Data for Policy

This workshop brought together senior representatives and partners from the Life Course Centre, Commonwealth and State government agencies, data custodians, data integration authorities and non-government organisations. The focus of the workshop was data integration, or data linkage, which involves combining data sets from different sources, to build more comprehensive data resources.

This workshop brought together key data and policy stakeholders from Commonwealth Government agencies. Life Course Centre researchers worked with government stakeholders to identify questions of immediate policy priority and research projects that could use existing data. One of the projects arising from this was the NEET project (Not in Employment, Education or Training).

The Department of Social Services and the Life Course Centre partnered in hosting the inaugural Longitudinal Data Conference in partnership with the Department’s National Centre for Longitudinal Data (October 2016). This was Australia’s first major public event to focus on survey and administrative longitudinal data, including the ways in which it can inform Australia’s social policy, and the key policy questions that should be driving the research agenda.

The Life Course Centre, Stanford Center for Poverty and Inequality, and Children’s Data Network co-hosted an international workshop on government administrative data for research purposes at Stanford University, California. Stakeholders from Australian, American and Canadian universities and government agencies were in attendance. The workshop focused on increasing awareness on the opportunities, bounds, innovations and future directions of using government administrative data to solve policy-relevant questions across countries; and identifying competencies and capacity required to enable government administrative data to be used more widely and effectively. The workshop also shared experiences on addressing social licence for using administrative data, and strategies for communication and partnerships with government agencies.

This two-day workshop was framed around the opportunity represented by draft Commonwealth data sharing legislation being developed by the then new Office of the National Data Commissioner. As of 2022, that legislation is now in place, and data access and infrastructure issues have moved on from there. The Data Integration Partnership for Australia (DIPA 2017–20), which powered much of the Commonwealth Department-based linked data analytics was showcased at this event, but DIPA was not re-funded after 2020. However, the Centre engaged in several notable projects through DIPA, particularly through the Social, Health and Welfare Analytical Unit (SHWAU). This included in projects in early childhood education and care, higher education, and the Adult Migrant English Program.

Our sixth Data for Policy event was our biggest to date, attracting approximately 150 attendees from across all levels of government, the non-profit and community services sector, and academia. The 2023 Data for Policy Summit was held over two days in Canberra with the program shaped by our Data for Policy Planning Committee, compromising partner representatives. The summit featured a diverse range of speakers, facilitators and discussants and opportunities for networking. It included keynote government and partner addresses as well as interactive sessions spanning the future of data and its use for research, informing policy and practice, program evaluation, place-based approaches, closing the gap, early years investments, housing and homelessness, and disability.