Feasibility Study: usability of local authority data for future statistics on unpaid care and/or disability

For population and migration statistics, the Office for National Statistics is developing use of new data sources and methods, is seeking to continuously improve the quality of our outputs (find out more about our proposed transformation on this page).

We aim to develop a system that is sustainable and future proof and deliver a broad, flexible range of outputs and products that respond to user needs and questions of the day.

The use of rich administrative data provides an exciting opportunity to evolve these statistics.

While some population characteristics and outcomes have a mature coverage by administrative data sources, others require in-depth assessment and examination of different options.

We have initiated a program of work that will examine the available data sources and potential strategies to produce admin-based statistics on disability and unpaid care.

ONS is seeking to procure a feasibility study from an organisation on the usability of local authority or commercial data holdings within statistics on disability and unpaid care.

Little is known about the potential local authority data holdings may have to offer to produce statistics on (unpaid) carers and/or disabled people.

This procurement intends to enable a knowledge transfer to develop strategies to produce high quality and useful official statistics about our population and society that decision makers, businesses and citizens so urgently need.

Requirements are that the feasibility study should provide insights into, at a minimum: o Data sources and measurement o What administrative data sources provide potential to meet the aims outlined above.

Examples of data sources that could be considered are needs assessment forms, carer's assessments, blue badge applications, certificate for visual impairments, o Measurement of characteristics within the dataset o Completeness of data (coverage across different population groups) o Describe data collection methods and quality assurance process and any potential issues. o What statistics could be produced from the data and how they would compare to Census 2021 outputs on the topic. o Limitations o Linkage and scalability o Whether there is consent to link with other data sources such as an admin-based population spine. o Whether there are variables in the dataset that can be used as linkage keys. o Whether there is potential to scale the use of this data towards national levels o Recommendations o Any recommendations to improve data collection to enable future use within statistical data production.