Report to the Scottish Parliament Finance Committee on 4 March 2015 about the What Works Scotland workstream on prevention and about the concept of, and evidence on, different strands of prevention in Scotland and more widely.

Kenneth Gibb and Linda Christie reflect on local government finance debates and suggest approaches to reform.

This think piece considers that we may learn much from a systematic approach to policy failure. Summary The ethos of What Works Scotland is to seek out evidence around relevant areas of public service reform to understand why certain processes,

This think piece by James Mitchell from February 2015 considers how definitions of a ‘Scottish model’ are shaping thinking about policy delivery.

This evidence review and briefing presents evidence brings together evidence from empirical research on UK public service partnerships to provide an understanding of the ways in which partnership working processes inter-relate to influence the success of the partnership.

Evidence review and briefing that considers the existing evidence on how small scale innovation can be effectively scaled up to create large scale transformational change.

Presentation by a research team from the University of Glasgow working with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to produce a Social Impact Tool to help councils assess the impact of cuts on services and the public, particularly on poorer groups of service users.

This working paper sets out What Works Scotland’s early thinking on using the capabilities approach, as a conceptual framework to assess what communities want from their public services, and explains why and how capabilities is a useful approach to evaluate public service reform in Scotland.

This think piece reflects on the potential of multi-purpose, independent community-led organisations, often called community anchors, to lead on ‘highly localised’ service design and delivery, and related local economic, social and democratic developments.

What Works Scotland Research Fellow Rosemary Anderson examines the emotional aspects of public servants’ work, highlighting the issues involved in presenting a professional face whilst also dealing with the emotional content of dealing with real people on a day to day basis.