Hard_Edges_Mapping_SMD_FINAL_VERSION_Web

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www.lankellychase.org.uk
Linking administrative datasets will permit
a more comprehensive picture to emerge
Despite its striking findings, this profile is
in some ways exploratory: it lays out the
parameters of an agenda to be addressed,
rather than providing a definitive account of
all of the terrain that it covers. The current
rapid expansion in the possibilities for direct
data linking – via combining administrative
records of individual service users across
service sectors – should in time allow for
a more systematic picture of these populations,
overlaps, service use, costs and outcomes
to emerge (see also DWP, 2012). From
November 2014 the Administrative Data
Research Centre has been operational in each
of the four countries in the UK, charged with
commissioning, facilitating and undertaking
linking of data between different government
departments. 25 If it were possible to exploit
the data linking possibilities between a range
of government departments and key voluntary
organisations, including the datasets noted
above, but ideally also police, health, social
security and tax systems, this would allow
for much more systematic tracing of both the
‘inflow’ and ‘stock’ of the population of people
facing SMD over time. In the immediate future,
there is an excellent case for extending this
SMD profiling work to Scotland, including using
data linkage techniques, not least because
the possibilities for this in Scotland appear
currently more positive.
» LankellyChase is pursuing
a parallel study focusing
on the ways SMD impacts
differently on women
and girls «
Severe and multiple disadvantage takes
different forms for different groups
Another key area for future research will be
populations whose experience of severe and
multiple disadvantage tends to be differently
structured from the particular nexus of issues
focussed upon in this profile. This most
obviously includes women, and LankellyChase
Foundation is pursuing a parallel study focusing
on the ways in which serious and multiple
forms of disadvantage impact differently on
women and girls. There may also be a case
for parallel studies on other populations who
tend to be under-represented in the type of
SMD focussed upon here, such as minority
ethnic groups and young people or those over
retirement age. Future statistical studies would
require the sort of conceptual underpinning
exercise that provided the foundation of this
first SMD profiling exercise.
25
For more information see:
www.esrc.ac.uk/collaboration/
collaborative- research/adt/
index.aspx.