I would like to submit a freedom of information request regarding your council's data linkage practices.

Data linkage (also known as matching, entity resolution or record linkage) is the process of joining data sets through deciding whether two records, in the same or different data sets, belong to the same entity.
Data linkage provides insight, informs policy change and helps answer society’s most important questions through increasing the utility of administrative data. However, linkage presents challenges, as discussed in the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) 2018 report on joining up data, and more work needs to be done to realise its full benefit.
My colleages and I are leading commissioned research that involves the linking of education (school census), social care (child in need census) and health data sets within NHS digital. I am interested to find out how many other local authority areas are linking data on children and young people and the barriers and enablers to the process.

1. Do you currently link your education and social care data for children and young people?
Yes

2. Which of your datasets are you linking? please state all the apply
• School census - N
• Children in Need (CiN) census - N
• Children looked after return SSDA903 data collection - N
• Other (please specify) - Data gets linked from the Social Care system to the Education system.

3. Which groups of children and young people do you link data on? Select all that apply
• Children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities - Y
• Children in Need - Y
• Children looked after (care experienced) - Y
• Children and young people on Free School Meals - Y
• All children and young people - Y
• Other (please specify)

4. How are you using the linked data?
• Strategic planning - Y
• Data dashboard - Y
• Joint commissioning - Y
• Service review - Y
• Targeted interventions (individuals) - Y
• Other (please specify)
• We aren’t using linked data

6. Do you currently link local authority data sets for children and young people with health data sets?
No

7. Which health data sets are you linking with education and or social care? Select all that apply
• Primary care (GP data) - N
• Community Services Data Set (CSDS) - N
• Secondary care (CAMHS) - N
• Children and Young Peoples Service (CYPS) - N
• Accident and Emergency data - N
• Secondary Uses Services (SUS) also known as HES (Hospital Episode Statistics) - N
• Community Services Datasets (CSDS) - N
• Child Health Records - N
• Deaths - N
• Births - N
• Other (please specify)