Four third sector organisations will receive support through Understanding Society’s Research Voucher Scheme which provides up to £5,000* for policy relevant research that uses the Study’s data.
Many charities depend on good evidence to pursue their mission, influence key stakeholders or plan ahead. With much richer survey and administrative data now publicly available charities have access to new opportunities for policy learning and influencing social change through better insights.
Of the diverse research ideas submitted for the Understanding Society Research Voucher Scheme, the selection panel chose three projects for support. These will exploit some of the key benefits of the Study such as it longitudinal panel design, household focus, youth survey and multi-topic content.
Young Women’s Trust: Pathways to economic inactivity amongst young women
The organisation supports and represents disadvantaged young women (16 to 30). An area of concern has been why economic inactivity within the UK is disproportionately high amongst young women – 274,000 are economically inactive compared to 179,000 young men (ONS, 2016). With economic inactivity being associated with long-term scarring effects, better research evidence is needed to improve current policy and practice. YWT want to examine the different pathways to economic inactivity, with a range of possible factors at play: work history; educational attainment; caring responsibilities; and the presence of disability. Quantitative research utilising Understanding Society will be supplemented (separately) by qualitative research with young women.
Child Poverty Action Group: The financial and subjective impact of transitions into parenthood
CPAG works on behalf of one in four children in the UK who are growing up in poverty. Within the context of fundamental changes to the UK benefit system, precarious employment and projections about possible growth in child poverty, the organisation is interested in understanding how financial security for different households changes as a result of parenthood and which families are most vulnerable to insecurity and poverty. Understanding the impact of parenthood on measures such as income, managing bills, hours worked, subjective financial situation and childcare could help inform future policy towards child support and child poverty. The research is particularly well-suited to using longitudinal data as it depends on examining family financial circumstances before, during and after having children. The findings will feed into CPAG’s Secure Futures project, which is developing fresh ideas on a social security system fit for the 21st Century that prevents poverty – reviewing first principles and focusing on children.
The Children’s Society and Barnardo’s: Children’s mental health in the transition from childhood to adolescence – predictive and protective factors
The two charities are collaborating on a research project, having initially submitted separate proposals on the distinct but overlapping concepts of children’s wellbeing and mental health.
An estimated that 850,000 children have a mental health problem. The primary aim of the research is to uncover different trajectories of mental health among adolescents, and to understand better which factors are associated with better mental health outcomes among 10-15 year olds.
Working with Understanding Society, a key feature of the analysis will be to identify predictive and protective factors, particularly ‘everyday factors’ such as exercise, diet, family relationships, bullying, screen time, etc. some of which may be more malleable to influence through programmes, schools and family life.
Understanding Society is working additionally with The Children’s Society to provide quantitative analysis of factors they have identified that could potentially be linked to self-reported wellbeing of young people. The charities are interested in both generating clear messages for policy makers and examining how, through their services, they could promote better mental health.
Raj Patel, Acting Director of the Understanding Society Policy Unit said:
“Each of these three research projects is well suited to the use of Understanding Society data. As a longitudinal study it tracks people over time. Rather than getting a one-off sense of what is going on at a particular point in time, longitudinal data can draw a moving picture of how things evolve over time.
By examining how key events in people’s lives or their behaviours impact on outcomes and the factors that matter, the research projects hope to shed new policy relevant insights on important issues affecting young people and families.”
Subject to learning lessons from the first phase of this new research voucher scheme, Understanding Society will be issuing a fresh call for proposals in 2017. The date for this has yet to be finalised but expected to be around March 2017.
*This is not a cash grant. The scheme provides analytical support to successful applicants through the Understanding Society Policy Unit.