News | Tuesday, 26th March 2019
Sir Martin Narey lauds University unit’s policy impact
Former head of prisons is Visiting Professor at PERU
Sir Martin Narey, the former head of prisons and children’s charity Barnardo’s, lauded the University’s Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU) during his inaugural lecture as Visiting Professor.
Sir Martin hailed PERU – a multi-disciplinary team who specialise in evaluating projects and programmes and advising on the development of evidence-informed policy – for its expertise in improving public policy.
Reflecting on his 30-year career of leading and shaping public services, Sir Martin described the importance of evidence-led policy-making.
He said: “If our investment in public services in the UK was better influenced by an evidence base and less by short-term political initiatives, both local and national, we’d have better quality public services.
“I’m very impressed by the range of work going on in PERU. I’m particularly interested in working going on with offenders and in the children’s care system. I love the fact that it’s so outward-facing. It’s about making work with disadvantaged groups more effective.”
PERU works for clients as diverse as UK government departments, local government, the voluntary sector and the European Commission, on areas including crime and criminal justice, child wellbeing, social innovation and welfare reform and education. It comprises evaluators, economists, sociologists and criminologists from the University.
I like universities that involve themselves in the implementation of public policy and ensuring that it’s properly evidence-based.
Sir Martin served as Director General of the Prison Service of England and Wales between 1998 and 2003, and Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service from 2004 to 2005. He led Barnardo’s until 2011, and how heads up the North Yorkshire Coast Opportunity Area, a partnership between education, communities and business to boost social mobility among young people.
Sir Martin was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by Manchester Metropolitan in 2012 for his distinguished achievements in the field of social reform and outstanding commitment to the welfare of children, and joined PERU as Visiting Professor in 2017.
He will regularly visit the University and use his knowledge and experience to guide PERU projects, as well as the opportunity to speak to students who are interested in careers in prisons or social work.
Inaugural lecture
In his inaugural lecture, he rejected current government proposals for the abolition of short sentences to reduce the prison population, arguing that custody must act as a deterrent against committing crime.
He also argued that the children’s care system is much more successful than its reputation suggests and that the notion that public care damages a child’s life chances are inaccurate and dangerous.
Both from within the criminal justice system and the children’s care sector, Sir Martin described how engaging with research and working with academics – such as those now working in PERU – helped to change his thinking and inform better practice.
“The briefing I was given on arrival at Barnardo’s essentially said that taking a child into care was to be avoided at almost all costs.
“But the people who were briefing me were taking a very partial view of a system and ignoring research which said that substantially the care system did okay.
“My turnaround in opinion involved talking to frontline professionals, social workers who convinced me that far more often than suggested that there was no option but to take a child into care.
“Then because I was puzzled by that, I spent a lot of time being advised by academics, reading the research and discovering that the media and ministers had an opinion of the care system not justified by the evidence.
“That brings me back to being here. I like universities that involve themselves in the implementation of public policy and ensuring that it’s properly evidence-based.”
