What is Implementation Science?
Implementation has become a bit of a buzzword in government and Community and Voluntary sector circles. But what exactly does it mean and why is it gaining a profile? In this new blog series CES Director of Implementation, Dr David Kryl, will define implementation, look at its value and how it can be done effectively.
So, what are we on about when talking about implementation? Fundamentally, implementation is the practical interpretation of a strategy or policy – it’s about turning words into action. Governments regularly produce strategies and policies with good intentions for improving the lot of the population. But we can show that the intended impacts are often not experienced either in the way Government or the public hoped, or not delivered in real terms at all. This is due to a failure in implementation. It may be that a deliverable action plan was not developed once the strategy or policy has been announced, or a plan was designed at a high level that was not realistic for delivery on the ground.
At this point, it’s worth mentioning that what is called implementation in the policy and scientific literature is not all that different to project management as practiced in the commercial sector. In business, it has long been accepted that the move from articulating goals to real-life delivery needs active handling with measurable intermediate achievements and a clear, quantifiable description of what success looks like. Crucially, the process assumes the need for people who are experienced in this ‘translation’ of words to action, and that they follow recognised and replicable processes.
And it’s important to acknowledge that governments and other policy entities generally do follow project management process when designing the policy. The challenge is in the subsequent stage of making it real.
Over the last 20 years or so, the idea of an ‘implementation gap’ has been developed and documented. This is about the difference between making evidence-informed policy and delivering in practice. The evidence shows that delivering less-than-expected outcomes, or outright failures, is more likely to come from inadequate implementation planning and not because of a poor policy or programme.
This evidence has been gathered in the relatively new field of Implementation Science or Research. This is the study of how evidence-based initiatives, to use a broad term, have been implemented and linking that to the achieved outcomes. Thus, Implementation Science looks to find out why implementation is successful or not, including if the new initiatives become business as usual.
Bringing all this together, one of the main goals of Implementation Science is to identify the ideal conditions for an evidence-based initiative to achieve success. This has led to various structures to plan and assess implementation that may help an intervention achieve what it set out to do.
But why is any of this important? Because poor policy or service outcomes not only waste time and money, but also reduce confidence in relation to delivery, both by the policy makers and the public that expected an improvement to some aspect of their lives.
The interpretation and practical application of Implementation Science can improve the chances of success and thereby support a positively reinforcing cycle of measurable societal improvements, with improved cost effectiveness.
For more guidance on Implementation you can read our Guide here.
For more information about how CES supports implementation, see here.
