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Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Household Dataset, January - March, 2025
No full textAbstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.BackgroundThe Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a unique source of information using international definitions of employment and unemployment and economic inactivity, together with a wide range of related topics such as occupation, training, hours of work and personal characteristics of household members aged 16 years and over. It is used to inform social, economic and employment policy. The LFS was first conducted biennially from 1973-1983. Between 1984 and 1991 the survey was carried out annually and consisted of a quarterly survey conducted throughout the year and a 'boost' survey in the spring quarter (data were then collected seasonally). From 1992 quarterly data were made available, with a quarterly sample size approximately equivalent to that of the previous annual data. The survey then became known as the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS). From December 1994, data gathering for Northern Ireland moved to a full quarterly cycle to match the rest of the country, so the QLFS then covered the whole of the UK (though some additional annual Northern Ireland LFS datasets are also held at the UK Data Archive). Further information on the background to the QLFS may be found in the documentation.Household datasetsUp to 2015, the LFS household datasets were produced twice a year (April-June and October-December) from the corresponding quarter's individual-level data. From January 2015 onwards, they are now produced each quarter alongside the main QLFS. The household datasets include all the usual variables found in the individual-level datasets, with the exception of those relating to income, and are intended to facilitate the analysis of the economic activity patterns of whole households. It is recommended that the existing individual-level LFS datasets continue to be used for any analysis at individual level, and that the LFS household datasets be used for analysis involving household or family-level data. From January 2011, a pseudonymised household identifier variable (HSERIALP) is also included in the main quarterly LFS dataset instead.Change to coding of missing values for household seriesFrom 1996-2013, all missing values in the household datasets were set to one '-10' category instead of the separate '-8' and '-9' categories. For that period, the ONS introduced a new imputation process for the LFS household datasets and it was necessary to code the missing values into one new combined category ('-10'), to avoid over-complication. This was also in line with the Annual Population Survey household series of the time. The change was applied to the back series during 2010 to ensure continuity for analytical purposes. From 2013 onwards, the -8 and -9 categories have been reinstated.LFS DocumentationThe documentation available from the Archive to accompany LFS datasets largely consists of the latest version of each volume alongside the appropriate questionnaire for the year concerned. However, LFS volumes are updated periodically by ONS, so users are advised to check the ONS LFS User Guidance page before commencing analysis.Additional data derived from the QLFSThe Archive also holds further QLFS series: End User Licence (EUL) quarterly datasets; Secure Access datasets (see below); two-quarter and five-quarter longitudinal datasets; quarterly, annual and ad hoc module datasets compiled for Eurostat; and some additional annual Northern Ireland datasets.End User Licence and Secure Access QLFS Household datasetsUsers should note that there are two discrete versions of the QLFS household datasets. One is available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement, and the other is a Secure Access version. Secure Access household datasets for the QLFS are available from 2009 onwards, and include additional, detailed variables not included in the standard EUL versions. Extra variables that typically can be found in the Secure Access versions but not in the EUL versions relate to: geography; date of birth, including day; education and training; household and family characteristics; employment; unemployment and job hunting; accidents at work and work-related health problems; nationality, national identity and country of birth; occurrence of learning difficulty or disability; and benefits. For full details of variables included, see data dictionary documentation. The Secure Access version (see SN 7674) has more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard EUL. Prospective users will need to gain ONS Accredited Researcher status, complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables. Users are strongly advised to first obtain the standard EUL version of the data to see if they are sufficient for their research requirements.Changes to variables in QLFS Household EUL datasetsIn order to further protect respondent confidentiality, ONS have made some changes to variables available in the EUL datasets. From July-September 2015 onwards, 4-digit industry class is available for main job only, meaning that 3-digit industry group is the most detailed level available for second and last job.Review of imputation methods for LFS Household data - changes to missing valuesA review of the imputation methods used in LFS Household and Family analysis resulted in a change from the January-March 2015 quarter onwards. It was no longer considered appropriate to impute any personal characteristic variables (e.g. religion, ethnicity, country of birth, nationality, national identity, etc.) using the LFS donor imputation method. This method is primarily focused to ensure the 'economic status' of all individuals within a household is known, allowing analysis of the combined economic status of households. This means that from 2015 larger amounts of missing values ('-8'/-9') will be present in the data for these personal characteristic variables than before. Therefore if users need to carry out any time series analysis of households/families which also includes personal characteristic variables covering this time period, then it is advised to filter off 'ioutcome=3' cases from all periods to remove this inconsistent treatment of non-responders.
