To tackle the immediate problems of today, as well as considering future opportunities, we need accurate information, data and ideas, says Dr Peter O’Brien, Y-PERN Policy Director and Executive Director of Yorkshire Universities.
Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the first Y-PERN Policy Fellows Development Day, hosted by the University of Bradford. Part of the core strategy of Yorkshire Universities is to work with policymakers nationally and in the region. One of the mechanisms by which we do this is through the Research England-funded Yorkshire and Humber Policy Engagement and Research Network (Y-PERN). Y-PERN’s multi and inter-disciplinary team of eleven Policy Fellows, covering all four sub/city-regions of Yorkshire, is an integrated network of knowledge brokers, connecting local and regional university research and ideas directly into Yorkshire’s policymaking communities. Furthermore, if successful, in a Phase 2 bid, the Yorkshire and Humber Policy Innovation Partnership (Y-PIP), will boost funding for applied economic, social and environmental studies under the framework of the Y-PERN academic policy engagement infrastructure.
On the same day I was in Bradford, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published its 2023 Fiscal Risks and Sustainability Report. The OBR presented a stark analysis, which concluded that aftershocks of the early 2020s continue to pose significant risks to UK public finances. The report undertook deep dives in specific policy areas, and it was the OBR’s review of health-related inequalities that first drew my attention. The participation of working-age adults in the labour market has fallen dramatically in the aftermath of the pandemic. The largest and most durable source of the rise in economic inactivity has been amongst those citing ill-health, partly due to Covid.
Twenty-four hours later, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published its Impact of increased cost of living on adults across Great Britain. One of the figures that stood out was that five per cent of adults reported that in the past two weeks they had run out of food and had been unable to afford any more. This figure rose to thirteen per cent amongst Black adults; fourteen percent for renters, and almost ten percent of disabled adults.
Around the same time, the Government announced the first new Investment Zone in South Yorkshire, centred around the Sheffield-Rotherham innovation corridor, and the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). An initial investment of £80 million is expected to pave the way for the AMRC, the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, and industry partners, to use and deploy research, innovation and skills capabilities and assets in an effort to address some of the biggest societal problems, such as producing clean, green heat, power and flight; tackling ill-health; and harnessing new technologies.
The above examples feature short and long-term dynamics, and they are attracting the attention of policymakers and researchers. Whether it is tackling the immediate impacts of the cost-of-living crisis, reversing growing economic inactivity and poor health, or identifying new innovative products and processes to develop the next generation of clean technologies, these issues feature within Y-PERN’s work programme. For example, Y-PERN Policy Fellows are working directly with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s ‘Good Work Programme’, as well as the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s new Economic Strategy Call for Evidence on the ‘Future of Work’, including AI, and with local communities and partners in Hull and East Yorkshire on ‘Building Resilient Cities’ in the face of the climate crisis.
We need accurate and system-friendly information, data, and ideas, to inform the practical actions that policymakers can implement to tackle the immediate problems of today, as well as considering the future opportunities and challenges facing Yorkshire. Focusing exclusively on the short or the long-term, in isolation, without sufficient reference to both, would limit our understanding of their symbiotic relationship, and could result in a failure of policy interventions to address either.