Introduction to ECHILD: Linked data from health, education and children’s social care

Delivered by expert ECHILD users, including Dr Ruth Blackburn, Professor Katie Harron, Dr Matt Jay, Dr Ania Zylbersztejn, Dr Vincent Nguyen, Dr Louise McGrath Lone, Dr Joseph Lam, Dr Eliazar Luna and Dr Rocio Mendez Pineda, this course will provide participants with an understanding of how linked health, education and children’s social care data can be used to answer important research questions.

The course is designed for analysts and researchers who want to learn more about ECHILD, including its component datasets, strengths and limitations, access arrangements, and how it can support policy-relevant research. 

This two-day course combines lectures, case studies and practical sessions to introduce participants to the opportunities and challenges of working with ECHILD. Day one will introduce the different component datasets within ECHILD, including National Pupil Database (NPD), Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Maternity Services Data (MSDS), Mental Health Services Data (MHSDS), and Community Services Dataset (CSDS). Participants will explore case studies demonstrating how ECHILD can be used for research, as well as the strengths and limitations of linked administrative data. The day will also cover designing research studies using ECHILD, accessing data through the ONS Secure Research Service (SRS), and key considerations when working with linked datasets.

Day two will focus on practical sessions using R and Stata. Participants will work through an exemplar research study using ECHILD, covering developing electronic cohorts, phenotyping to define exposures, outcomes and covariates, preparing and analysing longitudinal cohort data, and using linked administrative data for policy evaluation and population research. By the end of the course, participants will understand what data is available in ECHILD, understand the strengths and limitations of ECHILD, know how to access ECHILD data, understand how to develop electronic cohorts using linked administrative data, and have practical experience analysing ECHILD cohort data.