Occupation data for 2021 and 2022 data filesThe ONS has identified an issue with the collection of some occupational data in 2021 and 2022 data files in a number of their surveys. While they estimate any impacts will be small overall, this will affect the accuracy of the breakdowns of some detailed (four-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)) occupations, and data derived from them. Further information can be found in the ONS article published on 11 July 2023: Revision of miscoded occupational data in the ONS Labour Force Survey, UK: January 2021 to September 2022.Main Topics:The LFS household datasets cover:characteristics of the household: number of people of working age; number of people over working age; number of children aged 0 to 4; number of children aged 5 to 15; number of dependent children (i.e. those in full-time education) aged 16 to 18economic activity in the household: number of people in employment; number of people in full-time employment; number of people in part-time employment; unemployed; economically inactive; students; sick or disabled; economically inactive but would like to work and are not seeking work because they do not believe there is work available ('discouraged workers'); care of dependants</ul
Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programmes and Neurodiversity, 2022
No full textThis data has emerged from qualitative semi-structured interviews which obtained the experiences and perspectives of international practitioners who work with autistic men/men with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who perpetrate domestic abuse in intimate relationships. It aimed to understand how practitioners can provide safe and effective interventions for neurodivergent men and victim-survivors.
Key findings included concerns regarding the lack of knowledge about neurodivergence, screening and awareness amongst practitioners, workforce development, recruitment and retainment, and the resourcing and sustainability of neurodivergent responsive interventions. It also identified that practitioners had witnessed that neurodivergent men experience barriers to engagement within mainstream programmes developed and delivered by and for neurotypical people, and that more research is needed about the implications of this for victim-survivors and those who work with them within integrated services.This data set emerged as part of an ESRC postdoctoral fellowship, which aimed to understand how domestic violence perpetrator programmes can be more responsive to the needs of autistic and/or men with Attention deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The fellowship aimed to enrich understanding amongst organisations and policy makers about how to identify and support neurodivergent perpetrators of domestic abuse by developing neuroinclusive interventions.
The fellowship aimed to generate new knowledge by carrying out 10 interviews with international experts working with autistic/ADHD male perpetrators and paves the way towards thinking about, learning from, and developing international responses that tackle the violence of neurodivergent male perpetrators of abuse.</p
A Comparison of Independent Police Complaint Bodies: Interview Data, 2022-2024
No full textThe handling of citizens' complaints against the police across national and jurisdictional boundaries is difficult to compare as available data are generally incompatible or absent. Independent police complaints bodies (IPCBs) are highly vulnerable to criticism of being costly and ineffective. The aim of this comparative project was to provide the data needed for contextualisation of IPCBs through long-term, in-depth comparison of the functioning of IPCBs in the UK, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan. The findings can be used to contextualise IPCBs in other countries.
The methodologies behind the data collection were designed to match the data available for the five countries, to recommend common principles for data collection, and to best highlight similarities and dissimilarities in the handling of citizens’ complaints by IPCBs in all five countries. Quantitative data were gleaned from IPCB annual reports. Due to highly dissimilar methodologies for data collection and definitions of categories, an important outcome of the project was to identify information that needed to be collected for some IPCBs, and recommend consistent formats for data collection.
The UK the data cover three types, gleaned from the Independent Office for Police Complaints for England/Wales (IOPC), the Scottish Police Investigation and Review Commissioner (PIRC), and the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI).
