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This article theorises how behavioural public administration can help improve our understanding of frontline policy implementation. The human factors that characterise policy implementation remain undertheorised: individual variation in policy implementation is dismissed as mere "noise" that hinders predictability in policy implementation. This article aims to fill this gap. We provide a model for street level decision-making which outlines the role of heuristics and biases in frontline workers' allocation of resources and sanctions. Based on an analysis of the behavioural and street-level bureaucracy literature, we present 11 testable propositions that point to predictable patterns in the ways that bounded rationality influences policy implementation and outcomes. Heuristics can help hard-pressed frontline public service workers to make decisions but may also produce social inequity or inefficient or ineffective service. Therefore, we need to improve understanding of biases that are common among frontline workers in order to inform the development of appropriate mitigation strategies, such as de-biasing or even 're-biasing' (nudging).

This paper discusses both challenges and opportunities for using inquiry-based learning in public administration postgraduate education in a context of internationalisation. In particular, we discuss the appropriateness of inquiry-based learning for teaching diverse groups of students from varied international backgrounds. Inquiry-based learning has been widely promoted in the United Kingdom higher education sector and seems intuitively appealing as a pedagogical approach for an applied subject such as public administration. However, there are challenges associated with using inquiry-based learning with postgraduate international students who have a short time to assimilate complex theories and concepts in a second language, and have often been educated previously in contexts with a more didactic tradition of education. With the increasing internationalisation of the United Kingdom higher education sector, we suggest there is tension between some of the teaching and learning methods that are being promoted nationally and the needs of an increasingly diverse international student body. Reflecting on our own experiences as teachers of international students on public administration programmes, we outline both the benefits and limitations of teaching with inquiry-based learning but also suggest ways in which this type of approach could be assimilated within the broader set of pedagogical practices used with international postgraduate students.

We evaluate a theory of the effects of publishing performance information on citizens' collective voice to local providers about public service performance and the perceptions and attitudes that influence their voice. Field experiments show that information about low absolute and relative performance of local government household waste recycling services lowers citizens' perceptions of performance, and information about high absolute and relative performance raises perceived performance. Relative information makes citizens judge local providers as being more responsible for outcomes in the case of high performance, suggesting that systems for comparative performance reporting increase local accountability for outcomes. Negativity bias is evident, with information about low absolute performance reducing citizens' satisfaction but information about high performance not raising satisfaction. Information about low performance did not trigger collective voice protest behaviour as hypothesized, suggesting that providers who need citizens' collective voice the most do not get it.

English
Despite growing awareness of and enthusiasm for evidence-based practice (EBP) among front-line social care staff employed by member agencies of the Centre for Evidence-based Social Services, using evidence in practice is a demanding task. This article highlights some of the challenges to evidence-based practice experienced by those involved in its implementation, which can be characterised as cultural, infrastructural and practical. Despite these hurdles, creative, practical steps have been taken by social care staff to promote EBP within their workplaces, and these are briefly summarised.

Despite growing awareness of & enthusiasm for evidence-based practice (EBP) among front-line social care staff employed by member agencies of the Centre for Evidence-based Social Services, using evidence in practice is a demanding task. This article highlights some of the challenges to evidence-based practice experienced by those involved in its implementation, which can be characterised as cultural, infrastructural & practical. Despite these hurdles, creative, practical steps have been taken by social care staff to promote EBP within their workplaces, & these are briefly summarised. 8 References. Adapted from the source document.

In this article we compare the effect of two methods of mobilisation – doorstep canvassing and postal appeals – on family attendance at early childhood Sure Start centres in England with a sample of 3,444 families. Families who were not already using Sure Start services were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a visit from an outreach worker providing information and encouragement; receipt of a leaflet about Sure Start; and a control group that received the usual service. We found no evidence of a significant difference in Sure Start attendance between the three groups: neither visits nor leaflets were effective in encouraging non-attenders to go to Sure Start.

