DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-8681-1
title: Next Steps: Linked Health Administrative Datasets (Hospital Episode Statistics), England, 1997-2017: Secure Access
title: Next Steps - Linked Administrative Data
title: NCDS; HES

description: &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Next Steps&lt;/i&gt;, previously known as the 'Longitudinal Study of Young People in England' (LSYPE1), follows the lives of around 16,000 people born in 1989-90 in England. There have been eight sweeps of the study so far, between 2004 and 2016.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The study began in 2004 and included young people in Year 9 who attended state and independent schools in England. Following the initial survey at age 13-14, the cohort members were interviewed every year until 2010, when they were aged 19-20, to map their journeys from compulsory schooling to university, training and, ultimately, entry into the labour market. The survey over the past seven sweeps (2004-2010) has thus mainly focused on the educational and early labour market experiences of young people, but also included diverse information on aspects of their lives including social participation and attitudes, risky-, crime- and anti-social behaviours, health and wellbeing, family formation, and aspirations for the future. The survey data has also been linked to the National Pupil Database (NPD) records, including cohort members' individual scores at Key Stage 2, 3 and 4.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Interviews for the first four sweeps were conducted face-to-face, and young people were interviewed along with their parents. At Sweeps 5 to 7, a mixed mode approach was introduced and respondents – the young person only - could complete the interview online, over the telephone, or face-to-face.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The first seven sweeps of the study (2004-2010) were funded and managed by the Department for Education (DfE). In 2013 the management of Next Steps was transferred to the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the UCL Institute of Education.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;In 2015 Next Steps was restarted, under the management of CLS, to find out how the lives of the cohort members have turned out at age 25. The eighth sweep of the study took place between August 2015 and September 2016 with the fieldwork carried out by NatCen Social Research. The Next Steps age 25 survey was aimed at increasing the understanding of the lives of the young adults growing up today, and in particular the transitions out of education and into early adult life. It maintained the strong focus on education, but the content was broadened to become a more multi-disciplinary research resource. Data was collected about cohort members' education and job training, employment and economic circumstances, housing and family life, physical and emotional health, and identity and participation. A wide range of administrative data linkage consents were collected covering health, education, economics and criminal behaviour. The collection of the data involved a sequential mixed-mode design. Participants were first invited to participate online, non-responders were then contacted by telephone and face-to-face interview afterwards.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The age 25 survey sample design comprised contacting all cohort members who had ever taken part in any of the previous sweeps of the study (except those who had given a clear refusal or are ineligible). Further information for Sweep 8 of Next Steps may be found on the &lt;a class="external" href="https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/cls-studies/next-steps/" title="Centre for Longitudinal Studies" target="_blank"&gt;CLS&lt;/a&gt; website.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Secure Access datasets:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;Secure Access versions of Next Steps have more restrictive access conditions than versions available under the standard End User Licence (see 'Access' section).&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Secure Access versions of the Next Steps include:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;sensitive variables from the questionnaire data for Sweeps 1-7. These are available under Secure Access SN 8656. All questionnaire data from Sweep 8 is released under End User licence.  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;National Pupil Database (NPD) linked data at Key Stages 2, 3, 4 and 5, England. These are available under SN 7104.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Linked Individualised Learner Records learner and learning aims datasets for academic years 2005 to 2014, England.  These are available under SN 8577.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;detailed geographic indicators for Sweep 1 and Sweep 8 (2001 Census Boundaries) - available under SN 8189 and geographic indicators for Sweep 8 (2011 Census Boundaries) - available under SN 8190. The Sweep 1 geography file was previously held under SN 7104.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Linked Health Administrative Datasets (Hospital Episode Statistics) for years 1998-2017 held under SN 8681.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Linked Student Loans Company Records for years 2007-2021 held under SN 8848.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;When researchers are approved/accredited to access a Secure Access version of Next Steps, the End User Licence version of the study - Next Steps: Sweeps 1-8, 2004-2016 (SN 5545) - will be automatically provided alongside.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Next Steps: Linked Health Administrative Datasets (Hospital Episode Statistics), England, 1998-2017: Secure Access&lt;/span&gt; study includes data files from the NHS Digital HES database for those cohort members who provided consent to health data linkage in the Age 25 sweep. The HES database contains information about all hospital admissions in England. The following linked HES data are available:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="x_x_MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;1)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;      Accident and Emergency (A&amp;E)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;The A&amp;E dataset details each attendance to an Accident and Emergency care facility in England, between 01-04-2007 and 31-03-2017 (inclusive). It includes major A&amp;E departments, single specialty A&amp;E departments, minor injury units and walk in centres in England.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="x_x_MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;2)      Admitted Patient Care (APC)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;The APC data summarises episodes of care for admitted patients, where the episode occurred between 01-04-1997 and 31-03-2017 (inclusive).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="x_x_MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;3)      Critical Care (CC)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;The CC dataset covers records of critical care activity between 01-04-2009 and 31-03-2017 (inclusive).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="x_x_MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;4)      OutPatient (OP)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;The OP dataset lists the outpatient appointments between 01-04-2003 and 31-03-2017 (inclusive).&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;CLS/ NHS Digital Sub-licence agreement&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;NHS Digital has given CLS permission for onward sharing of the Next Steps/HES dataset via the UKDS Secure Lab. In order to ensure data minimisation, NHS Digital require that researchers only access the HES variables needed for their approved research project. Therefore, the HES linked data provided by the UKDS to approved researchers will be subject to sub-setting of variables. The researcher will need to request a specific sub-set of variables from the Next Steps HES data dictionary, which will subsequently make available within their UKDS Secure Account. Once the researcher has finished their research, the UKDS will delete the tailored dataset for that specific project. Any party wishing to access the data deposited at the UK Data Service will be required to enter into a Licence agreement with CLS (UCL), in addition to the agreements signed with the UKDS, provided in the application pack.&lt;/p&gt;