This article was originally published in December 2014.
The Life Course Centre (LCC) hosted a workshop at The University of Melbourne to lay the foundation for using and sharing available data for research analysis. The Data Resource Workshop, on 8 October, brought together senior representatives and partners from the 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. The Life Course Centre will particularly emphasise the use of integrated data sets drawn from administrative information collected by government agencies.
LCC Director Professor Janeen Baxter outlined the multi-dimensional, dynamic and complex nature of deep and persistent disadvantage and the role of data linkage. “As a Centre dealing with destigmatising and reducing disadvantage we are faced by some compelling challenges and opportunities,” she said. A key challenge is creating the processes to analyse and integrate existing administrative datasets in order to build an evidence-base for improved policy on social disadvantage. One challenge, around creating a data evidence-base, she pointed out, is how to better integrate administrative datasets and improve how they are used. “We aim to create an enduring framework for linking datasets that would include establishing protocols, decreasing the time required to access linked data, and developing new methods for analysing big datasets,” she said.
Government and other agencies
Professor Michele Haynes, LCC Chief Investigator and Training Program Coordinator, said the workshop allowed participants to discuss how government and other agencies can help the LCC achieve its goals through data integration. “This workshop helped us recognise the potential for integrating data to provide larger, richer data sources and to create a safe and effective data environment where this can happen,” she said.
Michael Abbondante, Director at the Australian Bureau of Statistics in Canberra, led the session ‘Integrating Commonwealth Data’, which aimed to identify some of the unique data resources available for undertaking research on deep and persistent disadvantage in Australia. Mr Abbondante said for data integration project where Commonwealth data is involved, there is an agreed set of arrangements that stakeholders need to be aware of, which include principles of privacy preservation, confidentiality and transparency.
Analyse linked data
Professor Mark Western, who is the LCC program leader for Disadvantage Systems and also the ISSR Director, said it is increasingly feasible for social scientists to do more of the type of research that is needed.
“Increasingly we have the technical research infrastructure and analytic methods to analyse linked data. We also have some of the frameworks and administrative arrangements in place to ensure that researchers use linked data in ways that preserve privacy and confidentiality, especially at the Commonwealth level and in some states. Through the Life Course Centre we thus have a very significant opportunity to work with our partners to analyse linked data sets and thereby contribute to policies to tackle the social and economic problems associated with disadvantage.
“We also have the opportunity to help deepen the capability of Australian social scientists to do more of this kind of important policy-relevant work,” he said.
