IJPDS International Journal of Population Data Science

Everyday data collected by health visitors, hospitals, and schools is increasingly being used by researchers to evaluate early childhood support programmes across the UK. Rather than asking parents to complete lengthy research questionnaires, researchers can use information already collected through healthcare appointments and education services. A new scoping review, published in the International Journal of Population Data Science (IJPDS), examined 25 years of UK research and found that while routinely collected data could make evaluations easier and reduce the burden on families, gaps in the data currently limit what it can tell us.

Evaluating early childhood interventions such as support for expectant parents during the perinatal period to targeted programs for young children - is crucial for understanding how best to improve children’s developmental outcomes and ensure that public funds are used effectively. Traditional research methods, however, can place considerable demands on families. Studies such as randomised control trials rely on parents completing detailed surveys over several years, which can contribute to participants dropping out of the study and may affect how they respond to being assigned to a control group. Using routinely collected data could help address some of these challenges by allowing researchers to follow health and educational outcomes over time without placing additional demands on families.

This scoping review describes 32 unique UK studies that had used, or planned to use, routinely collected data as an outcome measure in evaluations of early years interventions between January 2000 and November 2024. Most studies measured numerous outcomes, including information about both parents and children. Birth outcomes and children’s educational outcomes in Reception were among the most commonly used measures, potentially reflecting the availability and quality of maternity and school records.

 However, the review cautions against viewing routine data as a silver bullet. It is currently insufficient to evaluate most early years interventions and policies on its own, with researchers frequently reporting limitations relating to the relevance, accessibility and quality of the data. Because routine data is not created for use in scientific research, researchers are limited by the specific measures that are available. Important aspects of family life that could be affected by early years interventions, such as parental mental health and confidence, are not always captured.

The researchers therefore call for improvements both in how routinely collected data is recorded, stored and shared, and in how it is used for research. "Routine healthcare services could create a potential piece of the puzzle regarding how children are doing," explained Dr Kate Mooney, the review’s lead author. "If researchers can work with frontline practitioners and policymakers to improve how everyday data is collected, stored, and shared, we could gain far clearer insights into which early years interventions make a difference"

Ultimately, routine data could play an important role in shaping UK family policy. It cannot answer every research question on its own, but closer collaboration between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers could help turn the data generated through everyday services into a more powerful tool for understanding what works best to support children and parents across the UK.

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Dr. Kate Mooney, Research Fellow, Family Wellbeing Team, Department of Health Sciences, University of York and Family Inequalities Research Team, Bradford Institute for Health Research, UK