Community Catalyst: Children’s social care data: an intro & considerations for evaluation

In this session, guest speakers Dr Matthew Jay and Dr Rocío (Ro) Méndez Pineda will discuss the children’s social care datasets for England (the child in need census and the children looked after return) and how they can be used for research and evaluation. 
 
Full Title: Children’s social care data: an introduction and considerations for research and evaluation.

Description: This talk will introduce the children’s social care datasets for England (the child in need census and the children looked after return). We will consider how they can be used for research and evaluation, taking careful note of their limitations and data quality. Drawing on a recent national evaluation of Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs, we will illustrate what a quasi-experimental evaluation built on the child in need census can and cannot support in practice.

About our speakers:
Dr Matthew Jay

Dr Matt Jay is an epidemiologist and a proponent of developing a new public health approach to law and legal epidemiology, in which law is treated as a set of upstream and downstream variables relevant to health. He holds a Wellcome Trust Early-Career Award to develop this field through the UCL Family Law & Health Research Group. He has worked with administrative data for over ten years in clinical and research settings, including social care, education, health and justice data, and have been closely involved in developing ECHILD including as a Senior Data Scientist.

Dr Rocío (Ro) Méndez Pineda

Dr Ro Méndez Pineda is a Research Fellow at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, working with the ECHILD database across Population Health Improvement UK and the NIHR Children and Families Policy Research Unit. She completed her PhD at the UCL Social Research Institute in 2026, funded by the ESRC UBEL Doctoral Training Partnership and Foundations, the What Works Centre for Children and Families. Her doctoral research, which this talk draws on, evaluated Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs and multi-agency front door services across England using the Children in Need census linked to education and hospital records, applying difference-in-differences and synthetic control methods alongside a national survey of all 152 local authorities.

She was lead researcher on the Evaluation of Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs, commissioned by the Department for Education, which contributed evidence to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, now the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, and was cited in the Sara Sharif Child Safeguarding Practice Review. She is a co-author of "Just because we can, doesn't mean we should: responsible and meaningful uses of administrative data in the evaluation of complex interventions in children's social care", and has presented findings to DfE, NHS communities of practice and the National Police Chiefs' Council.

About the Community Catalyst:
Co-funded by ADR England and Foundations – What Works Centre for Children and Families, the ADR England Community Catalyst: Children at Risk of Poor Outcomes supports a growing community of researchers and analysts, with a focus on children and young people in children’s social care across the UK.

The Community Catalyst supports the use of administrative data, particularly ADR England Flagship datasets, to strengthen the evidence base. A key priority is supporting and enabling the use of administrative data for evaluation, helping to understand the impact of services and improve outcomes for children and young people. This work is guided by a Research Agenda, developed through a comprehensive evidence review and national stakeholder consultation. 

We will email you a Zoom link within 3 working days. Any problems with registration, please email [email protected].