13 November 2025. 1-5.30pm, University of Manchester Arthur Lewis Building 2.016/2.017 Boardroom, in-person only.

The focus of this workshop is on the roles that qualitative evidence synthesis may play in evidence-based policy. Examples of questions that are relevant are: Can approaches such as meta-ethnography provide evidence of the effectiveness of a policy, and if so, how? Do qualitative syntheses mitigate the shortcomings of quantitative meta-analyses, or do they provide evidence for some kind of policy-relevant claim on their own? The workshop will discuss how these approaches to research synthesis can and should be used in evidence-based policy.



Programme

1pm Lunch and Coffee

1.30-2.30 Corrado Matta (Education, Linnaeus), Rosa Runhardt (Philosophy, Radboud) & Jon Williamson (Philosophy, Manchester). Meta-Ethnography and the Effectiveness of Educational Policy: An Evidential Pluralism Perspective

Evidence-based policy is typically grounded in a narrow conception of evidence, one that prioritizes comparative studies and quantitative meta-analyses as the preferred base for establishing causal claims. However, this prevailing theory of evidence—often implicitly adopted in policy contexts—faces serious limitations when it comes to capturing the complexity of social interventions, particularly in fields such as education.
We argue that this narrow conception ignores the extensive volume of knowledge that is generated in research fields such as educational meta-ethnography. Far from being epistemically inferior, we contend that meta-ethnographies could make an essential contribution to the evidential base for policy. By analysing meta-ethnography using the Evidential Pluralism framework (which scrutinises evidence of mechanisms alongside evidence of correlation), we show that meta-ethnographic studies can be fruitfully reinterpreted as providing evidence of a mechanism complex. This evidence can play a crucial critical role, as meta-ethnography shows how the complex enables, reinforces, or counteracts a policy of interest. We will illustrate this potential use of meta-ethnography using an example, Holly Craggs and Catherine Kelly’s qualitative meta-synthesis of adolescent experiences of school belonging (2018). While the article focuses on educational research in particular, we finish by laying out the circumstances under which our results may generalize to other fields, including other professional studies (that is, studies aimed at application, such as nursing and organizational studies).

2.30-3.30 Kate Flemming (Health Sciences, York). The Policy SatNav: How QES Provides Context-Specific Directions for Evidence-Based Decisions

Understanding context and complexity in health, policy, and social systems requires methods beyond traditional quantitative aggregation. During her presentation, Kate will explore the critical role of Qualitative Evidence Synthesis (QES) can play in navigating intricate contexts. QES methods—such as thematic synthesis and meta-ethnography—are uniquely equipped to uncover the underlying mechanisms, contextual factors, and experiential nuances that drive complex phenomena. By systematically integrating diverse qualitative findings, QES moves beyond simple efficacy to explain how interventions work, for whom, and why. Kate will draw on work from a key public health issue—smoking in pregnancy—to demonstrate how QES was able to unpick real-world complexity, providing richer, more actionable insights for decision-makers.

3.30 Coffee

4.00-5.00 Andrew Booth (Medicine and Population Health, Sheffield). WHO’s Been Framed: the Role of Framework Synthesis in International Guidelines

Qualitative evidence synthesis plays a vital role in WHO guideline development by providing crucial insights into patient and provider values, preferences, experiences, and implementation feasibility. While quantitative evidence establishes intervention effectiveness, qualitative synthesis captures the human dimensions including acceptability, barriers, and contextual factors across diverse populations. This integration ensures WHO guidelines are not only evidence-based but also practical, culturally sensitive, and responsive to the real-world needs of patients, healthcare providers, and policy makers worldwide. Framework Synthesis offers an appropriate method for generating international guidelines that support evidence-based policy, as it enables systematic integration of diverse qualitative evidence within a structured conceptual framework. This approach is especially valuable in accommodating studies from multiple countries and contexts while maintaining methodological rigour. The method allows researchers to map findings against predetermined frameworks or develop new frameworks iteratively, making it ideal for synthesising complex, heterogeneous evidence across different healthcare systems and cultural settings. Professor Andrew Booth and colleagues from the University of Sheffield have demonstrated the utility of Framework Synthesis in a policy context through impactful work supporting WHO childhood obesity guidelines. Their set of syntheses systematically examined qualitative evidence on barriers and facilitators to implementing obesity prevention interventions, providing crucial insights into values, preferences, and implementation considerations that quantitative evidence alone could not capture. This work exemplifies how Framework Synthesis can transform fragmented qualitative research into coherent, actionable evidence that directly informs guideline recommendations, ensuring policies are both evidence-based and implementable across varied global settings.

5.00-5.30 Round-table discussion, led by Alexandra Trofimov



Registration

Registration is free and everyone is welcome.

Register by email to attend.



Acknowledgements

The workshop is organised by Corrado Matta, Rosa Runhardt and Jon Williamson. It is an event of the Interdisciplinary Systematic Review UKRI project.