Holidays, food environment and children's outcomes

The Data will be used for the purpose of a research project: ‘Holidays, food environment and children's outcomes’

This project aims to improve understanding of how the circumstances faced by school-age children during their school holidays contribute to the rise in childhood obesity and mental health problems in the UK, and the extent to which holidays drive inequality in these health outcomes. Obesity and mental ill-health have serious implications for children’s future wellbeing, as well as productivity and healthcare costs.

The Data will be used to investigate the impact of school holidays and local food environments on health outcomes with a focus on those that can potentially change in a short period of time in response to a change in the environment or to behaviours.

No data will flow to NHS England for the purposes of this Data Sharing Agreement (DSA).

The University of Essex will supply a dataset of neighbourhood-level characteristics to NatCen, with an LSOA and Local Authority identifier.

The data will not contain any directly identifying details.

NatCen will link the neighbourhood-level characteristics to the Health Survey for England (HSE) data and delete the LSOA identifier, before supplying back to the University of Essex.

The University of Essex have specified a limited set of variables from the standard End User License version of the HSE for NatCen to supply, to reduce the risk of accidental disclosure/identifiability in combination with the geographical data and LA identifier. (For example, broad ethnicity groups, few socio-economic classification categories).

The HSE data will contain no direct identifying data items.

The Data will be pseudonymised and individuals cannot be reidentified through linkage with other data in the possession of the recipient.

The Data will not be transferred to any other location.

The Data will be stored on servers at the University of Essex.

The Data will be accessed by authorised personnel via remote access.

The Controller must confirm and provide evidence upon audit by NHS England that access via any remote device complies with the data security obligations within this DSA and the Data Sharing Framework Contract.

For remote access:

· Remote access will only be from secure locations situated within the territory of use (as further restricted elsewhere within the DSA if so done) stated within this DSA;

· Access controls granting users the minimum level of access required are in place;

· Remote access is only via secure connections (e.g., VPNs or secure protocols) to protect data;

· Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required for remote access;

· Device security, including up-to-date software and operating systems, antivirus software, and enabled firewalls are utilised for the remote access;

· All remote access is undertaken within the scope of the organisation’s DSPT (or other security arrangements as per this DSA) and complies with the organisation’s remote access policy.

The above applies in addition to any condition set out elsewhere within the DSA (e.g. who may carry out processing, and for what purpose).

The data will be combined with publicly available data on school holiday dates in the local authority of residence and information about initiatives related to holiday periods and term time (for example: holiday schemes, universal free school meal schemes). Researchers will use lower tier local authority identifiers and dates of interview / nurse visit, requested to link this information.

The expected outputs of the processing will be:

· A published no academic report of findings by end of 2027

· Submissions to peer reviewed journals by end of 2027]

· Presentations to academic audiences throughout 2027

· Presentations at appropriate public health and economics conferences throughout 2027

The outputs will not contain NHS England Data and will only contain aggregated information with small numbers suppressed as appropriate in line with the relevant disclosure rules for the dataset(s) from which the information was derived.

The outputs will be communicated to relevant recipients through the following dissemination channels: [add/delete as appropriate]

· Journals

· Workshops and webinars involving civil servants and public health practitioners

· Social media

· Public reports · Direct bilateral engagement with local authorities and ICBs · Briefing documents provided to civil servants and public health practitioners · Co-hosted events with to civil servants and public health practitioners · Public events for to civil servants and public health practitioners · Posters displayed at academic conferences · Press release and media engagement · Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) newsletter shared on dedicated web pages, the explainer.

The findings of this research study are expected to contribute to evidence-based decision-making for policymakers, by influencing decisions around support offered within school holidays (such as food vouchers, subsidised holiday clubs, increased holiday mental health support) and how these are targeted; removing barriers to service uptake; and changes in planning law to improve children’s food environment, for example. These improvements together are expected to reduce the impact of school holidays on health inequalities, benefitting children, their families, reducing pressure on the healthcare system and fostering economic growth.

The use of the data could:

· help the system to better understand the health and care needs of populations.

· lead to the identification or improvement of interventions, or health and care system design to improve health and care outcomes or experience.

· advance understanding of regional and national trends in health and social care needs.

· advance understanding of the need for, or effectiveness of, preventative health and care measures for particular populations or conditions such as obesity and diabetes.

· inform public health programmes, for example to improve equity of access, experience and outcomes.

· inform decisions on how to effectively allocate and evaluate funding according to health needs.

Yielded Benefits is not a requirement for new applications.