Increasingly, data that are routinely collected by health and other public services are being linked together for research, particularly around children and families. However, there is limited evidence of research using these data being used to inform policymaking around child and early life health. This project explored how local early-years decision-makers could be engaged and supported to make use of linked routinely collected data in their decision-making.
This project found that although local early-years decision-makers perceive value in research using linked routine data, there is scope to significantly improve these data sources. Key information that is important to local decision-makers was found to be missing from routine data sources.
Future research priorities are to understand why this information is missing and to work with local public services and research teams who link data to address these issues. This would allow for better informed decision-making around child and early life health.