First, transcripts of 22 interviews (out of a total of 27) conducted with IPBC practitioners, police, and criminal justice personnel involved with investigating, assessing, and sanctioning complaints against police officers. These interviews were conducted between September 2022 and April 2024.
Secondly, two reports were produced based on anonymised summaries of discussions from two stakeholder events, reflecting experiences, concerns, and suggestions for improvement of police complaints handling.
Finally, included visualisations of the institutional set-up of the IPCB, PIRC and PONI, to illustrate the range and diversity of arrangements for UK IPCBs.Against the backdrop of increased powers and resources granted to police agencies for combating terrorism and other newly perceived threats in many mature democracies, the POLACS project compares levels of empowerment for citizens through accountability mechanisms (independent external oversight bodies, police complaints procedures and similar schemes). Additional police powers, technologies and transnational police networks add to the already far-reaching powers that police agencies have, granting the police new and powerful ways of monitoring and interfering in citizens' lives and thus their fundamental rights. Yet, it has often proven to be very difficult to get the reform of police complaints procedures onto the political agenda. Today, with audio-video recording equipment becoming ubiquitous and with encounters between police and members of the public disseminated instantly via the internet, the issue has moved from the fringes to the mainstream as a live political issue.
Researchers from Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK have been cooperating in the POLACS project. In the light of persistent public concerns in many democratic countries about effective police accountability, particularly in cases of death or serious injury to members of the public, there is an urgent need to improve the empirical basis for comparison of external independent police accountability schemes and to develop international standards for 'good practice'. The project has also explored the accountability structures for transnational policing within institutional frameworks, such as Interpol or the European Union's Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, as well as in transnational police networks. For transnational policing, mostly situated outside national parliamentary oversight and access to justice, accountability can be perceived as particularly deficient.
The academic investigators involved in the POLACS project, with their theoretical and empirical expertise on police accountability, have been revising and adapting current accountability theories and standards to the empirical reality that has been rapidly developing since the 1990s. Comparison has been adopted as the most effective methodological approach for contextualising performance of national and sub-national schemes and a necessary basis for developing international standards for 'good practice'. Policy-makers, practitioners and activists involved in reforming external police accountability mechanisms face great difficulties in contextualising current or proposed schemes with other schemes, past and present, as the available qualitative insights and quantitative data are often not comparable. Only by bringing existing data and knowledge together will it be possible to contextualise national and sub-national police accountability schemes and identify what data and insights are missing.</p
The Supporting Adult Social Care Innovation Survey, 2019-2025
No full textThis data comes from an organisational survey conducted among organisations operating in the English adult social care sector between 2023 and 2024. The aim of the data collection was to gain a better understanding of how innovation and innovative capacity are distributed across the adult social care sector in England, as well as to identify perceived challenges and the availability of support.
Respondents worked in organisations ranging from local authorities, NHS bodies, provider organisations (such as residential care homes and home care providers), supplier organisations (e.g. technology providers), and community organisations. Respondents tended to be in leadership roles, such as directors and operational staff at management level, but a range of roles was also represented. We invited any member of staff within any organisation in the sector who felt that they had a view on, and insight into, innovation to respond.
We designed two separate but interlinked surveys: one for local authority respondents and one for all other respondents (i.e. from care provider and supplier organisations). The local authority survey included a suite of questions focused on how local authorities work to promote innovation in their local markets.
The online surveys were operational between 1 June 2023 and 6 March 2024. The study information sheet (including a data privacy notice) was made available at the start of the survey, and respondents’ consent to take part was recorded electronically. The surveys comprised 32 questions in the provider survey and 34 in the local authority survey. These were mainly fixed-response questions, with four free-text option questions, as well as the option to attach further documentation describing an innovation that the organisation had carried out in the past five years. The surveys achieved 98 (provider survey) and 51 (local authority survey) responses.
