Child care policy and gender equality in Ireland

Human Rights Policy and Law

Guidelines for writing your 3000 word Policy Brief

Policy Briefs are used by policy-makers - and those wishing to influence policy-making - so as

to clearly, logically and persuasively outline a case for the development of a policy or ways

in which a policy idea may need to be modified. Additionally, Policy Briefs can be developed

to resist or reject a policy idea.

The Policy Brief should be structured as follows:

 Title

 Executive summary

 Context and importance of the problem

 Critique of policy options

 Policy recommendations

 Concluding remarks

 Bibliography

 Appendices



Title

It should not be too long, but should try to capture the reader – look at the titles of some

published policy papers to get some ideas.

Executive Summary

It is important to write an executive summary, as sometimes this is the only thing that a

busy Minister or civil servant will read. It only needs to be one to two paragraphs and is a

very short summary of the information you will outline in the rest of the brief. It usually

includes:

 A clear statement of the purpose of the Policy Brief

 A brief description of the policy problem

 A very brief summary of your suggested policy alternatives and recommendations

Context and importance of the problem

Here you are convincing the reader that a problem exists and that the Government needs to

take a particular action on the issue.

In this section, you are providing background information on the policy problem. Things you

may like to include are:

1) What is the policy problem?

2) When and how did interest in the problem arise?

3) What is the legal, political and social context of the problem?

4) Why does the Government need to look at this policy issue?

5) How does it affect society, or who is affected by the problem?

6) What is wrong with the current approach?

Critique of policy options

In this section, you outline what you think are the policy options or policy alternatives and

your preferred policy option.

You need to outline the different possible options and which you believe is the most

effective in solving the problem.

You will get some ideas of different policy alternatives from your research and it is

important to mention that there are different opinions on the issue.

Policy Recommendations

In this section you are stating the course of action that you believe the Government needs

to take. This is an important part of the brief, and along with the executive summary is

sometimes the only part that Ministers and decisions-makers read.

Recommendations are usually numbered and they can be broken down into different

headings or sections.

You may like to make recommendations on what the Government needs to do to move the

issue further. Is any additional information (cost, research, public sentiment etc) required

before new legislation can be enacted?

State any limitations to your chosen policy option.

Concluding Remarks

Only three or four sentences are needed. Here you can sum up the benefit of your

approach to particular groups or society as a whole.

References

Please adhere to correct guidelines:

https://www.brunel.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/161471/Harvard-Guide.pdf

Remember to use appropriate academic references throughout the Policy Brief. Your main

sources should be books and journal articles followed by official government reports and

research by think tanks, pressure groups and NGOs.

Appendices

Include any additional information/research here. Make sure you number your appendices

and refer to them in your main text. Appendices will not be included in your word count.