling
various interesting things. Research helps the policy maker to think
regarding the concept in different manner. A good research helps the
policy maker in taking appropriate decisions while formulating the
policy.

Continue…
The research done by Paul Spicker is associated with social security
and benefit delivery system. This helps in representing the social
security system of United Kingdom. The research perform by him
highly contribute in improving cruel and punitive welfare in the nation.
The research support the call for better or improved security system all
across the United Kingdom. Social security ensures providing dignity
by decent living wage standard of living (Kannen, 2014).

Role of Pressure Groups in Social Policy
Pressure groups are defined as the association of influence group and
interest groups which are developed to promote interest of people or
their members by exercising all kinds of indirect and direct pressure on
government. These groups are concerned with limited specific interest
understand current from political groups. It does not aim to acquire
power and control the government in direct way (Alexiadou and
Norberg, A., 2017).

Continue…
In United Kingdom, two types of pressure groups are existed including
outsider pressure groups and insider pressure groups. Outsider pressure
groups are those groups whose purpose don't have the support of
government. For capturing the attention of public, de tend to adopt
high-profile campaigns and media based campaigns. On the other hand,
the insider pressure groups get attention and support of officials and
government who will approach them for getting guidance and having
regular discussions (Gamoran and An, 2016).

Research Methods Used to Contribute to
Social Policy
The research methods that can be utilize in research are of three types,
i.e., qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. The selection of these
method is based upon the type of study. In quantitative method,
numerical data or information is gathered by researcher whereas, in
qualitative research method, non-numerical data or information is
collected. On other hand, mixed method is a combination of both
qualitative as well as quantitative research methods (Boeren, 2016).