The York Policy Academy

1. What have you learned over the past year as a Policy Fellow?

• Civil servants aren't experts, they get put in a role and learn on the job pretty much like me.
• MPs/civil servants are super busy, the breakdown of a day in the life of an MP was really helpful in seeing tangible examples.
• Even MPs can put 12 months of work into something and it still won't get discussed in Parliament so you have to be realistic and realise that you can put months of work into something and still not achieve the outcome you're looking for, in that case I would be looking at what else have we achieved and what other small wins can we celebrate.
• How UK government works and how to get information in front of policymakers e.g. APPG's etc.
• You need to think about how your message will land with the policymaker and the people they serve, there is no point in asking them to make changes which are completely infeasible.

2. How has your thinking evolved?

• I think I was focused on the 'right way' of engaging with policymakers but now realise that there are many ways and that they develop over time.
• I also now realise the value in having information available in visible, easy to find, useable formats for policymakers, which might look like frameworks etc.
• "Speaking their language" doesn't just mean that you make research findings easy to understand, it means presenting it in terms that can help them take action, e.g. there is value in presenting findings in terms of how much money will this save etc. if you're audience is a finance minister rather than talking about population health needs.
• Identify MP's or groups which have the same interest as you are advocating for, they are more likely to work with you.

3. What have you done differently in the last six months?

• We have used the Story Arc format to highlight research papers in a brochure we recently put together for an Advisory Board meeting.

4. How will you build on your new skills?

• I would like to transform our project website to feature the research findings front and centre.
• We have arranged to work with our in-department communications expert to identify small actions that can increase the visibility of our project with the aim of disseminating research findings further.
• In future projects, I will keep my focus on interpreting the research findings for policymakers and even earlier than that, of establishing a good network of supporters to help us disseminate the findings and advocate for policy change.
• I will keep banging the drum for policy engagement with my academic colleagues and help them to present their findings in ways that policymakers can easily use and understand.