In this article we compare the effect of two methods of mobilisation - doorstep canvassing and postal appeals - on family attendance at early childhood Sure Start centres in England with a sample of 3,444 families. Families who were not already using Sure Start services were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a visit from an outreach worker providing information and encouragement; receipt of a leaflet about Sure Start; and a control group that received the usual service. We found no evidence of a significant difference in Sure Start attendance between the three groups: neither visits nor leaflets were effective in encouraging non-attenders to go to Sure Start. © The Policy Press, 2013.

It has been argued that a 'new climate politics' has emerged in recent years, in the wake of global climate change protest movements. One part of the new climate politics entails experimentation with citizen-centric input into policy development, via mechanisms of deliberative democracy such as citizens' assemblies. Yet relatively little is known about the motivations and aspirations of those commissioning climate assemblies or about general public perceptions of these institutions. Addressing these issues is important for increasing understanding of what these deliberative mechanisms represent in the context of climate change, how legitimate, credible and useful they are perceived to be by those involved, and whether they represent a radical way of doing politics differently or a more incremental change. This article addresses these gaps by presenting findings from mixed method research on prior expectations of the Devon Climate Assembly, proposed following the declaration of a climate emergency in 2019. The research compares and contrasts the views of those commissioning and administering the citizens' assembly, with those of the wider public. Findings indicate widespread support, yet also considerable risk and uncertainty associated with holding the assembly. Enabling input into policy of a broad array of public voices was seen as necessary for effective climate response, yet there was scepticism about the practical challenges involved in ensuring citizen representation, and about whether politicians, and society more generally, would embrace the 'hard choices' required. The assembly was diversely represented as a means to unlock structural change, and as an instrumental tool to achieve behaviour change at scale. The Devon Climate Assembly appears to indicate 'cautious experimentation' where democratic innovation is widely embraced yet carefully constrained, offering only a modest example of a 'new climate politics,' with minimal challenges to the authority of existing institutions.

It has been argued that a 'new climate politics' has emerged in recent years, in the wake of global climate change protest movements. One part of the new climate politics entails experimentation with citizen-centric input into policy development, via mechanisms of deliberative democracy such as citizens' assemblies. Yet relatively little is known about the motivations and aspirations of those commissioning climate assemblies or about general public perceptions of these institutions. Addressing these issues is important for increasing understanding of what these deliberative mechanisms represent in the context of climate change, how legitimate, credible and useful they are perceived to be by those involved, and whether they represent a radical way of doing politics differently or a more incremental change. This article addresses these gaps by presenting findings from mixed method research on prior expectations of the Devon Climate Assembly, proposed following the declaration of a climate emergency in 2019. The research compares and contrasts the views of those commissioning and administering the citizens' assembly, with those of the wider public. Findings indicate widespread support, yet also considerable risk and uncertainty associated with holding the assembly. Enabling input into policy of a broad array of public voices was seen as necessary for effective climate response, yet there was scepticism about the practical challenges involved in ensuring citizen representation, and about whether politicians, and society more generally, would embrace the 'hard choices' required. The assembly was diversely represented as a means to unlock structural change, and as an instrumental tool to achieve behaviour change at scale. The Devon Climate Assembly appears to indicate 'cautious experimentation' where democratic innovation is widely embraced yet carefully constrained, offering only a modest example of a 'new climate politics,' with minimal challenges to the authority of existing institutions.

Abstract
There are a number of influences on how long an agency head serves. The importance of particular influences, in turn, depends on the prospective destination of the agency head: elsewhere in the public sector, the private sector, or retirement. The authors estimate survival models of agency heads' tenure using panel data on British central government executive agencies from 1989 to 2012. Findings suggest that chief executives of poorly performing agencies are encouraged to retire sooner. There is no evidence that a change in political control increases the risk of any form of exit, suggesting that political pressure to leave is not substantial for this type of official. Outsiders—agency heads recruited from outside central government—are relatively difficult to retain for a longer time, such that potential shortfalls in suitable managers caused by retirements in an aging workforce may be difficult to make up by appointing from this source.