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- BLOG - Access to secure data during the COVID-19 pandemic - a model for the future?
- COVID-19 and Care Homes: Advances in Administrative Data Research during the pandemic
- DATA INSIGHTS: Deprivation and informal care at the end of life
- NEWS - Innovative new residential linkage tool launched
- BLOG - Spotlight on Dr Elizabeth Lemmon
- BLOG - Spotlight on Jan Savinc
- DATA INSIGHTS - Youth Movements, Social Mobility and Health Inequalities
- NEWS - New report warns of deepening poverty crisis for Scottish families
- New report on Infants Born into Care in Scotland
- BLOG - The value of social science and administrative data research in Scotland: how we are helping respond to COVID-19
- DATA INSIGHTS - Exploring illegal drug consignments in Scotland
- DATA INSIGHTS: Linking two administrative data sets about looked after children
- Virtual Conference - Data Linkage: Information to Impact
- BLOG SERIES - Dramatic increase in deaths at home
- BLOG SERIES - Dramatic increase in deaths at home- No.3
- DATA INSIGHTS - Selective schools: do they improve health?
- NEWS - Understanding the dynamics of the nursing workforce: the potential of routinely collected data
- BLOG - Spotlight on Fernando Pantoja
- BLOG: Developing a cross-national research agenda on crime and convictions
- DATA INSIGHTS - The health and economic benefits of active commuting in Scotland
- BLOG - AGEING AND HOMELESSNESS IN SCOTLAND
- BLOG: Can we use linked administrative data to identify social disadvantage?
- EVENT - ADR UK Virtual Half Day event
- Event - Public data for public good: towards better understanding children's lives
- NEWS: Our role supporting the new COVID-19 research data service in Scotland
- BLOG - An Inside Job: Using Criminology, Police Data and a Lot of Nouse
- BLOG - Location of death in 2020: a changing trend from hospitals to homes
- BLOG - Seeking feedback on Research Data Scotland’s core principles via our public panel
- BLOG - Spotlight on Dr Patricio Troncoso
- BLOG - What skills, training and support are required by those wishing a career as an administrative data researcher?
- BLOG: 5 things I've learnt about working with policymakers...
- BLOG: Automating Coding for Large Historical Datasets
- BLOG: COVID-19- How increased deaths at home impact the carer community
- EVENT - Linking public sector data for research: an ADR UK showcase event
- EVENT Seminar - Administrative data for social policy research: potential and pitfalls
- NEWS - Additional funding for Understanding Children’s Lives and Outcomes
- NEWS: Police use of Fixed Penalty Notices under the Covid-19 regulations in Scotland: A new data report highlights links with deprivation and inequality
- NEWS: Police use of the new Covid-19 powers: Using administrative data to analyse and evaluate practice
- Directorship of the International Population Data Linkage Network (IPDLN) for 2021-22.
- BLOG: In the light of experience: InterRAI and the final thousand days of life
- DATA INSIGHTS: multiple health conditions and social care
- NEWS - Susan McVie elected as Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
- SCADR relocates to the Bayes Centre
- EVENT: Four day introduction to using administrative data for social and health research
- BLOG: The value of administrative data: DALYs and the Scottish Burden of Disease study
- BLOG: Where to start with parliamentary and policy engagement
- EVENT - International Conference on Administrative Data Research, Cardiff
- EVENT - Using data to realise the potential of the 'Last 1000 days'
- EVENT: TalkingData: ADR Scotland mini-summit
- EVENT: “Let’s use data to save time, money and lives”: ADR Scotland partners gather for mini-summit
- EVENTS: ADR Scotland researchers present at international conference in Cardiff
BLOG - The value of social science and administrative data research in Scotland: how we are helping respond to COVID-19
As we enter new phases of the pandemic, how can administrative data help us to better understand what’s happened and inform policy and practice in preparation for potential future waves?
COVID-19 has had widespread ramifications across society. It has not just impacted on physical health and death rates, but on the economy, our environment, different forms of social care, the wellbeing of the population and, ultimately, the way we live our lives: from our patterns of working and schooling, modes of travel, holiday plans and interactions with services and each other.
Here at The Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR) we bring together an interdisciplinary range of researchers in criminology, social policy, population health, nursing and urban studies. Combining social science and data expertise, we develop evidence-based insights from analysis of public sector data. In response to this crisis, we are striving to better understand the impact of the pandemic on society, in particular how it has affected different parts of the population and examining the non-medical factors that may impact on outcomes.
Working with Scottish Government, our ADR Scotland partner, we have supported the development of the COVID-19 data holding in Scotland to ensure timely and secure access to data and help provide answers to key analytical and research questions around the effects of COVID-19 on health, care and society. SCADR Director, Professor Chris Dibben, explains “The COVID-19 pandemic has required information and analysis at unprecedented speeds. For some emerging questions there has been no existing source of information. SCADR, using its deep understanding of existing administrative data systems, has worked with colleagues across many organisations to identify novel ways of identifying key indicators and societal structures to help address these questions.”
One example of our developing research in this area is better understanding the impact of COVID-19 on the care home population, led by Dr David Henderson. This is a key demographic where publicly available data sources do not provide a clear picture and more detailed analysis is needed to fully comprehend what has been happening and to better inform policy.
We will contribute to this work in Scotland by utilising the COVID-19 data holding to describe the characteristics of the population affected by the virus in ways that haven’t been available previously. In particular, the availability of primary care data and new methods of identifying care home residents in linked datasets are novel sources of information that can increase our understanding.
COVID-19 has also placed unprecedented restrictions on our civil liberties and freedom of movement. Our Safer Communities Lead, Professor Susan McVie, is part of an Independent Advisory Group (IAG) to review the temporary policing powers that were introduced to ensure that members of the public complied with the new Coronavirus Regulations in an effort to save lives. The IAG recognised the importance of ensuring that such powers should be scrutinised and Susan has played a significant role in ensuring a data-driven approach underpins this process. Her first data report presented a wealth of evidence based on analysis of various policing datasets. The analysis demonstrated that, despite concern about people breaching the Regulations, the police largely relied on engagement and encouragement to ensure compliance, resorting only in extreme cases to the use of enforcement. The data also showed distinct changes in demand for policing during lockdown, including increases in noise complaints, neighbour disputes and general public nuisance, with reductions in road traffic incidents, assaults and theft; and yet police response remained high and the level of complaints to the police did not increase.
The findings from the report were presented to the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) Board in June and discussed further at a webinar in July where senior members of the SPA and Police Scotland highlighted the value of data and evidence in supporting scrutiny and evaluation. Susan continues to support the work of the IAG and her second data report is due to be published shortly.
This summary blog, highlights just some of our emerging research responding to COVID-19. Over time, administrative data provides a vital source in which to explore the longer term effects of the pandemic on society, such as on employment and educational outcomes, and can play an important part in informing an evidence-based recovery.
This article was published on 12 Aug 2020