Respondents worked in organisations that had innovated in recent years and in which innovation was important, with expectations that it would become even more important in the future. Very few respondents had no experience of innovation. The data includes examples of innovation; what appears to drive and inspire innovation; the extent to which organisations possess the necessary capabilities for successful innovation (such as leadership, knowledge and learning, culture, and collaboration); and the barriers and facilitators to innovation.This five-year study was funded by the ESRC to build evidence about how to support the adult social care sector to start-up, implement and spread affordable innovations that work well for everyone. The SASCI Project sought to generate new insights through a combination of case studies, witness seminars, survey and evidence review, underpinned by stakeholder engagement. The research was led by Dr Juliette Malley at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economic and Political Science (LSE), as a collaboration between LSE, King’s College London and the University of York and the organisations Care England, Local Government Association, Turning Point, Shared Lives Plus, Camden, Islington and Thurrock councils.</p
Net4Health: Social Networks and Adolescent Health, 2025
No full textSocial networks and friendship groups are important factors related to the development of health risk and health promoting behaviours, mental health and wellbeing, educational attainment, and positive social engagement in adolescence and early adulthood.
The MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit has been studying adolescent social networks and health in the West of Scotland for several decades. The Teenage Friends and Lifestyles (1995), Peers and Levels of Stress (2006), and Adolescent Lifestyles in Contemporary Europe (2011) studies have been a rich source of information on the health needs of Scotland's younger citizens and have helped to identify how risk factors have changed over time.
Net4Health will continue from the previous studies and aims to understand how peer and social network influences on adolescent health operate in the West of Scotland today, and how these influences have changed, particularly in relation to mental health and wellbeing and within changing digital social environments. It is hoped that this study will provide information that will inform the appropriate design of social network interventions to improve health and wellbeing.The Net4Health project involves collecting social network and health data from adolescents attending secondary schools in Scotland. Net4Health builds upon previous networks and health research conducted in the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (SPHSU). It aims to study the change in adolescent health behaviours and outcomes comparing the 2020s to previous decades, how peer-, school-, and family-level determinants of health outcomes have changed, and explore mechanisms through which interventions could improve health outcomes. It will also explore novel methods for collecting data relating to the relational aspects of adolescent health.
Net4Health will involve documentary analysis of school policies and structures, surveys with school year groups; and in a subset of schools: qualitative network interviews with pupils and teachers, and wearable device assessment of movement and use of space.</p
Scottish Health and Care Experience Survey, 2023-2024
No full textThe Scottish Health and Care Experience (HACE) Survey The Health and Care Experience (HACE) survey asks about people’s experiences of:
- accessing and using their general practice and out of hours services;
- aspects of care and support provided by local authorities and other organisations;
- caring responsibilities and related support.
It is an online and postal survey sent to a random sample of people registered with a general practice in Scotland. The survey has been run every two years since 2009.
The survey’s specific objectives for local improvement are:
- to provide General Practices with structured feedback on peoples’ experiences of their service, relative to other practices in Scotland and to previous results; and,
- to provide NHS Boards, Health & Social Care Partnerships and General Practice Clusters with information about peoples’ experiences in their respective areas, and variation within and between local areas.
The survey’s specific objectives for national improvement are:
- to inform national planning and monitor performance;
- to identify variation within and between local areas and if, and how, the level of positive and negative experiences has changed over time;
- to highlight areas of best practice and areas for improvement;
- to inform the Quality of Care Experience National Performance Framework indicator;
- to inform the NHS Scotland Local Delivery Plan standards on accessing General Practice services;
- to inform nine out of the twenty-three Integration Indicators under the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.
This survey is a means for Scottish Ministers to monitor how well the are fulfilling their duty, under Section 1 of the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978, to continue to promote a comprehensive and integrated health service that is designed to secure:
- improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of Scotland; and,
- the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness, and for that purpose to provide or secure the effective provision of services in accordance with the 1978 Act.
Survey results are available broken down by: Health and Social Care Partnership level, Health Board, General Practice Cluster and General Practice .
