What can household data tell us about schools?
When deciding to vaccinate 12-15-year-olds, the government turned to an unexpected source: not medical research, but social and economic data
In September 2021, when Health Secretary Sajid Javid was deciding whether to vaccinate 12-15year olds, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation did not recommend it on medical grounds, but advised that the Chief Medical Officer might want to consider the wider social impact of doing so. When the CMOs of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales did so, one of their ‘key inputs’ was research from the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex.
In March 2021, Professor Birgitta Rabe and colleagues found that the first round of school closures had seen significant increases in children’s emotional and behavioural problems – prompting fears that the closures in early 2021 would do further harm. The CMOs concluded that “the additional likely benefits of reducing educational disruption ... provide sufficient extra advantage … to recommend in favour of vaccinating this group”.
Birgitta’s data came from Understanding
Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, one of the world’s largest panel surveys, which gathers data from over 100,000 UK residents each year. Covering topics such as health, education, employment and family finances since 2009, the Study can illuminate long-term trends in a huge range of policy areas.
Researchers can track the effects of educational reforms, such as the move to comprehensive schooling and the 1990s’ expansion of higher education, over decades. These were times of increasing social mobility and rising exam results, but research published this year suggests these changes were down to “social change, not specific policies”.
Another paper, using two decades of data, found that inequality persists, even as exam results are improving. “Children growing up in families in less advantaged social classes”, the researchers say, “have less favourable school GCSE outcomes”.
Other researchers have used Understanding Society to investigate the impact of mental health on educational success; to show that, while reading with children can improve their life chances, cultural outings to theatres or museums don’t; and that teachers have a higher rate of leaving their profession than nurses and police officers.
We can even use household data to show that raising the school leaving age has increased understanding of climate change. Unfortunately, there’s little evidence that this understanding has led to actions such as switching off lights, buying recycled toilet paper, or using public transport.
As Birgitta says, “Education and skills are crucial in determining major outcomes and decisions in life. Each stage of education matters as it opens up or restricts further opportunities.” Any resource that can help to understand it better must be worth investigating.