The Project

The project aims to improve understanding of how children’s information, including but not limited to statistical data, might best be collected, collated, interpreted and used. Core to this is to ensure that diverse voices, including those of children, young people, families and practitioners, are heard more clearly within children’s information and are listened to, and that these voices influence how the information is gathered, shared, processed and used. This requires not only sound collection, collation, interpretation and analysis of information, but also a clear ethical foundation and fit for purpose use of information. The project will examine whether and how these improvements can inform local authority children’s services, leading to reduced inequalities, greater cost effectiveness, and better outcomes for the children, young people and families that they serve. 

The project supported by the Nuffield Foundation is an innovative collaboration involving two County Councils (North Yorkshire and Hampshire), two Borough Councils (Oldham and Rochdale, working with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority), five universities and Research in Practice. The researchers and local authorities will work closely together, enabling collaboration and co-production between children, young people, parents and carers, practitioners, managers, data analysts, service leaders and policymakers to understand and shape how information can be used ethically and effectively. The focus in Hampshire will be on children and families needing additional support from Early Help and in North Yorkshire for young people leaving care. In Oldham and Rochdale the work is about targeted and universal early years services with a particular focus on communication, speech and language in Oldham and on the role of the Family Hub in Rochdale.

A Learning Network run by Research in Practice will bring together 20 other local authorities to test the findings in relation to their experience and insight and co-produce guides and other learning materials to improve the quality and use of children’s services data in England and ultimately to address inequalities and improve outcomes and experiences.

 

This project aims to understand how information is used, and how it could be used more effectively, in order to improve the lives of children and families.   

We want to explore how having better quality information from different sources, and using this information in a way that is ethical and thoughtful, can help to improve practice, services and local and national policy. We believe that the views and voices of children and families, and of the practitioners who support them, are a source of valuable information and should be used alongside statistical and administrative information. We believe children and families should be involved in how these sorts of information are used, and want to understand how this can happen locally and nationally. Through this project we hope to find out more effective and inclusive ways for information to be used, in order for children and families to have better experiences and outcomes.

The project is funded by the Nuffield Foundation. It is a collaborative project led by the Rees Centre at Oxford University, together with University of Sussex, London School of Economics and Political Science, University College London, Manchester Metropolitan University and Research in Practice.  

The project includes five local sites: Hampshire, North Yorkshire, Oldham, Rochdale and Greater Manchester, and a ‘Learning Network’ of 20 other local authorities. A range of advisers will also support the project. 

The project started in October 2021 and will last for 5 years. 

The project is interested in five themes or ‘core practices’: 

  • 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. 

Each of the five local sites will focus on a particular area of information use, using these core practices. These sites will work with researchers to build their understanding of how different types of information are being used to improve services, how information could be used better, and how children, families and practitioners can be meaningfully involved in the use of information.  

There will also be a ‘Learning Network’ of 20 local authorities, who will come together as a group over the course of the project to interrogate and ‘test’ the learning from the five local sites and to think about the core practices above.  

The project will include a series of events and other activities, along with a website, to share learning and to try to influence local and national policy. 

  • Oldham and Rochdale – together with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority – will be focusing on how information is used to help younger children be ready to start school 

  • North Yorkshire will focus on how using good quality information can improve the experiences and outcomes of young people leaving care. 

  • Hampshire will focus on how information use can enable children and families to receive support as early as possible when difficulties start.   

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. 

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.  

We are planning a series of workshops, webinars and podcasts to share learning from the project with the wider sector and policy makers. We will produce a range of materials – some designed to help practice and local policy, some designed to inform further research, and some aimed at national policy makers – and will make these freely available through a project website. 

We recognise that the use of information about and from children and families can be a contentious issue. There are serious ethical issues to consider, for example, and there will be diverse opinions about how to improve information use. We want to ensure that we engage people’s ideas and critique as the project develops, so that we are learning from others as well as sharing our own learning.  

We hope that you might want to keep in touch with the project to find out how it is developing, to participate in events, or to offer your views on the issues we are exploring.  

You can sign up to our mailing list here or contact childrens.information@education.ox.ac.uk with the subject header ‘keep in touch’ and we will add you to a mailing list.   

If there’s a question you would like us to add to the FAQs, please let us know using the same email address.