Emily‘s Internship Experience with Public Policy|Southampton (PPS)

10 September 2025

Since starting my PhD at the University of Southampton after working in national policy, I’ve been lucky to stay connected to the policy world through Public Policy Southampton (PPS). I’ve worked on a range of projects that have shaped how I think as a researcher and reminded me why I want my work to have real impact.

In my first year, I spent three months on placement with Hampshire County Council. That experience played a big role in guiding my PhD focus, which looks at how local governments make land-use decisions that affect climate change and biodiversity. Coming from my background as a policy advisor at DEFRA, I’ve always wanted to keep developing my policy skills alongside academia. For me, bridging the gap between research and policy is essential. Following my first placement, the next step for me was to apply for the Policy Associates scheme for 2024/2025.

My first placement as a new Policy Associate was with Southampton City Council (SCC) between January and May 2025. Unlike Hampshire’s two-tier system, SCC is a unitary authority, so this was a chance to see a different side of local government in action. My role was to support the SCC policy team to complete their new and updated City Plan for 2025 to 2035.

My main role was to review existing data that would support policies for equality, health, safety, the environment and growth. SCC has a fantastic resource in its Data Observatory that provides insights into population, health, economy, place, community safety and young people. With so much information available, summarised clearly and presented through tools like Power BI, it was easy to disappear down a data rabbit hole. Exploring this was not only a reminder of how valuable good local data is, but also a great way to get up to speed with understanding Southampton as a place and its key challenges. Each statistic in the City Plan was used to underpin a proposed policy, so to make things easier for the team I created a spreadsheet that mapped which policies were supported by which data, including references to external sources such as ONS and other government departments.

The City Plan itself is made up of five missions to make Southampton more equal, healthier, safer, greener and growing Southampton. Being part of the drafting process taught me a lot about the importance of precise wording and clear purpose in policy writing; what is it that you want to achieve and how? It was also great to work collaboratively with teams across the Council to make sure the missions aligned with their priorities. Now that the City Plan is published, playing a part in bringing together all the existing policies into one coherent vision for the city was something I’m really proud to have contributed to.

Utilising opportunities like this is invaluable during my PhD. Each placement has taught me something new about working with different teams, adapting to new timelines, or approaching issues from fresh perspectives. Even when tasks aren’t directly tied to my research, they always help shape how I think about policies and how I hope my own work can be helpful to local government in the future. This was such an enjoyable experience with the team fueled by great chats, a lot of coffee walks, and a visit to the best sandwich place in Southampton (Maurie’s) which has left me with lasting connections. 

Emily Cole

Intern at Public Policy Southampton and Southampton City Council

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