Adding information from other sources

Increasing the Scope and Depth of Understanding Society

One of the key innovations of Understanding Society is to supplement data collected through the questionnaire with information from administrative sources. It may not be possible to collect some of the information in the survey itself, for example because some contextual information (for example neighbourhoods or schools) may not be known to the participants in the survey. It will also be important for the success of the survey that the burden placed on respondents is kept to a minimum (i.e., we cannot have very long interviews). By adding information from other sources it will be possible to increase both the scope and depth of Understanding Society. 

Understanding Society pursues the adding-in of information from external sources at the area, institutional and individual level: 

At the area level...

A wide range of geo-coded data on social and economic characteristics and environmental quality is made available by the Office for National Statistics. Examples include the Indices of Multiple Deprivation or the urban/rural classification. As a rule of thumb, it will be possible to enhance Understanding Society ex post with any geo-coded data, that is, for example with data coded at the level of Super Output Areas, Local Authority Districts, or Primary Care Trusts. 

At the institutional level...

Some information on the quality of institutions respondents are dealing with are available as geo-coded data (see above), for example Local Authority Performance Indicators. For other institutional indicators it is usually necessary to collect additional information from the respondents on, for instance, which school or General Practitioner they go to or where they work.

At the individual level...

Government departments, agencies and employers keep a wide range of information about their customers, clients and employees. Adding information from these sources is subject to the respondents (and data holders) giving permission for these data to be added. This has been built into the design of the Understanding Society questionnaire.

For more details on plans to widen the research portfolio of Understanding Society  by adding information from other sources, see our Description of Information from Other Sources in the Content section.