Using administrative data to create impact: Engaging with the Senedd

Katy Huxley is a Research Fellow for the ADR Wales Skills and Employability research theme and at SPARK based out of Cardiff University. Here, Katy describes the process of giving evidence to members of the Senedd, or Welsh Parliament, along with Rhys Davies, Academic Lead of the same research theme and Co-Director of WISERD.

We recently gave evidence to a Senedd committee, and it wasn’t as scary as it might sound. Within ADR Wales, we have been using data routinely collected by organisations to look at pathways and progression through education in Wales.

In the beginning (for me, circa 2016), we had limited access to education data, and over the years, through the work of ADR Wales (and ADR UK more widely), the support of the SAIL Databank, and of course our funders, we have enabled the bringing together of education records, Careers Wales data and the UK Census 2011.

Data linkage has enabled us to explore the aspirations of school pupils at Key Stage 4, the associations between attainment and various measures of socio-economic status, the impact of careers guidance and pathways from school to Higher Education. Bringing together these disparate data sources has enabled valuable analysis.

We have also been supported by colleagues in the Senedd and particularly knowledge exchange manager Sarah Morse. Having learned more about influencing policy and practice, I was excited to see the consultation ‘Routes to post-16 education and training’ by the Senedd Children, Young People and Education committee.

Rhys Davies and I drafted a response to the consultation, and were subsequently invited to give evidence. And on the 13^th March, albeit slightly anxiously, presented our findings to five members of the Senedd in a private technical briefing.

The committee were very welcoming, and were really pleased to see evidence of the impact of Careers Wales’ work, especially for those from more disadvantaged backgrounds. I enjoyed sharing our work, and they were thankful for our engagement.

I want to express thanks to all those who enabled our research – by providing data, and the platforms to access it – and especially to those who have encouraged us to do more engagement work. If we only share our research via academic routes we are doing ourselves a disservice. So reach out and reach up. If you have something important to say, make your voice heard, there are people willing to listen.