Friday 21 December 2012

Conference on statistics for adult social care policy


29 January 2013; 10am to 4pm;
Royal Statistical Society, 12 Errol Street, London EC1Y 8LX

The imperative for reform of the system of funding of social care in England has again been highlighted by the report of the Dilnot Commission, and the case for reform has been accepted in principle by the Government. However, the Dilnot Commission also highlighted the lack of a robust statistical base either for analysing the current social care situation or for monitoring and evaluating the effects of future changes in policy. 

This one day Statistics User Forum conference at the Royal Statistical Society will bring together social care policy analysts and data producers together with bodies concerned with the funding of social care, to explore the adequacy of existing statistics to analyse adult social care service availability, utilisation and costs. If we were designing a statistical monitoring system from scratch, what would it look like? What are the gaps in the current system and how might they be addressed? The aim is to identify the major issues for future study and to map out how they might be addressed, as well as providing some pointers for action in the short and medium term.  

The conference will interest a wide range of organisations in both the public and private sectors with an interest in the provision of adult social care data:

* Those concerned with social care policy
* Commissioners of social care data from surveys and from administrative sources
* Analysts and researchers in government, academia and research bodies
* Those concerned with social care policy delivery in both the public and private sectors

Further information and registration details are at:
http://tinyurl.com/ccfn2fe 

Fees are:
Full fee £95
RSS Fellow rate £65
RSS Student Fellow / Retired Fellow rate £45 ______

Consultation on MCS age 14 Survey

CLS is seeking advice from the academic, policy and practitioner communities on what should be covered in the age 14 survey of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), scheduled for 2015.

The latest stage of the MCS6 consultation is taking place from December 2012 to March 2013. We are asking academics, policy makers and other stakeholders to put forward their specific suggestions for content and questions. This information will then be summarised and presented for further debate the MCS6 consultative conference to be held on 27 March 2013 at the Institute of Education, University of London.

For more information see the CLS website:  http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/page.aspx?&sitesectionid=1110&sitesectiontitle=MCS+age+14+survey+consultation

Migration Statistics User Survey


The Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) is examining the topic of migration statistics, as part of a programme of work on statistics and their use in government.  The PASC call for evidence is here: http://tinyurl.com/czwc3wg.

The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) and the Statistics User Forum (SUF) will be submitting evidence to PASC in January.  It is important that this represents the views of the widest possible set of users, and to this end the RSS has put up a survey here to collect opinions:
 

Your response to this survey will be a key input to the overall RSS and SUF response to PASC.  Please complete this survey by Wednesday 9th January to allow time for collation of views by the RSS and SUF.

 

Thursday 6 December 2012

IInforming Voluntary Sector Research: How can official statistics be improved?

Tuesday 15th January 2013
5pm, at the Royal Statistical Society (12 Errol Street, London, EC1Y 8LX)
Tea/coffee available from 4.30

The voluntary sector already plays a significant part in our society and the sector is being asked to play a greater role in public service delivery, such as education, justice and health. To do its job well, the voluntary sector needs statistics: to help it frame the subject it is addressing; to use in bids for resources; to help allocate resources, monitor performance and assess impact. Many larger voluntary sector organisations produce their own statistics, but they and others also rely on statistics from government. This event provides the opportunity for researchers and statisticians to feed into discussions about the adequacy of current statistics and engagement between the voluntary sector and government statisticians, and to hear about the Community Life Survey and recent research into the knowledge and skills of the voluntary sector, in terms of handling data analysis, risk and evaluation.

             Representatives of voluntary sector users and official statistics producers will discuss the adequacy of current statistics and engagement between the voluntary sector and producers of official statistics, and ideas for improvement. To be followed by audience discussion / Q&A.

             Update on progress with the Community Life survey - Rebecca Wyton, Office for Civil Society.

             Data Capacity in the Voluntary Sector - David Walker, Getstats Director, RSS.

Attendance is free and open to all, but pre-registration is recommended. To register for the meeting, please email events@rss.org.uk.  For a map and directions, see www.rss.org.uk/findus. For further information, contact Jouni Kuha at j.kuha@lse.ac.uk.

Understanding Society Research Conference: Call for Papers

24-26 July 2013
University of Essex, Colchester, UK

The Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) will be hosting the 2013 Understanding Society Research Conference from Wednesday 24 July to Friday 26 July 2013 at the University of Essex.

This conference provides an international forum for the exchange of research based on longitudinal data. An important aim of the conference is to bring together people from different disciplines. Papers may be based on any aspect of economics, sociology, politics, social psychology, or research and survey methods.

There is no conference fee. Contributions towards travel and accommodation costs will be available (only for those presenting papers, one contribution per paper presented). 300 word abstracts of papers for presentation at the Conference should be submitted by 15 March 2013.

ISER are not only keen to receive papers using Understanding Society and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), but also the European Household Panel (ECHP), the European Union Statistics of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) and from other UK and non-UK longitudinal studies, as well as comparative papers using the major national panel surveys and the Cross National Equivalent File.

Submit an abstract
Download a poster

Finding survey data for your research: An introductory webinar

Monday 10 December 2012, 11am - 11.50am GMT

NB. This is a repeat of the webinar given on 27 November

This fifty minute webinar will show how to find, explore and access survey data relevant to your research that are available through the Economic and Social Data Service website: www.esds.ac.uk.

The website provides access and support for an extensive range of key economic and social data, including data from large scale social surveys like the British Social Attitudes Survey or the longitudinal survey Understanding Society.

Starting within an overview of the types of survey data available, the webinar will cover searching the data catalogue, navigating data documentation, exploring data online and accessing data files, including special licence and secure data.

This webinar is ideal for new postgraduate research students looking for survey data to answer their research question but is useful for anyone new to social research who wants to know more about survey data.

You can register, and find Information and tips about attending webinars and using GoToWebinar, at http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-12-10-2/