Version: 1.0.0 | Published: 25 Mar 2025 | Updated: 257 days ago
ECHILD - Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data
Dataset
Summary
DOI Name:
10.57906/j1gr-gm30
Documentation
Associated Media:
Description:
Education & Child Health Insights from Linked Data (ECHILD) is a deidentified longitudinal population-based cohort of children & young people in England born between 01/09/1984.
In England, information on a child’s journey through education and social care is recorded in administrative records held by the Department for Education (the National Pupil Database; NPD). NHS holds information about all NHS hospital contacts (captured in Hospital Episode Statistics; HES). HES records are generated for the purposes of service delivery, e.g., to support financial reimbursement for treatment relating to a hospital stay.
Within ECHILD, healthcare, education and social care records have been linked to create a longitudinal database that follows children over time. The database is very useful for research as health, education and social care trajectories are strongly interrelated from childhood to adulthood. ECHILD provides a valuable opportunity to explore these relationships and to generate evidence for policy and practice.
ECHILD will only be used for research that has a clear public benefit in England and Wales to improve the health and well-being of children and young people accessing health, education and social care services. The specific research purposes (permitted uses) are below with examples of relevant research questions.
- Informing preventative strategies by Healthcare and Education services e.g., do disabled children attending schools, or living in areas that provide a good level of disability support in school or through social care services, have lower rates of unplanned hospital contacts compared with less supportive schools/areas?
- Informing children and their parents e.g., about variation in special educational needs support and outcomes for children with chronic health conditions or disability.
- Informing education and clinical practice e.g., investigating whether associations between chronic health conditions and lower school attainment are explained by school absence.
- Identifying groups who could benefit from intervention e.g., what are the health outcomes of children post age 16 who have contact with social care services or have special educational needs?
- Understanding the most effective methods for working with linked health and education data e.g., what are the most effective methods for working with linked health and education data?
ECHILD data are deidentified and further data linkage is not permitted. Data can only be accessed by approved researchers in the ONS SRS, and researchers are not permitted to try to re-identify individuals. Furthermore, any results of analyses (tables or figures) are checked by ONS staff for potential disclosure risk before they can be exported from the ONS SRS.
To access ECHILD, the following steps are required:
- Contact ECHILD Team: ich.echild@ucl.ac.uk
- Complete ethics self-assessment
- Submit an application form to UCL
- Obtain approval from UCL on feasibility and purpose
- Submit the UCL-approved application form to the ONS Research Accreditation Panel (RAP)
- Obtain approval from RAP for release under Digital Economy Act (DEA)
- Sign Data Access Agreements with UCL & ONS Accredited Researcher Assurance Registration (ARAR) form.
- UCL instructs ONS to provide access to a specified extract of ECHILD to named user(s)
Coverage
Spatial:
England
Typical Age Range:
0-40
Follow Up:
Continuous
Pathway:
none
Provenance
Origin
Purposes:
- Administrative
- Research cohort
Temporal
Accrual Periodicity:
Other
Distribution Release Date:
30 September 2024
Start Date:
01 September 1984
End Date:
31 March 2023
Time Lag:
Variable
Accessibility
Access
Access Rights:
ECHILD is only available to researchers through the Office for National Statistics Secure Research Service (ONS SRS), which follows the Five Safes Framework.
Researchers will have to demonstrate how their research will benefit the health and well-being of children and young people accessing health, education and social care services. More specifically, projects will have to fall under at least one of the agreed ECHILD five research purposes . PhD students and those without a substantive contract at an applying institution may not access ECHILD.
Access Service:
Access Request Cost:
£0
Delivery Lead Time:
2-6 months
Data Controller:
UCL Child Health Informatics Group (CHIG)
Data Processor:
UCL Child Health Informatics Group (CHIG)
Usage
Data Use Limitations:
- Geographical restrictions
- Research use only
- Research-specific restrictions
- Project-specific restrictions
- Not for profit use
- No linkage
Data Use Requirements:
- Project-specific restrictions
- Ethics approval required
- Geographical restrictions
- Not for profit use
Resource Creators:
Yes
Format and Standards
Vocabulary Encoding Schemes:
LOCAL
Conforms To:
- NHS DATA DICTIONARY
- OTHER
Languages:
en
Formats:
SQL Database
Observations
Statistical Population
Population Description
Population Size
Measured Property
Observation Date
Persons
20 million
20000000
13 May 2025