The Project (content)

Introduction

This research project funded by the Nuffield Foundation is an innovative collaboration between local authorities and universities to transform how information about and from children and families is gathered, interpreted and used in child and family social policy at both local and national level.

The project will focus on children and families who need additional support from local authority children’s services, who are often the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in society. For example, this will include children and families referred to children’s social care services; younger children who need help to have a good start at school; and children in care and young people leaving care.

Statistical or ‘administrative’ information about children and families – commonly known as data – can improve practice and policy, but there are gaps and complexities in how this information is used. Other types of information, particularly the views and expertise of children and families, are vitally important. This project aims to ensure children’s and families’ voices, and the views of practitioners, are heard and used to improve practice, services and policy.

The project includes four local sites. Oldham, Rochdale, North Yorkshire and Hampshire local authorities will work with academics from University of Oxford, University of Sussex and London School of Economics and Political Science, University College London and Manchester Metropolitan University to build capacity and understanding about how to better use administrative data, children and families’ voices and information from practitioners to improve services.

Researchers will collaborate with children, young people, parents, carers, professionals and policymakers to understand and shape how information can be used ethically and effectively. Local sites will also explore how the use of these different types of information can be co-designed with children and families, and how to support sustainable learning and change. The project has not yet been officially named, as the intention is to include children and families and practitioners in deciding the name.

Five Practices

The purpose of this project is to improve five interconnected practices in use of information in social policy with children and families.  We will test whether by improving interaction, dialogue and common understanding across these five practices we can support local authorities to reduce inequalities, improve outcomes and experiences, and improve cost effectiveness. The five practices are:

 

  • Data: How to use statistical data ethically and rigorously, linking children, young people and families through time, with more integrated information across agencies and better understanding of financial costs.
  • Voice: How to enable richer, deeper and more meaningful engagement of children, families, communities and practitioners about what statistical data tells us and how it is used; and how to use qualitative information more effectively alongside statistics.
  • Ethics: How to ensure better understanding of the ethical issues of using data and voice; how to use these types of information to inform policy and practice in ways that respect and promote children’s and families’ rights.
  • Use: How to support more careful and effective use of data and voice, including more diverse voices, to inform policy and practice and to inform how we measure improvements for children and families.
  • Learning: How to enable learning about these core practices in ways that support continuous improvement now, while also developing longer term learning.
     
5 practices

Impact

To achieve wider impact we will:

  • Define and develop a set of transferable approaches that are adopted much more widely.
  • Improve collective understanding about the relationship of these practices in the service of improved public acceptance of ethical uses of data, reduced use of unethical approaches and improvements to national datasets.
  • Share learning about bottom up policy development and make impactful recommendations for national policy and practice.

Collaboration

In the work done by the Local Sites, there will be a particular focus on how to gather the views, voices and expertise of children and families. The way each site does this will be developed in consultation with children and families and the practitioners who work with them, supported by researchers who specialise in this area of work.

There will be opportunities for children and families to meet with the Learning Network, or to have their views shared on their behalf if they would prefer. We hope to also involve children and families in co-producing some of the materials that come from this project – for example, helping us to make short films, or written reports.

Over the first few months of the project, we will be thinking about how to include children and families in advising the project overall. We know there are many organisations who specialise in participation work with children and families, and we hope to work with them to engage families meaningfully rather than do it all ourselves.

Additionally, we are working with care experienced apprentices employed in North Yorkshire County Council and parent forums in Greater Manchester to consult on and codesign the name. For the time being the project's provisional name is Local Learning National Change: Data and Voice to Improve Children's Lives.

Learning Network

A series of workshops, webinars and podcasts will share learning with all those working with children and families, including researchers, practitioners and managers, or policymakers. Academic thinking in this field will also be shaped by a range of research outputs. A Learning Network, run by Research in Practice, will bring together up to 20 local authorities to test out the findings from the four local sites and to develop learning materials to support better information use across England.

Information Use Project

We are developing an Information Use Project (IUP) in each local site. An IUP aims to investigate how information is used and ways to improve relative to a baseline. Each IUP has to be well specified in terms of the five practices and be deliverable over five years while having space to develop and iterate.  It needs to have relevance in the site while being of national interest. It should have feasible impact on lives and experiences and work towards a "whole child/whole person" framework. 

 

Expand All

We will build on existing work in GMCA on school readiness. This includes the development of a monitoring framework for operation across the 10 boroughs. We will work with policy and research leads in GMCA and Local Authorities to develop, implement and evaluate a new monitoring framework for school readiness in Oldham.

We will build on existing work in GMCA on school readiness. This includes the development of a monitoring framework for operation across the 10 boroughs. We will work with policy and research leads in GMCA and Local Authorities to develop, implement and evaluate a new monitoring framework for school readiness in Rochdale.

Since 2017 North Yorkshire have been expanding their award winning No Wrong Door service for all of their care leavers. There are no national statutory administrative datasets to capture meaningful data about care leavers, from the ages of 18 to 25. This gap will be addressed for North Yorkshire and shared nationally. 

Nationally there is recognition of the increased demand and cost pressures on children’s social care (Family Rights Group, 2018). Hampshire is a leading Local Authority in terms of shared learning, and is developing stock and flow, and longitudinal analyses to understand the flow into children’s social care. We will participate in a major programme to maintain and deepen uses of evidence to shape practice.