Check out the Policy Project's refreshed Policy Quality Framework!

How good is the quality of your policy advice? The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Policy Project has launched its refreshed Policy Quality Framework to help you answer that question. The refreshed framework provides the policy community with a common set of standards that specify what good quality advice looks like. The framework incorporates the best elements of the original Policy Quality Framework and other policy quality frameworks in use.

How you can use the framework

You can use the framework to help you improve the quality of your advice and ensure it is fit for purpose. The framework can be used by:

• individuals developing advice or providing peer review
• policy managers commissioning or reviewing policy advice
• panels or others assessing the quality of the advice before (ex-ante) or after it has been delivered (ex-post)
• agencies to:
• – hold themselves accountable for the quality of their advice
• – benchmark the quality of their advice over time, and relative to their peers.

All public service policy agencies are required to use the framework to report on the quality of their policy advice in their Annual Reports from 2019/20 onwards.

What is the framework?

The framework sets out four high-level standards for quality advice – Context, Analysis, Advice and Action.

Each of the four overarching standards are supported by elements that describe the high-level characteristics of quality advice in more detail. Further information is available on the Policy Project’s website, including the summary and full versions of the Policy Quality Framework, a checklist for reviewing papers in development, and a guide for policy quality review panels that are assessing papers after their delivery.

For the first time, we have a common framework for assessing the quality of policy advice that must be applied by all government agencies with a policy function. This means policy practitioners won’t need to relearn quality standards when they move from agency to agency. A universal framework promotes greater cohesion across agencies.

The quality of our policy advice is important because it supports better government decision-making and a better New Zealand.

Where to go for more information

The Policy Project is available to run agency workshops on using the Policy Quality Framework. If you would like the team to run a workshop, please contact policy.project@dpmc.govt.nz