Model Development

Model Development is one of the keys to innovation and improvement in the welfare state is the development of models which can be tested and improved. This requires a commitment to both increased flexibility and the use of empirical data.

Concept

The four phases of model development require:

• Development of models - which can then be championed by local leaders
• Implementation of models - in the light of legal and economic realities
• Understanding the real impact of the model - evaluated in the light of principles of social justice
• Improving the model - adapting the model within legal and policy constraints

Of course the conditions for innovation are therefore constrained by:

• space left by legal structures
• authority given to leaders
• transparency of data
• understandings of right and wrong 

It is this approach to change which underpins the work of the Centre for Welfare Reform and its fellows. Ethics must be combined with a real willingness to test, learn and adapt.

The publisher is the Centre for Welfare Reform.

Model Development © Simon Duffy 2010.

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