Nesta’s Geoff Mulgan suggests two directions for statistics that could help increase productive public engagement with data. He argues that to bring humanity back into policy and politics, more emphasis should be placed on subjective measures. He also highlights disaggregated data can allow for a better understanding of interesting patterns and detail.
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About the author
Geoff Mulgan is Chief Executive of Nesta. Under his leadership Nesta has launched a range of new initiatives in investment, programmes and research and has implemented a new strategy involving partnerships with foundations, governments and companies in the UK and internationally.

How could this improve services for young people?
Data which is detailed and subjective has an emotional impact which can help humanise research, supporting researchers to tell more compelling stories about their findings to wider audiences.
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Further reading
The best impact approach recognises when to use it, and when not to, by David Hounsell

Nesta’s James Phipps and Teo Firpo explain how randomised controlled trials can be used to capture the impact of an intervention.

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Who is this for?
This article is part of the new experimentation toolkit developed by Innovation Growth Lab to help policymakers in innovation and entrepreneurship test new ideas. It's a good explainer for those who are new to RCTs.

How could this improve services for young people?
Randomised controlled trials are considered to be the most rigorous way of establishing if evidence resulting from an experiment shows that the outcomes have been caused by the programme or intervention.
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Further reading
Doing randomised controlled trials in the real world

In this article in Stanford Social Innovation Review, Mary Ann Bates and Rachel Glennerster from the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab argue that rigorous impact evaluations can tell us a lot about the world, not just the particular contexts in which they are conducted. They explore how detailed knowledge of local institutions can be complimentary to the global knowledge of common behavioural relationships, improving our potential to find effective answers.

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About the authors
Mary Ann Bates is deputy director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), North America. Rachel Glennerster is executive director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL).

How could this improve services for young people?
The article explores the challenges and opportunties in replicating successful services or programmes using evidence. It supports better decision-making in the application of evidence and learning to new situations and contexts.
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Futher reading
People and place: How local delivery context can affect replication, by Frances Flaxington

In this report, Collaborate CIC present findings of research exploring the different ways funders are tackling the complexity of real world issues affecting public services and charitable trusts. The report highlights the problems which can occur when charitable funders and public service commissioners attempt to use a simplified ‘target-based’ model.

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How could this help/improve services for young people?
The report questions traditional assumptions about measurement, impact, and relationships, and identifies organisational cultures and practices that support more grounded, effective, and equitable approaches to working in complex systems.
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Further reading
Commissioning possible

On his Learning Spy blog, David Didau explores the limitations of big data in making meaningful decisions for improving the work of schools. He argues that collecting big data creates the illusion that schools can predict and control outcomes, but no amount of data can accurately describe the complexity of human systems.

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Photo credit: Social Traders

About the author
David Didau works at Swindon Academy as well as being a freelance writer, speaker, trainer and author. He runs the blog The Learning Spy since 2011.
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Further reading
Six big schools’ challenges facing EEF – and how it is responding, by Stephen Tall