advice

A huge thank you to everyone who sent in their questions for me to (try to) answer. I’ve picked out a handful of your questions to answer in this post. I can’t promise to give you the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything (which as any Hitchhiker’s fan knows is 42), but I hope that the answers are helpful to you.

If you spot your question in this list, but have a supplementary question that you’d like to ask, feel free to drop me a line via the ‘Contact’ page above, or email me at hello@thepolicycoach.co.uk

What’s the best way to get a policy job?

There are lots of different routes to working in a policy role. Lots of people start off their career working for an MP as a researcher, or in their constituency office. You can check out the fantastic Working for an MP website. Although it’s designed primarily for people working in parliament, it’s full of useful insights on what that involves. It also has a popular job listing too.

I first started working in policy following a stint in local government, which gave me a first-hand insight into the practical challenges of delivering public services, and provided the impetus for me to seek out a charity campaigning role which, over time, grew into a broader policy influencing role.

Some organisations will offer ‘unpaid internships’ as a way of building experience. Personally I really dislike unpaid internships, as they discriminate against those without the financial means to take on unpaid work.

If you’re thinking about a career in influencing policy, take a look at my post about the skills and abilities that a policy officer will need.

The charity I work wants to do more parliamentary work. Where should we start?

It can be a bit bewildering to know where to start. Take a look at my recent blog post which offered some pointers for organisations hoping to build their policy influencing capability.

Government departments are full of people working on policy. How can I hope to influence them?

Even though government departments can be really big, the reality is that the number of people working on any particular policy area is often quite small. There may only be a handful of officials who are responsible for a particular issue within a department of thousands of people. What this means in practical terms is that building relationships with those officials should be your top priority. In an ideal world, you want those officials to see you as a helpful and constructive partner that can help them deliver what they have been tasked to do.

The other thing to remember is that it’s unlikely that the officials will necessarily be experts on the specific issue that you are interested in, whereas you are likely to have particular knowledge or experience that will be helpful to them, if it’s presented in the right way. Make yourself useful, and your voice is more likely to be heard.

Are protests a good way to get government to do something?

The short answer is yes, they can be. The slightly longer answer is that it depends what you’re trying to achieve. If your primary objective is to raise awareness of an issue, then protests can be a good way to get some attention. Similarly, if you’ve tried every other route to get the change that you want to see but aren’t getting anywhere, then more active and visible campaigning can also be a useful tactic. It’s important to pick your tactics for influencing policy carefully. Each situation will be different.

What do you do when you’ve been working with a good minister who gets reshuffled to another department?

It can be really annoying when that happens! You’ve invested time and energy in getting them on side, and before you know it, they’re off to a new role in a completely different government department!

But all is not lost. While you may have built up a good working relationship with the minister, you are also likely to be on the radar of the officials supporting the minister. Those officials will also be responsible for briefing the new incoming minister and, given your constructive working relationship with the previous incumbent, might make positive noises about you and your organisation to the new minister.

Is there a difference between lobbying and influencing?

The word ‘lobbying’ has its origins in the conversations that take place in the division lobbies of the Houses of Parliament, but can be a bit of a marmite term for a lot of people today. In the US, it’s often associated with the power and influence of big business and commercial interests, which is frequently seen as the slightly grubby side of the American system of government. In reality, lobbying is just another form of influencing, and describes the activities of any interest group (whether that might be a union, a charity, a company or a trade association, for example) seeking to influence government policy or legislation. Personally, I prefer the term ‘advocacy’, which I think is a better way to capture the wide range of things beyond the parliamentary process that are involved in seeking to influence policy.

Are there any good training courses that you recommend?

There are lots of courses out there that will help you develop the technical skills needed to be successful in influencing policy. A lot will depend on which gaps in knowledge or experience you’re trying to fill. For example, there are lots of courses offering training on aspects of parliamentary processes (such as how legislation is made). These sorts of courses can be really helpful for anyone who hasn’t worked in parliament before, or who wants to increase their understanding of the parliamentary processes involved. On the other side of the equation, there are also lots of courses offering training on the technical foundations of a particular policy area (such as how the health and care system works, or how education policy is made). The best advice is to ask around for recommendations about courses that your colleagues (either within your organisation or outside) might have been on.

Is now a good time to try to persuade opposition parties to sign up to something?

Yes! And as a general rule, it is always worth reaching out across the political spectrum if you’re trying to achieve long term policy change. For some organisations, such as registered charities, there are regulations in place requiring them to be balanced in their work to influence policy to protect their independence. But for all organisations, it’s important to remember that achieving policy change can sometimes take much longer than the lifespan of any particular government.