To access individual level data, an application needs to be submitted to the NHS Scotland Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care (HSC-PBPP
Skills Underlying Maths: Transfer of Congruency Effects Between Stroop and Multiplication Tasks, 2021
No full textThis data collection contains data from two large experimental studies with 450 (experiment 1) and 370 (experiment 2) participants aged between 18 and 30 years.
The data consist of accuracy and reaction time data from a two alternative forced choice multiplication task and either an animal or number Stroop task.
The multiplication and Stroop tasks were interleaved on a trial-by-trial basis to examine the transfer of the congruency sequence effect (experiment 1) and the list-wide proportion congruency effect (experiment 2).Good mathematical skills are important for success in modern life, but many children leave school without learning the mathematics they need. Understanding the skills involved in learning mathematics can help provide the right support to improve mathematics learning for all children. In particular, many children struggle to learn number facts, such as multiplication tables. Good recall of number facts helps individuals to be able to focus on other aspects of mathematical problem solving, such as understanding the conceptual relationships involved, or selecting an appropriate solution strategy. It is therefore unsurprising that individuals with good overall mathematics achievement tend to have good number fact knowledge. The importance of good recall of multiplication tables has been recognised by the UK Government, who have recently introduced a new national multiplication tables test to be taken by all children aged 8- to 9-years old from 2020.
There are a variety of approaches that can be used successfully to learn multiplication tables. To help children, many teachers and parents have increasingly turned to paper-based or computerised games and activities. However, at present we don't understand enough about the process of learning multiplication facts to know how to design these activities to be most effective in supporting learning. In particular, we don't know how features of these activities, such as whether children have to produce an answer or select from a range of answers, or whether there is a time limit or no time limit in producing answers, affect the process of learning and remembering multiplication facts. We also don't know if these features may increase anxiety levels for some children.
In order to make recommendations about the design of effective resources we need to understand more about the role of cognitive skills, such as inhibitory control, in number fact learning. Inhibitory control is involved whenever we need to ignore distracting information or suppress unwanted responses. Inhibitory control is likely to be important for learning multiplication facts because when recalling a number fact (e.g. 6 x 7) we need to ignore the answers to closely related facts (e.g. 6 x 6 = 36, 6 x 8 = 48). However, at present the role of inhibitory control in number fact learning is poorly understood.
We will conduct a series of studies that: 1) closely track the process of learning new number facts over time to identify when and how inhibitory control is involved; 2) identify how features of learning activities may increase or decrease the demands for inhibitory control and therefore impact the rate of learning; and 3) identify whether stand-alone inhibitory control training transfers from one context to another and could therefore support number fact learning.
This project will lead to improved understanding of the role of cognitive skills in number fact learning. This will allow the development of educational resources that incorporate design features to maximise the rate of number fact learning. More generally, this project will help to reveal the skills involved in mathematics learning and improve our understanding of why this subject is difficult for many individuals.</p
Local Energy Systems in Great Britain: Policy Instrument Database, 2010-2022
No full textThis project explored the development of policy and practice for local energy systems (LES) across England, Scotland and Wales. It aimed to provide evidence, and learning, about the role of more locally integrated energy systems, and the policy approaches being pursued in Great Britain.
The research analysed policy mixes for local energy systems and developed a database of relevant government policies from 2010 to 2021 (deposited here). These policies were identified based on systematic analysis of published government energy strategies, alongside strategies specifically concerned with ‘local’, ‘community’ or ‘area-based’ energy. This resulted in detailed analysis of over 50 policy documents and identification of 105 policy instruments across the three jurisdictions. Documentation was retrieved primarily from Scottish, Welsh and UK Government websites. Details about individual instruments were then collated using government sources (for example, evaluation reports), or websites of managing organisations. If financial information about an instrument was obscure, Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were submitted to establish additional detail, but financial information for some instruments remained unclear. The authors each cross-checked the instrument database drawing on their expertise in Scottish, Welsh and UK Government energy policy.
