Final Reports from the Migration Statistics Improvement Programme

Five final reports were published on Tuesday 27th March and can be found on the MSIP latest news page:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/method-quality/imps/latest-news/index.html

1. Migration Statistics Improvement Programme Final Report

In April 2008, the Office for National Statistics established the Migration Statistics Improvement Programme. This report describes why the programme was created, the outputs that have been delivered and the benefits that have been achieved or will be achieved as a result of the Programme.

2. A Conceptual Framework for Population and Migration Statistics

Reporting on the conceptual framework for UK population and migration statistics which will underpin the development of population and migration statistics in the future, and will facilitate communication between users and providers.

3. Using administrative data to set plausibility ranges for population estimates in England and Wales

Reporting on the approaches and data sources used for setting plausibility ranges for population estimates. Administrative sources are combined to set an upper and lower limit within which population estimates might reasonably be expected to fall.

4. Strategy for Delivering Statistical Benefits from e-Borders

This report describes the relevance of e-Borders to migration statistics and explains how the work will be taken forward over the next few years.

5. Research Report: Uncertainty in Local Authority Mid Year Population Estimates

Describes the methodology used to develop Quality Indicators for Population Estimates which are published alongside the report for each local authority in England and Wales. The report also describes the methodology to develop a Statistical Measure of Uncertainty for each local authority which will be published later in 2012.

March 2012 Road Shows:

If you are interested in viewing the presentation slides from these road shows, they are now available at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/method-quality/imps/msi-programme/communication/msip-seminars-2012/seminars-presentation/index.html

A report summarising feedback from the March road shows will be published later in the year once the responses have been collated.

Future Contact: The IMPS mail box will continue to be available for feedback on aspects of the MSIP programme or have questions for the ongoing research team relating to the programme: IMPS@ons.gsi.gov.uk

2011 Census Prospectus

The 2011 Census Prospectus is now live on the ONS website: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/census-data/2011-census-prospectus/index.html

It contains information about the staged releases of the 2011 Census statistics, and details new developments.

The 2011 Census Prospectus is a dynamic document and will be updated regularly.

2011 Census homepage :- http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/index.html

2011 Census News and Events http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/the-2011-census/news-and-events/index.html

Using Large-Scale Government Microdata for Employment and Labour Market Research

Tuesday 22 May 2012
Humanities Bridgeford Street Building, University of Manchester

A one day training event organised by ESDS government in collaboration with the Office for National Statistics. This workshop is aimed at anyone unfamiliar with large scale government datasets or labour market research. It will introduce those interested in the broad areas of labour market and employment to the microdata available at ESDS Government. It will provide participants with:

1. a broad overview of the different type of information available in the main large scale Government surveys that can be used in conjunction with traditional labour market indicators;

2. a more detailed presentation of the Labour Force Survey, including its fieldwork and data quality issues;

3. a hands-on computer practical enabling users to familiarise themselves with LFS data and perform simple analysis.

The workshop is free to attend and lunch will be provided. To view the programme and book a place please go to http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-05-22/

National Hack the Government Day

Rewired State, in partnership with the Government Digital Service are holding the fourth annual National Hack the Government Day.

If you would like to code a better country, by taking government data and creating prototypes of tools, services, applications or even websites then go along on the 21st April 2012.

The day will be all about having free rein, doing whatever you fancy and showing it at the end to an audience of interested people, including government, industry and press at a 'show and tell'.

Drinks and nibbles will be provided throughout the day (as well as lunch).

To sign up to the Hack day, or for a ticket to the 'show and tell' please see http://rewiredstate.org/events/nhtg12

National Child Development Study and 1970 British Cohort Study: Introductory workshop

Location: Institute of Education, University of London
Date: Thursday 10 May 2012

Bookings are now open for the above workshop which will introduce the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) and the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), focusing on the newly available data from the surveys carried out in 2008 when the study members were aged 50 and 38 years respectively.

This event is designed for new and intending users of data from the studies and is jointly organised by the ESDS and the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the Institute of Education.

The taught component of the workshop includes presentations on:

• survey design
• data coverage and methodology
• patterns of attrition
• using the data dictionaries
• accessing the data

The hands-on component will provide participants with the opportunity to carry out SPSS or Stata analyses using sub-sets of NCDS/BCS70 data, with support from members of the CLS cohort studies team.

For further details and to book a place, please visit: http://www.esds.ac.uk/news/eventdetail.asp?id=3170

Multiple imputation for missing data: State of the art and new developments

Meeting of the Social Statistics Section
18th April 2012, 11am-5pm
Royal Statistical Society, 12 Errol Street, London, EC1Y 8LX 

Multiple imputation is a general statistical technique for analyzing data with missing observations, which can produce valid estimates and inference in a very wide range of settings. Maturing understanding of its properties in different circumstances and the availability of increasingly flexible software are making multiple imputation an attractive option for many types of statistical analyses. This meeting provides an overview of the field and its applications, and a discussion of recent developments.

James Carpenter (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) Multiple imputation: History and overview
- what is multiple imputation, how is it done, and what can it achieve?

Jonathan Bartlett (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) Accommodating the model of interest within the fully conditional multiple imputation framework Multiple imputation of covariates allowing for:
- models of interest which include non-linear terms or interactions
- non-linear models of interest, such as Poisson regression or Cox proportional hazards models

Rachael Hughes (University of Bristol)
Comparison of imputation variance estimators
- Potential pitfalls of multiple imputation when the imputation and analysis models are misspecified and/or incompatible.
- Different approaches to imputation inference in different scenarios of misspecification

Ofer Harel (University of Connecticut)
Multiple imputation in two stages
- strategies for analysis with two types of missing values

Shaun Seaman (MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge) Combining Multiple Imputation and Inverse Probability Weighting
- Why combine inverse probability weighting with multiple imputation to handle missing data?
- Using multiple imputation in studies with sampling weights

Registration with payment is required. Booking forms can be downloaded from www.rss.org.uk/eventforms. For a map and directions see www.rss.org.uk/findus. For further information, contact Jouni Kuha (j.kuha@lse.ac.uk

Registration charges: RSS Student/Retired Fellows - £30; CStats/GradStats - £34; RSS Fellows - £38; RSS members - £50; none of the above - £75