In the UK, we’re just under two years away from the very last date that the next General Election can be held, which means that all of the political parties are now turning their attention to the manifesto that they will put to the country. This makes it an ideal moment to try to persuade different parties to commit to your cause, or the change that you are trying to achieve. Don’t forget to tailor your messaging accordingly – what will resonate with one party ideologically could well turn off another.

If you or your organisation are looking to do more policy influencing work, and would like some advice, I’d be happy to have a chat. Just drop me a line via the ‘Contact’ link above, or email me at hello@thepolicycoach.co.uk

Photo by Christopher Sardegna on Unsplash

One of the most common questions for any organisation wanting to influence the policy agenda is how on earth do you make a start?

For smaller organisations in particular, it can be quite daunting. Resources are often tight, and there may not be specialist staff capacity to dedicate to the emergent influencing work.

This post is primarily directed at those organisations wanting to do more to influence the policy agenda, but not knowing quite where to start.

Influencing policy, and more importantly knowing the tactics that will be successful, rather than just visible (a topic for a future post), is a highly skilled function in any organisation. Afterall, commercial organisations pay many hundreds of thousands of pounds to ‘expert advisors’ to guide them.

But not every organisation needs to be spending huge sums of money recruiting policy influencing specialists – far from it. Your organisation may not be at the size or scale to realistically expect to need an in-house resource. But that doesn’t mean that your organisation, however small or local, doesn’t have a great deal to offer in the policy development process.

Here are my top tips for organisations keen to enter the policy influencing space, but not quite knowing where to start.

Tip 1: Set realistic ambitions

It’s so important to set realistic ambitions, and to walk before you run. If you’re starting from scratch, you’re unlikely to be out there shaping legislation, publishing policy research, or working with parliamentarians if the only capacity you have is 10% of somebody’s time on top of their (probably very busy) day job. Which leads me on to tip two.

Tip 2: Start small

There are lots of things that you can start to do that will be manageable and achievable, and that will help to build your confidence and experience in influencing policy. Writing letters to ministers and officials on topical issues that are important to your organisation, for example, can be a surprisingly effective way to start in the policy influencing space without huge investment of time or capacity.

Tip 3: Work with others

In a previous post, I talked about how important it is to work with others to influence the policy agenda. This holds true for all organisations seeking to shape the policy agenda, but perhaps even more so for those organisations who are just starting out on their influencing journey. You will know the other organisations who operate in a similar space to you, and probably already have good relationships with them. It’s a great idea to work with them to explore some opportunities for joint influencing work. You might, for example, work together to produce a joint briefing or report, or to host a briefing event for MPs. Working together can help share the workload and help you achieve much more than you could on your own.

Tip 4: You don’t necessarily need to recruit an in-house specialist

There can sometimes be a sense that the first thing that an organisation needs to do to move into the policy influencing space is to recruit an in-house specialist, such as a policy or public affairs officer. If you have the capacity and resources to do so, that is obviously a great thing to be able to do, although the point above still applies that you need to be clear about what your ambitions are. (In a future post, I’ll be taking a look at the skills and competencies that you should be looking out for when recruiting a policy specialist).

But there are lots of different ways that you can build and grow your capacity in policy influencing that don’t start with recruiting to a brand new role. For example, if your ambition is to do more parliamentary work, then a conversation with one of the many public affairs agencies could be a good option – whether you’re looking for one-off support for a specific piece of work (such as an engagement event with parliamentarians), or something a little longer term (such as helping to support an All-Party Parliamentary Group), they will have a range of options available to organisations of different shapes and sizes (and budgets).

Alternatively, you could look to partner with other organisations who are active in your space to pool some resources. That might allow you to do some specific activities or work, or even allow you to have a shared policy influencing role (this works particularly well at a local or regional level).

Tip 5: Aim for some early wins

When your organisation is starting out on its policy influencing journey, it’s going to be important to be able to demonstrate some early wins. This will not only boost your confidence but will also make it easier to make a future business case for investment to be able to go even further. This is where starting small, and having some clear objectives, is vital.

If your organisation is looking to do more policy influencing work, and would like some pro bono advice, I’d be happy to have a chat. Get in touch via the comments box below.

Tag: advice

Did you have a question about how to influence policy? You might find an answer here…

Dipping your toe in the water – making a start in the policy influencing space