Children and young people are two of the most vulnerable groups in society, and forming a more complete understanding of their lives and of how early experiences affect later life is vital. Investing in research and policy around children and young people will allow us to not only safeguard and support the next generation, but enrich their lives and allow each child and young person the opportunity to excel.
Children and Young People is one of ADR UK’s flagship research themes. It is aimed at enabling a more comprehensive assessment of the experience of childhood in the UK to in turn develop a better understanding of what does and doesn’t work in public sector services for children and young people. This includes assessing trends in vulnerability, wellbeing and welfare in early life and their impact upon later life experiences.
There are several ambitious new data linkage projects – as well as research projects using existing linked data – being undertaken across the partnership within this theme. These include, for example, linking together 2011 Census data with attainment data from the Department for Education (DfE) to create an anonymised longitudinal dataset on children in England: the ‘Growing Up in England’ dataset.
ADR Scotland is leading on the ‘Understanding Children’s Outcomes’ project, which is linking pupil census data for Scotland with Scottish Government data on looked-after children, children’s health, births and deaths, and the 2001/2011 national census.
ADR Northern Ireland (ADR NI) and ADR Wales are conducting important work examining the lives of looked-after children. In Northern Ireland, 30 years’ worth of individual-level social services data from Social Services Care Administrative and Records Environment are being linked to prescribed medication data, hospital data, the registry of self-harm and death records and the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study (NILS), creating the UK’s first historical, population-wide cohort of those known to social services as children.
You can find out more about these projects and others underway within this theme by exploring the links below and visiting the ‘Projects’ page.
ADR England Children & Young People Representative Panel
To ensure the needs and interests of children and young people are properly considered in research using their data, the ADR England Children & Young People Representative Panel enables researchers to engage with those who work directly with or for children and young people in England. There are currently 15 members of the Panel from a variety of third sector organisations, voluntary and community groups and professional practices – all working directly with or on behalf of children and young people.
Panel members have the first-hand knowledge and expertise to be able to represent the interests of children and young people in discussions around their data and its research uses. Their input and advice helps ensure research is as impactful as possible by enabling researchers to frame their work around the most pressing issues faced by children and young people, as well as by helping to facilitate direct engagement with children and young people. See the full Terms of Reference for the Panel.
To find out more about other community and public engagement activities underway across the ADR UK partnership, see the Working with the public page.
Children & young people projects
-
ADR UK Research Fellows: Longitudinal Education Outcomes
5 November 2024
ADR UK is funding four Research Fellowships to analyse the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset. These projects will generate novel insights around people’s pathways through education and work, with the potential to inform policy decision-making and improve public outcomes. The projects are a result of ADR UK Fellowship opportunities which invited applications to carry out research using eligible ADR England flagship datasets.
Read more
-
ADR England Research Community Catalyst: Youth Transitions
23 July 2024
This project aims to build a research landscape informed by existing research and evidence gaps in the field of youth transitions. It provides opportunities to address these gaps using administrative data and offers a platform for existing and prospective researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and voluntary and community sector organisations to learn, collaborate and innovate.
Read more
-
ADR England Research Community Catalyst: Children at Risk of Poor Outcomes
22 July 2024
This project will build a community of researchers and analysts focused on children and young people supported by early intervention services or children’s social care in the UK. This community will serve as a vital point of connection, information sharing, and coaching, and provide national strategic leadership for administrative data and research in this field.
Read more
Children & young people news
-
This year's highlights: ADR Scotland - exploring kinship care and building pathways for researchers
-
The Education Outcomes Linkage 2018/19-2021/22 dataset is now available from ADR Northern Ireland
-
This year’s highlights: ADR England – building research communities and opening access to education data
-
New data cleaning code available for users of children’s social care datasets
-
The need for supporting kinship families in Scotland
Publications
-
Data Insight: What came first: Is there a causal role of child welfare service interventions on likelihood of having criminal cautions or convictions?
-
Growing up in kinship care
-
Data Insight: Growing up in kinship care
-
Estimating numbers of children not in state education using linked administrative data
-
Data Insight: BMI and immunisation uptake by different levels of engagement with Flying Start in Swansea
