An earlier pilot study, undertaken ahead of this research project and conducted via the parent website MumsNet and Twitter, posed 10 questions around the idea of linking information held on parents and their children for possible service interventions. Those who took part were asked:
- whether they had heard about data linkage
- whether some of the reasons given by government for linking data were acceptable/unacceptable
- if they would be likely to consent to information on them and their children being joined up
- how much they trusted some of the organisations likely to link data in this way
- under what circumstances they thought data linkage of this nature might be acceptable e.g. to assess whether child abuse might take place in a family
Results
You can read the findings from the pilot survey. We have also written a blog about them.