The tickle monster, the exhausted academic and the Select Committee

Posted by Dr Sophie Wickham, Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, Dept of Public Health & Policy, University of Liverpool

In the second instalment of our posts about giving evidence to parliament during lockdown, Dr Sophie Wickham writes about navigating work and childcare in preparation to appear before TWO committee panels.

How do you adequately prepare for what feels like the most important milestone in your academic career? In ‘The Before Time’, pre-lockdown, for me, this would have meant revising and rehearsing, collecting advice and feedback from mentors and peers – and repeating the process until I felt polished and confident. It can take hours, days even, of focus, repetition and attention to detail, to hone the take-home messages from the research, and ensure that, under pressure, they are communicated with ease. But in the early days of these ‘Strange New Times’, this usual process became untenable. Part of my mind was devoted to worrying about the future, the rest to entertaining a 3-year-old, rolling around on the floor, playing eye-spy or assuming the role of an otherworldly tickle monster. My powers of persuasion were devoted to parenthood, begging my child to try new foods – the consequence of supermarket shortages in the early days of panic-buying – or to join me on long walks, in the faint hope of a full night’s sleep, so far elusive. Navigating a full day’s childcare and snatching some hours of work at dawn and dusk, naturally my productivity plummeted – and with it my ability to remain engaged with my work, and to focus on the task ahead. 

What was I trying to prepare for? Two things:

1. The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Universal Credit and Mental Health. This cross-party group brings together Members of Parliament wishing to discuss constituents’ experiences of Universal Credit, receive advice and support from various agencies, share best practice, and monitor this critical policy as it is rolled out. On 28 February, the Lancet Public Health had published the online edition of an article I had submitted with colleagues at the University of Liverpool, on the mental health impacts of Universal Credit. It had immediately been picked up by the APPG secretariat and, that same day, I had received an invitation to speak before the group. With lockdown came a hiatus in all physical oral evidence presentations, and the event had been deferred and moved online. As it turned out, the new date was only a week after what was to be a second daunting event.
2. The House of Commons Work and Pension Select Committee (SC) on Universal Credit and the wait for first payment. The Select Committee had opened an inquiry into the matter and asked for written evidence. Findings from these committees are reported to the Commons, printed, and published on the Parliament website. The government then has 60 days to respond to the committee's recommendations. Just as lockdown descended, I and other researchers had submitted written evidence, combining our quantitative findings (Wickham et al 2020) with robust qualitative findings (Cheetham et al 2019). As first author on the quantitative article, I had been invited to give oral evidence, alongside Dr Mandy Cheetham, the qualitative lead (read about Mandy’s experience here).

All-Party Parliamentary Groups, senior colleagues in my Department had informed me, were relatively relaxed and involved 10-minute presentations by each panel member, followed by MP’s questions. The entire meeting would last an hour. Colleagues that have made the trip to parliament to present evidence to APPGs in person described the experience as positive – though there can be interruptions, when MPs are called to vote on bills. Select Committees are much more formal. You attend as a ‘witness’, answering questions posed by a small group of MPs – questions which you do not know in advance. Any evidence provided may be translated into recommendations from the Select Committee, to which the government must respond: the potential for evidence-based impact is huge. In short, I was terrified.

I knew that opportunities to speak directly to these committees are rare. I had been handed a brilliant opportunity, and felt the urgency and weight of responsibility in my whole body. I was told to “practice, practice, practice”. But as with many parents, the days leading up to the Select Committee, and all the days of lockdown that had gone before, were spent working at the fringes of my child’s waking hours, before 7am and after 8pm. I was able to lock in some practice interviews with senior colleagues at the tail-end of their working days or family time, and one colleague and friend spent an evening listening as I practiced, helping to fine-tune my answers.

To my relief, a few days before I was due to give evidence, my childminder resumed part-time work. For both events, I was able to fully concentrate on the task at hand. There are some advantages to providing evidence remotely:

1. You can be in your PJs from the waist down.
2. You can have notes… Notes all around you – on screens, walls, floor – anything that might catch your eye and support you in making your argument. 
3. You can do rapid research, if needed. 
4. It might feel less intimidating – after all, you are in your house, what’s the worst that can happen? 
5. Though I am dismayed by the mere existence of a “touch up my appearance” feature on Zoom, I absolutely used it. I found that it negated the need for make-up - war paint that I reserve for interviews and weddings. 
6. The simple logistical advantages. No need for travel or childcare arrangements, and, in the case of the APPG, MPs were not running off to vote on other matters and you have their undivided attention. 

I did not capitalise fully. I was in work clothes, head to toe, and my sparse notes did not obscure the screen. I felt self-conscious: seeing yourself, and the background to your everyday life in this context can be disconcerting. There is the distinct impression of giving others a window into your life that you may not want to share. But ultimately, the greatest disadvantage was the lack of preparation time. Would this be obvious, and impact how my evidence was interpreted?

The Select Committee was on the 17 June. Some initial sound problems were dealt with prior to live streaming. You are asked in advance to ensure that no one else is using your internet, and to power down any devices that access the internet, to ensure that all bandwidth is reserved for the Zoom call. When joining the call, I could see the Chair, Labour MP Stephen Timms, with a few socially distanced colleagues, in a parliamentary room. Joining remotely were the three other witnesses and other MPs, though these MPs were visible only when asking a question. I found this to be a challenge, as I tend to feed off body language and facial expressions. It felt a bit like a PhD viva, albeit an odd one. There was the same need to defend and justify my work, and the stakes were high – in this case the potential policy consequences. In the end, I felt as though I made my points. A few answers were long-winded, and I felt flustered on occasion – always a danger when you don’t know the questions in advance. When it was over, I mainly felt that more time was needed, given the depth and breadth of evidence on the topic.

The APPG was one week later. As anticipated, it was much more relaxed, but there were also many more MPs on the call, all working from home. In this committee, all questions to witnesses were presented in the chat feature. As a result, there was time to read and re-read a question before it was asked, and time to collect your thoughts before answering – something I wish I could have done for the Select Committee. This meeting also felt brief, but there was a palpable sense that both presenters and audience were eager to understand and improve the policy at hand.

Time will tell whether the evidence presented will translate into policy change. I feel good about my efforts to contribute; participating in both committee panels has been an exceptional experience. But behind the impact, behind the evidence and beyond the research, preparing for these events and sustaining the work has felt very much like keeping up with the Joneses, and I am exhausted.

Image:

1. "Do you have a last request before you go in front of the Commons Culture Select Committee?" by Grizelda Grizlingham via University of Kent, British Cartoon Archive (Reference number: GGD0368, Published by: The Independent, 25 Oct 2012, with thanks to Copyright holder: Grizelda Grizlingham): https://archive.cartoons.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=GGD0368&pos=80