Shaping, testing and demonstrating the value of the Understanding Childhood dataset: Roma, Gypsy and Traveller children case study

Lead Research Organisation: London School of Economics and Political Science
Department Name: Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclus

Abstract

The project aims to shape, test and demonstrate the value of the newly linked Understanding Childhood dataset in addressing data gaps and building up new quantitative evidence, focussing on Roma, Gypsy and Traveller children and young people children as a case study.

The Understanding Childhood dataset links data from the 2011 Census to administrative data on educational records (by matching 2011 Census records to the All Education Data for England AEDE dataset). This new data linkage provides a unique opportunity to build up in-depth quantitative evidence on the relationship between childhood experiences and circumstances (through depth analysis of 2011 Census data) and the educational achievements and trajectories of the same children and young people (through further analysis of AEDE data). Data from the 2011 Census includes rich information on childhood circumstances and experiences (including data on family background and household demographic and socioeconomic characteristics such as ethnicity, country of birth, disability, health, occupational group, housing conditions and parental education). The AEDE includes the educational records of children and young people in state funded education including in schools, further education and higher education. The proposed project will explore the potential for using this new and exciting linked dataset to build up a much needed evidence base on the relationship between RGT childhood circumstances and experiences and their educational participation and progression (including within 16-18 and post-18 education).

A dedicated exploratory project of this type is required because of the additional conceptual and methodological challenges that need to be addressed in order to tailor and use the Understanding Childhood linked dataset for the analysis of the outcomes and circumstances of RGT young people. Conceptually, it will be necessary to analyse childhood circumstances in a way that captures and reflects RGT disadvantage and vulnerability relative to other children, as well as patterns of differentiation within the RGT community (including, for example, the patterns of differentiation associated with settled versus mobile status highlighted in Burchardt et al 2018). Methodologically, additional challenges include the relatively low RGT population fraction, the known underreporting of RGT ethnicity within both the 2011 Census and administrative education records, the known low participation rates of RGT children and young people in education, in schools and especially in further and higher education (Mulkahy et al 2017, Cabinet Office 2018). These conceptual and methodological challenges (as well as their potential solutions) have been discussed in advance with ONS, and resources to work closely with ONS to address them have been built into the project design.

The project builds on the CCO policy agenda of addressing data gaps and tackling invisibility by using new and innovative data linkages to build up an evidence base on vulnerable groups of children (CCO 2019). Lack of robust data on RGT outcomes and circumstances, as well as the causes and consequences of these data gaps, are discussed in Burchardt et al, 2018 and a recent Parliamentary Committee Report (Women and Equalities Committee 2019). The project is being proposed as part of the 'Data for Children' strategic partnership formed by ADR UK, ONS and the Office of the Children's Commissioner (CCO), and is supported by and feeds into the policy agendas of MHCLG (including the national strategy to tackle RGT inequalities, MHCLG 2018) and the Cabinet Office Race Disparities Unit (RDU).

The project builds on earlier work by the CASE team to address the problem of "data exclusion" and to tackle invisibility in social statistics by building up new quantitative evidence on four groups of children that were previously missing from, or "invisible within", data monitoring exercises (Vizard et al 2018).

Planned Impact

Lack of robust data limits knowledge and understanding of the RGT group and is a barrier to effective policy interventions and ultimately to social change and equality. The proposed research will promote the public good by helping to build up quantitative evidence on the RGT group and providing an evidence base for policy-making. Amongst other early uses, the findings will directly feed into the CCO Vulnerability Database and reporting to Parliament, and will potentially be useful for MHCLG in building up its evidence base for the national strategy for tackling RGT inequalities, and for the RDU in addressing the lack for RGT data highlighted on its website.
 
Title Animation capturing feedback from workshops with Gypsy, Traveller and Roma young people and their families on issues raised by the project (accessible output) 
Description 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. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact The animation is being shared and used by national charity Friends, Families and Travellers. 
 
Title Digital comic capturing feedback from workshops with Gypsy, Traveller and Roma young people and their families on issues raised by the project (accessible output) 
Description 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. 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact The digital comic is being used and shared by national charity Friends, Families and Travellers. 
 
