This workshop aims to deepen understanding of how diverse factors and policy areas interact to support or undermine aspirations for an Inclusive Economy in Sheffield . The workshop will focus on further developing the Inclusive and Sustainable Economy work already happening in Sheffield using a participatory systems mapping approach.
The workshop is a central part of the 5-year SIPHER Consortium research project led by the University of Sheffield, which brings together scientists across six universities, three government partners, including Sheffield City Council, and ten practice partners, including Sheffield City Partnership and Learn Sheffield. SIPHER is taking a new systems-science approach to policy effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, developing new insights into complex cause and effect relationships and establishing new ways of working, integrating academics and policy partners.
The workshop has three core objectives:
- To stimulate collective thinking about the city as a system within which an inclusive and sustainable economy sits, involving policymakers, analysts and scientific experts.
- To confirm the factors that policy and analysis communities in Sheffield believe are important in working towards an inclusive economy. These could be factors that are influenced by city policies, intangible factors within the city, or factors that come from outside (e.g. from central government or the global economy).
- To capture beliefs about the interactions between these factors where the key interactions are and what is the direction and size of effect of these interactions.
Outputs and next steps:
- A whole-system map of the drivers of an inclusive economy in Sheffield. This map will be digitised, owned by the city, and made available in future strategy discussions.
- SIPHER researchers will perform rapid reviews on critical or contentious areas of the map to provide additional evidence on likely sizes and directions of effect.
- SIPHER researchers will perform network analysis on the map to identify the major points of influence and which outcomes are resilient or susceptible to change.
- The above outputs will be brought together into a co-developed policy/decision support tool for Sheffield enabling benefits or success across sectors to be quantified.
- SIPHER will provide support and capability building to enable the outputs to be used beyond the timescales of the project.
For some workshop participants this is the next opportunity to inform and shape the work of SIPHER, whilst for others we hope this is the start of ongoing engagement and input into SIPHER.
Further information on the workshop will be shared here as we get closer to the event.