Wonders of linked administrative data

This online workshop offers an introduction to administrative data – what is it, how is it securely accessed by researchers and what new evidence has it created to inform policy. It will focus on the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data, which links education, work and benefit records for people in England. It will feature short engaging presentations, interactive polls and opportunities for small group discussions to ask questions and suggest how the data should be used in future.

Administrative data is data collected by government departments or agencies for the purposes of administering government policy, such as keeping records of those attending state funded schools, colleges or universities, or for the purposes of distributing benefits or collecting taxes. This workshop focuses on the value of linking together different administrative datasets and sharing it with the research community under strict conditions for the purposes of conducting research in the public interest. It will focus on one particular linked administrative dataset – the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset – which brings together education, work and benefit records for people who’ve been to school in England since the early 2000s. The workshop will introduce administrative data in general and the LEO data in particular, and showcase some of the fantastic research that has been done using the data. It will offer audience members an opportunity to better understand what administrative data is and how it is used, as well as to suggest how it could be used to create new evidence to inform policy decisions in future.

The event will be chaired by Dr Emma Gordon, Director of Administrative Data Research (ADR) UK. It is being organised and managed by Professor Claire Crawford, UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities.

All welcome.

Those aged 16-35 whose data are potentially included in the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data; those interested in how administrative data are used for research in the public interest; those interested in understanding how administrative data are securely shared with the research community.

Registration can occur up to the event start time (i.e. 12.59 on 5th November 2025)