Better data infrastructure empowers our researchers to produce better data-driven evidence on ways to prevent and disrupt disadvantage and improve life opportunities for all.
Through our sustained efforts and partnerships with key Australian Government data custodians and agencies, the Life Course Centre has successfully unlocked access to the responsible use of sensitive administrative data on disadvantaged Australian children and families, and their interactions over time with key social institutions such as education, welfare and employment.
These government records had previously been tightly held and not utilised for research purposes. By accessing, analysing and linking this data, we have been able to investigate associations and identify critical time-points in the life course at which interventions can be most meaningful. Access to this data has helped us to inform and influence policy debate and establish a policy discourse that looks at long-term impacts over multiple interactions – that is, a life course approach.
Data for Policy
We have played a leading role in shaping administrative data access in Australia through our ongoing Data for Policy initiative. Our focus on leveraging administrative data for research and policy can be traced back to the start of the Life Course Centre in 2014. Our first Centre launch in 2014 was held in conjunction with our first data workshop and we have since hosted further workshops in Australia in 2015, 2016 and 2019 as well as an international workshop at Stanford University, California, in 2017.
These workshops have been critical in bringing together researchers and government agencies to explore ways to collaborate and fully utilise administrative data to address disadvantage and maximise life opportunities via institutions such as education and employment. These efforts are ongoing, and we will host our next Data for Policy event in collaboration with our foundation partner, the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS), in Canberra in mid-2023.
We have also engaged closely with the Office of the National Data Commissioner (ONDC) since its establishment within the Australian Government Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in 2018. We were involved in all stages of the ONDC Data Sharing and Release Legislative Reforms, making submissions to the 2018 and 2019 consultations and on the Draft Bill in 2020, and it was pleasing to finally see the passing of the Data Availability and Transparency Act 2022, a world-class scheme for sharing government data backed by strong safeguards, by the Australian Parliament in March 2022.
Read more about our Data for Policy program
Innovative Data Use
Our strong partnership approach with government has seen Centre researchers progress innovative projects to demonstrate the insights to be gained from unique analysis of linked administrative data.
This includes pioneering work across many policy areas, from analysis of transgenerational data sets on welfare receipt, tracking the wellbeing trajectories of young mothers and examining educational pathways and outcomes over the life course, to evaluations of programs in areas such as social housing, Vocational Education and Training (VET), and the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP).
One showcase proof-of-concept example is a collaboration between the Life Course Centre, DSS and Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) that focussed on Australians who are Not in
Employment, Education or Training (NEETs). This is a major policy challenge for government and our study, which began in 2016 and was published in 2021, was the first of its kind to link DSS and ABS data. It showed NEETs comprise a much more diverse population than just young people, and NEETs policymaking should therefore cover all working-age people, with tailored supports at different stages of life.
Other research on reducing long-term welfare dependency includes evaluations of the effectiveness of social interventions funded by DSS through its Try, Test and Learn (TTL) fund. Our 2021 TTL evaluation report highlighted how priority investment and early intervention can enable at-risk groups to build skills and capacity to take opportunities to participate in the labour market and live independently of welfare. The key message for programs aimed at improving labour market outcomes was to have a range of supports targeting the various stages of transitioning to work.
Next Steps
Building on these strong foundations, the Life Course Centre’s new flagship Longitudinal Study of Life Opportunities project will extend our evaluation of some TTL participants and link with the new ABS Multi-Agency Data Integration Project (MADIP) that brings together health, education, income, taxation, welfare, employment and census data over time. By linking with MADIP, we will deliver more detailed assessments of the long-term impact of DSS social interventions, barriers to participation, and flow-on, indirect and fade-out effects.
While a lot of important progress has been made in advancing data infrastructure on disadvantaged Australian children and families, there are still challenges remaining and future directions required. High-quality data is essential to strong evaluations of what policies work, and this requires more joined-up, linked data that tracks interactions with key institutions and social services over time.
The Life Course Centre will continue to
advance new initiatives and frontiers in this field, including incorporating and linking national, state, non-government, longitudinal and qualitative data, adding innovative new data sources such as geo-spatial, biometric and machine learning, and progressing new proof-of-concept projects and best practice communities.