Market Engagement for a Feasibility Study: usability of local authority data for future statistics on unpaid care and/or disability

For population and migration statistics, the Office for National Statistics is developing use of new data sources and methods, is seeking to continuously improve the quality of our outputs (find out more about our proposed transformation on this page). We aim to develop a system that is sustainable and future proof and deliver a broad, flexible range of outputs and products that respond to user needs and questions of the day. The use of rich administrative data provides an exciting opportunity to evolve these statistics. While some population characteristics and outcomes have a mature coverage by administrative data sources, others require in-depth assessment and examination of different options. We have initiated a program of work that will examine the available data sources and potential strategies to produce admin-based statistics on disability and unpaid care. ONS is seeking to procure a feasibility study from an organisation on the usability of local authority or commercial data holdings within statistics on disability and unpaid care. Little is known about the potential local authority data holdings may have to offer to produce statistics on (unpaid) carers and/or disabled people. This procurement intends to enable a knowledge transfer to develop strategies to produce high quality and useful official statistics about our population and society that decision makers, businesses and citizens so urgently need. Requirements are that the feasibility study should provide insights into, at a minimum: o Data sources and measurement o What administrative data sources provide potential to meet the aims outlined above. Examples of data sources that could be considered are needs assessment forms, carer's assessments, blue badge applications, certificate for visual impairments, o Measurement of characteristics within the dataset o Completeness of data (coverage across different population groups) o Describe data collection methods and quality assurance process and any potential issues. o What statistics could be produced from the data and how they would compare to Census 2021 outputs on the topic. o Limitations o Linkage and scalability o Whether there is consent to link with other data sources such as an admin-based population spine. o Whether there are variables in the dataset that can be used as linkage keys. o Whether there is potential to scale the use of this data towards national levels o Recommendations o Any recommendations to improve data collection to enable future use within statistical data production.

Additional information: How to register Please register on ONS's e-tendering portal - https://in-tendhost.co.uk/ons/aspx/Home . You will then be able to 'express an interest' in this project (all current projects can be found under 'Current Tenders'). When you have expressed an interest, please reply using the correspondence function. Within the message, please give a brief synopsis of what your organisation can offer in terms of the minimum requirements detailed above. We will then schedule follow-up one-to-one sessions where we can discuss further. The one-to-one calls will cover the Questions outlined above.

Additional Information This Exercise is NOT a pre-qualification or selection exercise and is NOT part of any pre-qualification or selection process that may apply to any future potential procurement. It is intended to act as an awareness and information gathering exercise offering an opportunity for suppliers to advise the extent to which they potentially can provide some or all the services that ONS may require, in order to help ONS with its future intentions. It is likely that the route to market for these requirements will be CCS DPS RM6126 Research and Insights. Full details of how to apply for this DPS can be found by clicking on this link: https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/RM6126 The anticipated date for the publication of the full specification is w/c 26/08/2024.

Is a Recurrent Procurement Type? : No