Testing and demonstrating the value of the Growing Up in England (GUiE) dataset

Report and summary

Project Overview Report

Research Summary

Feedback from workshops with Gypsy, Traveller and Roma young people and their families on issues raised by the project

As part of the project, two direct engagement workshops with Gypsy, Traveller and Roma young people and their families were co-organised with the national charity Friends, Families and Travellers. The feedback from the workshops is written up in our main project overview report and findings summary above. Additionally, working with Friends, Families and Travellers, a community narrator and a community artist, we have produced an animation and digital comic capturing the feedback from the workshops, which can be accessed below.

Project description

This project explores the potential for using the wave 1 of the Growing Up in England (GUiE) dataset for building up a much-needed evidence base on the relationship between Roma, Gypsy and Travellers (RGT) childhood circumstances and experiences and their educational participation and progression, including within 16-18 education.

The dataset was created by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) by linking 2011 Census records to attainment data from a bespoke extract of Department for Education data - All Education Dataset for England (AEDE). This new data linkage enables us to examine the educational progression of a cohort of children and young people aged 10 to 25 in 2011 Census, followed up to 2014/15 to ages 14 to 29 (feasibility All Education Dataset for England, AEDE), covering participation in schools and Further Education (FE). In addition, we will be able to examine the previous educational records of the cohort going back to 2001/02. In the earlier proof of concept GUIE dataset around two million records have been matched. The wave 1 of GUIE is expected to yield an even higher analytical cohort as it includes those in Further Education colleges as well as schools, producing a significant sample size for analysis. The researchers are accessing the dataset via the Secure Research Service at ONS.

This project has three main objectives:

• To shape and develop the linkages of the GUiE dataset to maximise its potential for the analysis of the RGT group
• To test the GUIE dataset and evaluate its quality for the purposes of RGT analysis by providing feedback on unmatched cases
• To conduct initial analysis of the GUiE data with a view to demonstrating its value added in building up new evidence, knowledge and understanding of the RGT group.

The findings will add to a growing body of research that addresses the problem of 'data exclusion' and 'invisibility' in social statistics, and which builds up quantitative evidence on disadvantaged and at-risk groups of children.

This research is in the public interest because of the potential societal benefits. The project will significantly extend understanding of social trends and will improve the coverage and presentation of existing statistical information, as it will address the lack of quantitative evidence on multidimensional disadvantage and educational attainment / participation among RGT children and young people.

For example, the findings could feed into work being undertaken by the Children's Commissioner Office, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) , the Race Disparity Unit and NGOs working with Roma, Gypsy and Traveller children.

This project is funded via the ADR UK Strategic Hub Fund, which commissions research that uses newly linked administrative data.

Multidimensional child poverty and disadvantage

Researchers: Dr Polly Vizard, Dr Tania Burchardt and Dr Polina Obolenskaya

Funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Duration: September 2015 - March 2018

The central objective of this project is to improve understanding of multidimensional poverty and disadvantage as experienced by children and young people in Britain and to address an important gap in the research literature by providing a new quantitative evidence base on four groups of children:

• Children from the Gypsy and Traveller ethnic minority group
• Young carers
• Children living in migrant families
• Children at risk of abuse or neglect

The research uses different data sets to build up evidence across four critical domains of life: standard of living, health, education and learning, and physical security.

Publications:

Tania Burchardt, Polly Vizard, Polina Obolenskaya, Isabel Shutes and Mario Battaglini (2018) Child poverty and multidimensional disadvantage: Tackling "data exclusion" and extending the evidence base on "missing" and "invisible" children (Overview report)

Tania Burchardt, Polina Obolenskaya, Polly Vizard and Mario Battaglini (2018) Experience of multiple disadvantage among Roma, Gypsy and Traveller children in England and Wales