New project! Data gaps on poverty in the UK
I’m excited to say that we’re about to begin a new project on data gaps, focused on identifying and helping to fill gaps in UK poverty data.
This is a nine-month, practical research project, looking at two questions:
Data gaps that affect groups working to reduce poverty, particularly in civil society. What are the questions we can’t answer about poverty in the UK right now, and what problems does that cause?
The underlying databases and systems that underpin our understanding of poverty. These include systems for adminstering local authority benefits, DWP benefits, HMRC tax credits, statistical surveys and civil society data. Can this (often invisible) data be used to fill those gaps, find answers and help reduce poverty?
This is also CFPD’s first official project with a partner, working with the Royal Statistical Society (RSS). I’m excited about working with the RSS, who run the important Public Statistics campaign, which explores how we can use the growing availability of data to look beyond government’s needs and answer society’s most important questions.
Our key shared aims with the project are:
Help civil society organisations working to reduce poverty get more data
Raise the visibility of data gaps with decision-makers
And - we hope - secure a government commitment to fill at least one major gap.
We’re also hoping the project will support more sustainable engagement between statistics producers and data users. If you are a data user, or producer, in this area, we’re keen to hear from you.
I’ll blog here regularly on progress, and keep an eye too on the RSS website.
If you’d like to feed insights into this project, ask questions, or if you’d like to be added to a low-traffic mailing list with updates - please do get in touch.
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This project is funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Insight Infrastructure programme, which aims to democratise access to high-quality data and evidence on UK poverty. We are very grateful for their support.