Enhancement of ECHILD with a mother-child and Unique Property Reference number link

ECHILD is a research database that joins together existing health, education and social care information for all children in England. We are using this linked data to better understand how education affects children's health, and how health affects children's education. ECHILD allows us to gain a detailed picture of the challenges that many children face as they grow up. Research using ECHILD will help government and the providers of services to better understand children's needs, to join up services, and to see which children might not receive the services they need.

ECHILD currently uses data about children from schools, hospitals and children's social care. However, some key bits of information are missing. For example, including information on maternal characteristics (such as age, education, and health needs) could help inform the best ways to support young adults in becoming parents. Information on household and neighbourhood characteristics (e.g. number of siblings, overcrowding or air pollution) could provide evidence for government on the impact of these factors on health and education within and across household members. We are therefore proposing to further develop ECHILD by adding in maternal and household information. This will allow us to answer more research questions and generate evidence about the best ways to support young families. Individuals cannot be identified in the database and it can only be used for research and planning services.

We have talked a lot with young people and parents to find out what they think about ECHILD and the kinds of questions they think future research should address. We will continue to involve the public throughout our new study.