ESDS Government
Detailed Overview of Service
The large-scale government surveys are one of the key research resources for UK academics,
providing a level of detail, and consistency over time that can address both theoretical and
policy-relevant issues across a range of disciplines. The proposed support and training programme
of the Large-scale Government Data Service is designed to generate a significant increase in the
use of these datasets both amongst those currently unaware of these resources and also amongst
the more sophisticated data analyst.
The service, hosted at the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and
Survey Research, Manchester (CCSR), aims to promote and facilitate increased and more
effective use of large-scale government survey datasets in research, and learning and teaching
across a range of disciplines. The service will work closely with ONS and other data producers
to ensure that the complementarity of interest between producers, commissioning government
departments and academic users is maximised.
The specific data series being covered under this service include:
- Labour Force Surveys/Northern Ireland Labour Force Survey
- General Household Survey/Continuous Household Survey (Northern Ireland)
- Family Expenditure Survey/Northern Ireland Family Expenditure Survey
- National Food Survey/Expenditure and Food Survey (new combined National Food
Survey and Family Expenditure Survey)
- Family Resources Survey
- ONS Omnibus Survey
- Survey of English Housing
- Health Survey for England/Welsh Health Survey/Scottish Health Survey
- British Crime Survey/Scottish Crime Survey
- British Social Attitudes/Scottish Social Attitudes/Northern Ireland Life and Times
Survey (and the former Northern Ireland Social Attitudes)/Young People's Social Attitudes
(periodic offshoot of the BSA)
Data delivery
The delivery of the large-scale government datasets remains the responsibility of the UKDA. The
CCSR will liase closely with this and other core services of ESDS to ensure a seamless service to
users.
Value-added services
The service aims to provide easy routes through the complex documentation of the government
surveys, recognising the range of user requirements and the different levels of user
sophistication. This will include methodological guides that highlight key strengths of these
surveys (e.g. the time dimension and the hierarchical household information). It will also provide
support for statistical packages, particularly SPSS and STATA. Indexes of common variables will
be developed to facilitate cross-linkage between datasets and with the census of population.
The CCSR will also promote the use of geographic visualisation tools to ensure that the
geographical strength of the government datasets is fully exploited. This is particularly
relevant to the vital statistics, JUVOS and Neighbourhood Statistics but also extends to the
household surveys.
Specialist advice
Specialist advice will be made available through a help desk service, a moderated discussion list,
and a web-based FAQ site, on data management, statistical advice on analysis, model building and
interpretation of results for SPSS and STATA.
Training
Subject to user need the service will run the following courses:
- courses to raise awareness of government datasets and their research potential
- courses to provide training in some of the unique aspects of the datasets
- topic based courses
- courses on specific statistical packages, e.g. SPSS and STATA
- methods of statistical analysis, covering a range of levels
All course materials will also be available online.
A range of teaching datasets will be developed and updated in consultation with methods
teachers, aiming to develop one new dataset per year.
Dissemination activities
The service aims to raise awareness of the research potential of the government datasets,
engage new user groups (graduate students will be a particular focus), exchange information
between users and producers, and promote interchange with government departments and academia.
This will include an annual research conference held in collaboration with ONS and a twice-yearly
newsletter.
Themes
The production of material and new courses will be topic based. In year one the service will
focus on 'Employment and the labour market'. The themes for subsequent years will be based on
responses to an initial user survey - planned for the autumn.
