The HOPE study: Examining the variation in SEN provision and its impact on childhood outcomes in England

Speakers: The HOPE team

One-third of children in England have special educational needs (SEN) provision recorded during their school career. The proportion of children with SEN provision varies between schools and demographic groups, which may reflect variation in need, inequitable provision and/or systemic factors. Part of the HOPE study uses the ECHILD database to explore the variation and impact of SEN provision. Our approach informs the interpretation of findings for policy, practice and families and methods for future evaluation.

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Target trial emulation for policy evaluation

Speakers: Bianca de Stavola and Lorraine Dearden

There are many challenges in designing studies to address policy evaluation using linked administrative data. Designing such studies highlights the difficulties of defining the target population (e.g., children in need of Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision, a very heterogeneous group), qualifying the exposure (e.g., school-recorded SEN), understanding its drivers whilst also accounting for clustering of provision by local authority and school. Additionally, data completeness and temporal variability in coding practices raise issues of how to account for selection bias (due to selection into the study) and residual confounding (due to poorly measured confounders). In this seminar, we will discuss how adopting a target trial emulation framework in this context helps clarify the limitations of the data and the questions that can be addressed.

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What is the ECHILD Research Database?

Speakers: Ania Zylbersztejn, Katie Harron, Matt Jay from UCL GOS ICH

We will introduce the ECHILD Research Database, which links longitudinal administrative records from health, education and social care for >20 million children in England. ECHILD will soon be available for access by accredited researchers on the ONS Secure Research Service. We will use this session to describe the data available in ECHILD, demonstrate how it can be used, and explain how to apply for access.

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