This post is written by Ralf Becker, from the University of Manchester about an impending data expedition – the first to be independently run!

The topic? Child poverty levels & Parental employment in the UK

The government recently consulted on child poverty measurement. Extensive data exists which allows us to identify levels of child poverty nationally, regionally and locally. Through the Household Below Average Income dataset (derived from the Family Resources Survey) we are able to look at levels of child poverty at a national and regional level and also the make-up of those in poverty. Data such as the Index of Multiple Deprivation allows us to look at the prevalence of a range of indicators related to poverty at a localised level.

There is a strong correlation between parental employment and child poverty. Data exists on levels of unemployment locally and the number of children in workless households (held by ONS/DWP). To what extent is there a full understanding of levels of parental worklessness and low pay and trends over time.

Can our data explorers find new, inventive, illuminating or even crazy angles to these issues?

When & Where

A kick-off meeting will take place on Friday 12 April 2013, 5-9pm, at MADLAB Manchester. Graham Whitham, Policy Advisor at Save the Children will give an introduction to the issues at hand. This meeting is mainly meant to generate some initial ideas. The material presented and a summary of the ideas will be made available (thedatasquad.wordpress.com) such that a subsequent online data expedition can use, build on and extend this material.

The online version

Congratulations to Ralf for making this happen. We’re hoping to launch an online version of this session, based on the learnings from the offline one. If you’d like to stay informed about when the next expedition is coming up, join us on the School of Data announce list, where notifications about the upcoming expedition will be posted.