ECHILD stands for Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data. 

The ECHILD project is a research study run by University College London that joins together existing health, education and social care information for all children in England for the first time.

We are using this linked data to better understand how education affects children’s health, and how health affects children’s education.
 
To start, we will use the data to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown affected children who need extra support. We will also look at the quality of the linked data to find out its strengths and limitations for research.

News

Latest News:

Researchers will soon be able to apply to use the ECHILD Database to answer questions that provide benefit to the provision of child health, social care, and education

21 February 2023

In 2023, the ECHILD Database will be made available to external researchers based in the UK via the ONS Secure Research Service. Researchers will need to be approved and submit a successful application to access the data. 
 
Check back here for more information about accessing the linked data as an approved researcher.  Updates about ECHILD will also be published via Twitter and through the ADR UK mailing list found here: https://www.adruk.org/contact-us/mailing-list-sign-up/

 

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Ruth Blackburn talks at the Catherine Peckham Symposium on her use of the ECHILD Database for evaluating the timing of stress-related presentation to hospital

22 November 2022

Ruth Blackburn's talk at the UCL ICH Catherine Peckham Symposium reported on her study that evaluated the timing of stress-related presentation to hospital in relation to school term or holidays and relationship with health behaviours, based on analyses of the ECHILD database of children in England.  The talk can be watched here: https://youtu.be/oHaKHSJ-WV0.

 

The study is also free-to-read in BJPsych Open here. 

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ECHILD Researcher wins the ONS Early Career Research Award 2022

18 October 2022

The ECHILD team is very proud to announce that Dr Nicolás Libuy Rios has been awarded the 2022 ONS Early Career Research Award for his work on gestational age at birth, chronic conditions and school outcomes: a population-based data linkage study of children born in England.  Nicolás work explores child development, school attainment and provision of special educational needs (SEN) considering gestational age and chronic health conditions.

The full research paper is available for free at the International Journal of Epidemiology here, or read more here. 

 

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Historical news

Read a fully history of project news articles here.