Children & Young People
Childhood plays a pivotal role in who we become as adults: from our educational attainment and progression into work, to how we form relationships with others.
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.
Children & Young People Projects
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The relationship between social exclusion and educational attainment
28 April 2020
This project is the first of its kind to use large-scale longitudinal data to explore the relationship between social exclusion and educational attainment for pupils in England.
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Infant health and mothers’ exposure to air pollution
28 April 2020
This project investigates whether different levels of exposure to air pollution during pregnancy can affect a baby's birth weight.
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School-level attainment gaps and the Pupil Deprivation Grant
23 April 2020
This project will consider whether there is an association between the Pupil Deprivation Grant (PDG) and school-level attainment gaps in Wales.
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Children & Young People News
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Expert team appointed to test potential of MoJ-DfE linked dataset
22 May 2020
A team of researchers led by Dr Rosie Cornish has been appointed to lead a feasibility study on the use of the MoJ-DfE linked dataset to evaluate early interventions to prevent violent crime.
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ADR UK enables vital research in response to Covid-19 crisis
15 May 2020
ADR UK partners are playing an important role in enabling vital research in response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, helping to mitigate immediate effects and assess longer-term impacts on society.
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New study shows notable regional differences in drug-related mortality in Northern Ireland
25 March 2020
Recent work by NISRA (ADR Northern Ireland) researchers using the linked Northern Ireland Mortality Study (NIMS) provides novel, socio-demographic insights into drug-related deaths in Northern Ireland.
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Find out more
If you are a researcher interested in working with admistrative data within this theme, or a policymaker interested in how ADR UK work can improve your insights and support your decision making in this area, please get in touch.