Evidence-based policy placement: Delivering the Leeds Food Strategy
Research England recently provided funding for policy-relevant and participatory research. The funds have been allocated to research activity that supports evidence-informed policy making. This £900k total funding runs until July 2023 and includes a £200k fund for proposals aligned with the Leeds City Council’s Areas of Research Interest: Culture, Digital, Food and Inclusive Growth. Proposals were received from all areas of the University of Leeds with awards totalling nearly £420k going to food-related projects including several Global Food and Environment Institute researchers.
Written by Dr Neil Boyle, School of Psychology, University of Leeds.
I have received funding from the Research England Policy Support Fund to facilitate a part-time secondment to Leeds City Council (LCC) to work directly and collaboratively with policy teams to support evidence-based policy making and delivery of the key aims and priorities of the Leeds Food Strategy. This placement underlies LCC’s commitment to co-production and co-design, bringing diverse groups of services, organisation and communities together to combine diverse skills and expertise to tackle the challenges faced by the City employing a ‘breakthrough’ approach — working together to make a change or improvement which has not been achievable before.
The Food Strategy
The Food Strategy, currently under public consultation, sets out the LCC’s future vision for how the City should produce, consume, and dispose of food across the local authority district. Co-developed with FoodWise Leeds, the Strategy aims to create a vibrant food economy where everyone can access local, healthy, and affordable food; food that reflects Leeds’s rich and diverse culture, builds social connectivity, and is produced in ways that improve the natural environment and embraces innovation. The Food Strategy vision is anchored by 3 core missions: Health and Well-being, Food Security and Economy, and Sustainability and Resilience, which complement LCC’s Best City Ambition to “tackle poverty and inequality and improve quality of life for everyone who calls Leeds home”. Whilst local in focus, the Strategy will support the aims outlined in the independent National Food Strategy and recent Government Food Strategy.
Working with Leeds City Council
During the placement, I will be homed within the LCC Sustainable Energy and Air Quality (SEAQ) Team working collaboratively with FoodWise Leeds, and Public Health, Financial Inclusion and Economic Development policy teams who will collectively oversee the development of the annual Leeds Food Action Plan that will inform the delivery of the Leeds Food Strategy. This placement will give me a unique opportunity to develop my evidence-based policy skills and experience applied in the real-world with potential for significant impacts across the Leeds food system. I will work with policy teams to identify suitable evidence-based policy activities and interventions to deliver the strategic objectives emerging from the Leeds Food Strategy. This work will specifically relate to activities that foster increased knowledge, awareness and access to healthy balanced, and environmentally sustainable diets, both at the level of the individual/communities and within food environments — civil institutions and businesses across Leeds. This will include targeted policies and methodologies to ensure equitable access for disadvantaged citizens and communities.
A better future for humanity, working through collaboration to tackle inequalities, benefit society and drive change
I am currently a researcher Co-I on the UKRI Transforming UK Food System programme Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People (H3) project. H3 aims to foster transformative food system change in the UK via an integrated programme of interdisciplinary research with interventions ‘from the ground up’. My research focus is to increase fibre intake in low income households — those individuals most at risk of diet-related health inequity — and is aligned with key facets of the Leeds Food Strategy.
Such transformative change requires collaborative work across the multiple layers of the food system to increase access to, and affordability, availability, and palatability of, fibre-rich foods. My placement will complement and enrich my ongoing research activity by giving me invaluable experience in how a Local Authority develops and employs an evidence-base to both inform food system interventions and monitor their impact. I will also draw upon my N8 Agrifood Knowledge Exchange Fellow experience and Global Food and Environment Institute membership to act as a collaborative link between LCC and the University, facilitating communication and collaboration between LCC policy makers and the expertise and research capacities available at the University of Leeds. This can contribute to supporting the University’s aim of shaping “a better future for humanity, working through collaboration to tackle inequalities, benefit society and drive change” in its own backyard.
You can read more about the other funded projects at this Policy Leeds Signpost.
