As we reach the end of 2024, James Lockwood, our Research Impact and Engagement Manager, looks back over some of the impact highlights of the year.
Poverty in Data Event
Our Poverty in Data Event in April was probably the highlight of the year.
The first day was an in-person Early Careers Researcher workshop which took place in Manchester. We were delighted to have Professor Donald Hirsch as our keynote speaker discussing poverty research and policy implications. We also hosted a panel discussion including four of our previous Data Impact Fellows.
Day two was titled “Perspectives on Poverty” and took the form of a pre-recorded webinar made up of various contributions. Christina Adane, an activist and campaigner, spoke alongside Professor Nissa Finney who leads the EVENS project. We also had contributions from the West Cheshire Poverty Truth Commission and the University of Chester who worked together with people with lived experience of poverty.
Day three was titled “Research, policy and next steps”. This consisted of panel presentations and a Q&A. On the panel were:
- Helen Barnard – Director of Policy, Research and Impact, The Trussell Trust
- Ed Davies – Policy Director, The Centre for Social Justice,
- Peter Matejic – Chief Analyst, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Lalitha Try – Economist, Resolution Foundation
Impact Themes
We are continuing to develop our approach to demonstrating impact of data in our collection. This new approach helps to showcase that research and impact does not happen in a vacuum. Often it can build on a researcher’s own body of work or building on the impactful research of others. Additionally, larger bodies of impact can be produced through repeated use of a dataset.
The extensive range of research conducted using data from the Service collection gives us scope to explore almost any topic. Our focus up until this point has been on two main themes:
- Poverty in data (including the previously separate theme of Housing and homeless in data)
- Mental Health and wellbeing in data (renamed from Mental Health in data)
We added a further impact theme to our work in September. Into 2025, we will be drawing together a narrative around Children and young people in data. This will include our next cohort of Data Impact Fellows who will be announced in January, so keep an eye out for that!
We have also continued to publish content focusing on our impact themes with posts looking at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and how underlying health conditions and demography produced socio-economic inequalities in the pandemic.
We also showcased research on the impact of energy drinks on under-18s, the power of family support amidst childhood adversities and poverty, and how the LGBTQ+ community is impacted by homelessness.
Case studies
The Good Childhood Report 2023: How can the damaging decline in children’s wellbeing be overturned?
We worked with The Children’s Society to develop a case study based on the Good Childhood Report 2023.
The Good Childhood Reports provide an annual overview of the current state of children’s subjective wellbeing, exploring specific themes or areas of interest in more depth in each report. The reports aim to identify issues and groups of children that may benefit from further attention and support. The Good Childhood Reports draw on the several data sources, including key UK surveys available from the UK Data Service, such as Understanding Society and the Millennium Cohort Study.
You can also read the Good Childhood Report 2024 that was published in August 2024.
The impacts of poverty on children’s social, emotional and behavioural outcomes.
We developed a case study with Professor Morag Treanor and Dr Patricio Troncoso during this reporting period. This looked at the impact of poverty on children’s social, emotional and behavioural outcomes. Growing up in Scotland was a key dataset for this work, which was led by Treanor. Over several years this work led to significant impact including influencing Scottish government legislation.
You can also read this blog post which introduces some of the findings and impact of this work
Regional Productivity Differences in Great Britain
We also collaborated with the ONS Impact team to publish a case study that made use of data accessed via SecureLab. Professor Richard Harris and Dr John Moffat examined regional productivity differences in Great Britain, making use of Annual Business Survey, Annual Inquiry into Foreign Direct Investment and Business Expenditure on Research and Development data.
On the Data Impact blog
The blog continues to cover content on a wide range of topics including:
- Job loss during pregnancy and the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth
- Mobilise your research in the policy landscape with CLOSER’s Policy Hub
- Unlocking energy data for public interest research
- How atypical work patterns affect our sleep
- Introducing ECHILD: the role and power of routine data linkage
- Studying at university decreases Euroscepticism, but only in the long run
Next year is the 10th anniversary of the Data Impact blog and we’ll be aiming to celebrate that throughout the year.
If you’d like to contribute a post please do get in touch!