Description This research explores the potential of new large scale administrative data-population census linkages in challenging 'data exclusion' and building up more inclusive evidence on groups that have in the past been systematically missing from, or invisible within, social statistics (sometimes referred to as 'hard to reach', 'seldom heard' or 'vulnerable' groups). The research focuses on children and young people from the Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities as a case study. We use Wave 1 of the newly linked Growing Up in England (GUiE) dataset which includes the records of more than 7 million children and young people. There are four main contributions. First, in terms of methods, the research establishes that identification of children and young people from the Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities can be substantially improved through administrative data-population census linkages. Specifically, pooling ethnicity information across composite datasets substantially boosts sample size while the longitudinal nature of GUiE opens up a substantially longer time window for observing Gypsy, Traveller or Roma identity. Second, we use GUiE to identify cohorts of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma young people and follow their educational journeys longitudinally over four academic years. We produce new experimental statistics reporting on 14-16 and 16-18 educational pathways and attainment of the cohort, examining the progression of the cohorts through further education and vocational and work-based learning as well as in schools. We show that the linked education data in GUiE opens up new lines of policy relevant research relating to critical issues that have been highlighted by community representative organisations and in an engagement exercise undertaken for our project with Friends, Families and Travellers. Third, we illustrate the benefits of linking administrative information about educational outcomes and progression to the rich information about individual characteristics and family and household circumstances recorded in the population census. Using a bespoke childhood multiple deprivation framework developed in previous research, we produce new experimental statistics on the relationships between individual and household childhood characteristics (observed at age 15) and highest educational qualifications (observed at age 19) for our GUiE Gypsy, Traveller and Roma cohort and draw comparisons with other children. This includes experimental breakdowns by single parent status, settled housing versus mobile caravan status and family size as well as by multiple deprivation characteristics including employment and housing deprivation, health and disability deprivation and household educational deprivation. The observed relationship between 'household educational capital' (the 'stock' of educational resources that children can draw on at home) and highest educational attainment is particularly striking and underlines the importance of tailored support packages for Gypsy, Traveller and Roma young people and their families across all educational pathways. Finally, we set out how our research could be extended and up-scaled using GUiE Waves 1-3 and make recommendations on the future development of administrative data-population census linkages. This includes the development of bespoke linkage methodologies that are specifically designed to maximise the inclusion of 'seldom heard groups'.
Exploitation Route We co-produced two key accessible outputs for onward sharing with children and young people from the Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities and their families with national charity Friends, Families and Travellers.
Sectors Education

Government

Democracy and Justice

URL https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/case/_new/research/GUIE/default.asp
 
Description As the first researchers using the newly linked GUIE dataset, our project had a 'trailblazer' role in terms of identification of barriers and issues for other researchers using GUIE. We regularly reported back to ONS on issues such as GUIE documentation, information gaps, quality assurance and recommendations on future GUIE waves. This feedback was provided through regular meetings with the ONS teams responsible for GUIE development as well through the work of the GUIE Strategy Group and technical subgroup (which brings together multiple ONS teams (curation, acquisitions, data linkage, data engineering, census etc, Department of Education, ADR and researchers) and the ADR England Data Linkage Steering Group. We would also like to highlight our collaboration with Friends, Families and Travellers, a leading national charity working to transform systems and institutions to address the root causes of inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people. FFT were engaged with the project from the planning stage and regularly participated in and provided specialist advice and feedback through our project Advisory and User Engagement Group. In July 2022, we worked with FFT to co-produce two engagement workshops with children and young people from the Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities and their families. We then worked with FFT, a community artist, a community narrator and Nifty Fox Creative to produce an accessible animation and digital comic capturing the feedback from the workshops, for onward sharing with Gypsy, Traveller children and young people and their families. These were included as resources in an information pack produced by Friends, Families and Travellers for Gypsy, Traveller and Roma week 2023. Two key bodies with a focus on Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people - the Race Disparity Unit (Cabinet Office) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities - participated in our Advisory and User Engagement Group.
Impact Types Societal

 
Description ADR England Data Linkage Steering Group 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact In 2021 and 2022, Polly Vizard has attended meetings of the ADR England Data Linkage Steering Group. The Steering Group acts as a forum for knowledge exchange and the management of risks and issues pertaining to ADR England Data Linkage projects. The Steering Group also acts as a roundtable to address barriers to data linkage across government relating to English level datasets, and includes expertise from other investments such as National Core Studies and UK Data Service. The group provides a space for project leads or those working in the field of data management and linkage to share feedback and advice, including success stories and best practice, ensuring that ADR England project partners are kept well-informed of each other's activities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description ADR UK Research Ready Round Table 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Polly Vizard participated in the ADR UK round table, 'What is research-ready data?'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Conference presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation at ADR 2023 Conference - embedding an engagement exercise into an administrative data research project: an example focussing on Gypsy, Traveller and Roma young people and their families
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Conference presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Polina Obolenskaya presented findings from the project at the International Population Data Linkage Network conference, hosted by ADR UK and ADR Scotland, on the 7th of September 2022.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Engagement workshops 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact As part of the project, we held two engagement workshops with young people aged 14-19 from the Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities and their families, to ask them about their views, perspectives and experiences of the issues raised by our project. The engagement workshops were co-organised with national charity Friends, Families and Travellers. FFT are a NGO with extensive networks and relationships with the communities and an established track record in case work, focus groups and encouraging the communities to have their voices heard. Friends, Families and Travellers have been integrally involved in the project since its inception, as members of our project Advisory Group and in the co-production of the workshops. The workshops were held in July 2022.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description ONS GUIE Strategy Group and technical working group 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact The GUIE Strategy Group and technical subgroup was established by ONS and focuses on the Growing Up in England Dataset. The Strategy Group includes multiple ONS teams (curation, acquisitions, data linkage, data engineering, census etc), Department of Education, ADR and researchers. Both Polly Vizard and Polina Obolenskaya are members of the group and regularly provided researcher input into these meetings during 2022 and the first quarter of 2023.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Presentation at ADR UK Researcher Network 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Polina Obolenskya presented project findings at the ADR UK Researcher Network Symposium Number 3 on the 22nd of September 2021.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Presentation at ONS GUIE workshop May 2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact This workshop was organised by ONS for researchers with a potential interest in the GUIE dataset.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Regular meetings with ONS on issues relating to the GUIE dataset 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Between July 2021 and December 2021, Polina Obolenskaya regularly met with ONS team to discuss issues arising from the newly linked Growing Up in England Dataset.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021