A project run by Ofsted to identify childcare “deserts” and “oases” has scooped this year’s Campion Award for Excellence in Official Statistics.
The project, which uses cross-government and commercial data to provide novel insights into parents’ experiences accessing childcare, is a “strong example of statisticians working to fill a significant gap in our data”, according to the Royal Statistical Society.
Named for Sir Harry Campion, the first director of the Office for National Statistics' forerunner the Central Statistical Office, the award celebrates good practice in UK official statistics. A partnership with Civil Service World and the Statistics Authority, the prize recognises outstanding innovations, developments and challenges faced by government statisticians in providing both “business-as-usual” outputs and the data needed to better understand emerging societal issues.
Dev Virdee, chair of the Campion Award committee, presents the prize to the Ofsted team
In providing a hyperlocal view of childcare access across 180,000 neighborhoods in England, Ofsted’s entry – dubbed Understanding barriers for working parents: where are childcare deserts and oases? – has delivered “essential insights for both policymakers and the public”, the award judges said.
The Office for National Statistics’ Financial Transactions Data and Research team was highly commended in the same category for its efforts to produce new timely and innovative insights from interbank payment systems data and card spending data. In doing so, the team has “capitalised on the vast amounts of financial data” being generated today, according to the judges.
“The quality of the data gathering and the creation of new datasets are particularly noteworthy, making this work an important contribution to our understanding of UK spending,” they added.
Dev Virdee, chair of the Campion Award committee, said the two projects "show how official statistics can deliver real-world impact" and "reflect the innovation and public value at the heart of this award".
Sir Robert Chote, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, said: “Official statistics are not just important for answering the big policy questions of the day but also the many more that people encounter in their daily lives. A new hyperlocal view of where childcare is available, which the Ofsted Early Years team has produced, will empower families and shape the lives of their children for years to come.
“Meanwhile, the ONS’s work on payment flows, marshalling huge amounts of financial data, will help businesses large and small understand each other better and invest to prepare for the economic and technological changes of the future.
“In a challenging period for the official statistical system, we still have much to be proud of and grateful for. I congratulate the winners and commended entries, who have shown that they are standard-bearers for excellence in official statistics.”
The awards were announced at a ceremony last night, at which a charity that runs a text-based mental health support service took home the Statistical Excellence Award for Trustworthiness, Quality and Value.
Mental Health Innovations was recognised for Shout, the UK’s first and only free 24/7 text-based mental health support service that is also available to children and young people.
It is the sixth winner of the prize, which is awarded by the Office for Statistics Regulation in partnership with the RSS and CSW and which celebrates merit in the voluntary application of the principles of trustworthiness, quality and value that are core to the OSR’s Code of Practice for Statistics.
“By strictly adhering to the principles of TQV, they use anonymised data collected from this service to provide insight into mental health trends across the UK as well as in specific demographic and regional segments,” the judges said.
The award judges also nodded to an “impressively managed merger” with digital mental health service The Mix. They said this had enabled MHI to build “one of the largest datasets on youth mental health in the UK”, which it is using to improve the clarity and accessibility of mental health statistics. These are then shared with stakeholders through routes such as online reports, blogs, posts and in-person events.
OSR director general for regulation, Ed Humpherson, said: “MHI is a very exciting winner that is clearly trail blazing a new approach to providing mental health services by collecting data to help improve advice and access to treatment in this absolutely critical area.”
Dr Sarah Cumbers, chief executive of the Royal Statistical Society, said MHI had "shown how the principles of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value can be embedded into the heart of a data-driven organisation".
“Their work with Shout demonstrates how anonymised data, used responsibly and transparently, can generate powerful insights and help shape better support for those in need,” she added.