Welcome to the web site of the Policy Studies Institute, one of Britain's leading social and economic research institutes.
PSI undertakes and publishes research studies relevant to social, economic and industrial policy. The Institute is a charity, run on a not-for-profit basis. In 1998 it merged to become an independent subsidiary of the University of Westminster.
PSI takes a politically neutral stance on issues of public policy and has no connections with any political party, commercial interest or pressure group.
Our income is derived from funds for individual research projects received from a variety of sources, including government departments (we are currently working with Departments of Health, Trade and Industry, Work and Pensions, and Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs); agencies such as the Employment Service, General Medical Council, British Medical Assocation and Environment Agency; charitable trusts such as Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Nuffield Foundation; research councils such as the Economic and Social Research Council; the European Commission; and companies.
PSI's 25 researchers are organised in four multi-disciplinary research groups: the Employment Group, Social Policy Group, Social Care and Health Studies and the Environment Group. Our research strength lies in our use of the most advanced methods and professional expertise, combined with a commitment to analysis and presentation that are of value of to all of those interested in evaluating and changing public policies. We have a particularly strong reputation for using large-scale national surveys in an innovative and creative way, but we also make extensive use of other research methods, including case studies, intensive interviewing of special groups, statistical analysis, literature and document research, focus groups and discussions with practitioners and other researchers, seminars, conferences and group discussions.
We collaborate in our research with other leading research institutes, think tanks and academic departments, such as the National Centre for Social Research; the National Institute for Economic and Social Research; the Institute of Employment Research; the Institute for Public Policy Research; the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion, London School of Economics; Centre for Economics Performance, LSE; the Centre for Labour Market Studies, University of Leicester; Social Policy Research Unit, University of York; the Institute of Education, University of London; and many, many more.
A team of non-research staff support these research groups, and manage the Institute's Publications and Communications and Conference Centre programme and our in-house library. The publication and dissemination of our research is an integral part of PSI's activity, and we undertake research only on the understanding that the results will be made public - however uncomfortable the findings may be to any established interests.
The Institute has a long and distinguished history. In its former guise of Political and Economic Planning (PEP), it drew up the blueprint for what became the National Health Service and the Race Relations Act. More recently, it has become respected for its agenda-setting work on young offenders, ethnic diversity, welfare and the labour market.
This site is the most comprehensive guide to the institute and its work. In these pages, you will find details of research publications, ongoing projects and the expertise of individual researchers. From time to time, we will use these pages to publish original pieces of research. Information has also been provided about our conference centre in central London, which is available for hire.
We hope you find it useful.
PSI was formed in 1978 through the merger of Political and Economic Planning (PEP, established in 1931) and the Centre for Studies in Social Policy (CSSP, established in 1972).
PEP was created in response to the depression in Great Britain in the 1930s. Max Nicholson, then assitant editor of the Week-End Review, wrote a supplement to the Review in February 1931 entitled: A National Plan for Great Britain. This plan aimed to improve the country's economic, political and social condition and contained many pioneering ideas which are familiar to us today.
A number of people, who were either involved in drafting the plan or who were impressed by it, came together with the belief that sensible planning could overcome Britain's decline. They came up with the idea of forming a permanent research body to enquire into the problems of the day and to use facts to formulate possible solutions to these problems.
Hence the birth of Political and Economic Planning. PEP's Inaugural General Meeting was held at the Royal Society of Arts in June 1931. The aims of PEP adopted at this meeting were to create a National Plan, using the Nicholson document as a basis for discussion, and to eventually promulgate this plan. Aspects of the plan were to be investigated by small study groups coordinated by a Directorate. Initial subjects of study included Machinery of Government; Public Utilities; Social Services; Rural Problems; Building and Town Planning and Trade and Techniques of Investment.
PEP's first Secretary, Kenneth Lindsay, described the founding fathers of PEP as a:
"... group of young and not-so-young but determined people who were prepared to face the challenge of the 1930s and, by dint of enthusiastic and searching analysis, influence in some measure the course of affairs in Britain."
Kenneth Lindsay. PEP through the 1930s: organisation, structure, people in, Fifty Years of Political & Economic Planning, London: Heinemann, 1981, p. 9-10.
Although no plan along the lines originally envisaged was ever published by the Directorate, the study group working on the technique of planning, published the conclusions of its work independently under the title, A View on Planning, in 1933.
PEP carried out studies into the various issues and problems which have affected the country over the years including employment, transport, race relations, the welfare state, the Common Market and trade. Some of the work carried out was particularly influential. For example, in 1937, PEP published reports on the health services. Among the recommendations was that of a National Health Service,a proposal taken up later in the Beveridge Report. The 1967 PEP report of surveys carried out to measure the extent of racial discrimination in Britain convinced the government that the 1965 Race Relations Act needed to be extended by a second Act. Over the years, PEP developed into a professional research institute, using social research techniques to produce useful work for the formulation of policy.
In 1978, it was decided that PEP should merge with the Centre for Studies in Social Policy. The two organisations had broadly similar interests, and the merger was seen as a way of increasing their ability to respond to the increasing number of problems arising in the country. The name Policy Studies Institute was chosen for the new institute, which came into existence on 31 March 1978.
In January 1998, PSI became a wholly-owned subsidiary company of the University of Westminster (press release). The Institute retained its name, and continues to undertake the policy-relevant, high quality research for which it has always been noted. Welcoming the partnership, Dr Geoffrey Copland, the University’s Vice-Chancellor, said:
‘PSI’s commitment to impartial, high-quality, policy-relevant research is as important now as it has been at any time over the past fifty years. I am confident that it will both enrich the University by the new links that are likely to be formed, and be enriched by the new opportunities for collaboration that will arise.’
Pamela Meadows, PSI’s retiring Director, said:
‘The association between PSI and the University of Westminster offers a new model of operation for a research institute. PSI is now moving into the fourth stage of its existence. It has gone from a think-tank in the 1930s, to a small independent research institute in the 1950s, to a much larger institute following the merger in 1978. The University too has undergone substantial change since it was founded a century and a half ago, most recently in its transition from being the Polytechnic of Central London to the University of Westminster. The linking of these two institutions will allow cross-fertilisation and should enable the whole to be stronger than the sum of the parts.’