The instrument database was also verified through review by two external policy experts.This project explored the development of local planned, delivered and integrated energy systems in Great Britain (GB). Given increased policy attention on local energy systems the project aimed to explore the development of policy and practice across England, Scotland and Wales. This included investigating the interactions between the different policy frameworks across GB and the local/regional energy business models, partnerships and funding mechanisms in use. The purpose of the project is to provide evidence and learning on the role of more locally integrated energy systems and the policy approaches being pursued in Great Britain.</p
Survey of Young People’s Voting Behaviour After the Introduction of Votes at 16 in Scotland, 2021
No full textThe data collection includes a survey covering aspects of political behaviour among representative samples of cohorts of young people aged 16 to 31 who came of age in the context of and since the lowering of the voting age in Scotland. Additionally, the survey was also conducted among a comparative sample representative of adults aged 32 and older in Scotland. The survey was designed to answer research questions on young people's voting behaviour seven years after the introduction of Votes at 16 in Scotland to assess the longer-term outcomes of the lowering of the voting age to 16 in Scotland. It covered questions on political engagement (both conventional and less conventional), political attitudes (including views on institutions and self-efficacy), family background, experiences with civic education and personal circumstances.This project investigated the outcomes of the enfranchisement of 16- and 17-year-olds on young people’s political behaviour in Scotland seven years after the change of the franchise. Scotland is one of a limited number of places in the world where the voting age has been lowered to 16. When this was done initially for the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014, a rich amount of high-quality data was collected both before and after the first vote involving 16- and 17-year-olds, and this data suggested a number of changes to young people’s political behaviour following the change of the franchise.
In order to gain insights into the longevity of some of these changes in young people’s political behaviour in Scotland, this study was designed to measure the extent to which changes to young people’s political behaviour in Scotland were maintained in different cohorts seven years after the first vote that saw 16- and 17-year-olds included in the franchise. The study surveyed representative samples of cohorts of 16- to 31-year-olds in Scotland. Its objectives were to examine (1) the extent to which greater levels of political engagement found in young people in 2014 and 2015, and greater equality of engagement between young people from different socio-economic backgrounds had been maintained, and (2) which factors impacted young people’s experiences of elections and political socialisation when they are enfranchised at different ages (16 vs. 18 or later).</p
Academic Librarians’ Lived Experiences of Practitioner Research: Narrative Interview Study, 2023-2024
No full textThe aim of the Once Upon a Narrative Professional Practice Fellowship was to explore librarians’ personal, social, continuous, and relational experiences of undertaking practitioner research providing a window for the Library and Information Science (LIS) profession to consider their needs and how best they can be met.
The research objectives were to:
• Understand the barriers and facilitators that participants encounter during their practitioner-research and consider how these shape and reshape their experiences
• Discover participants’ transformational moments on their practitioner-researcher journey
• Highlight recommendations to inform the future design of interventions for novice practitioner-researchers
Key topics covered in the interviews were as follows: motivation, learning and researcher development, identity, research culture and professional practice.
Key findings from the research were presented as 62 narrative poems which re-tell participants' experiences. Collectively, these narrative poems reveal two key insights for the LIS sector’s reflection:
1. The way barriers and enablers are experienced in LIS practitioner research is highly contextual. Each participants’ motivations, emotions, prior learning and institutional context influenced how they interacted with these barriers / enablers throughout their research journeys.
2. There is an evident tension between the practitioner world and the academic world. This was visible in participants’ shifting perspectives through the cycle of their research. Institutional culture (positive or negative) contributed to this academic practitioner divide and it plays a key role in the stories of LIS practitioner researchers.The Once Upon a Narrative professional practice fellowship explored librarians’ personal, social, continuous, and relational experiences of undertaking practitioner research through a narrative inquiry method. By so doing, it provided a window for the Library and Information profession to consider what are the needs of practitioner-researchers and how best can they be met. The research project involved repeated in-depth interviews with 4 academic librarians over the course of their practitioner research journeys.</p