Service updates
Limited service support over the bank holidays
Please be advised that SRS service teams will be unavailable on the following days.
- Monday 29 May
- Tuesday 30 May
On these days the SRS environment will continue to operate but SRS teams will not be available for support. Service-level agreements (SLAs) will pause on these dates, resuming the next working day.
Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
SRS Statistical Support delays
Some users will have recently noticed that researcher requested actions involving SRS Statistical Support (such as ingests to, outputs from, and transfers between SRS projects) are taking longer to complete than the advertised 5-working day Service Level Agreement (SLA). This is due to ongoing high SRS demand and limited internal resource.
We now advise that you allow at least 10 working days for your requests to be completed. Note that 'blocks' will still lead to SLA reset (see section 3.2 of Researcher Output Guidance PDF linked on the SRS pages of the ONS website for more information).
We apologise for the inconvenience and the impact on your research that this will cause. Be assured that we are working to return to normal completion times as soon as possible.
A spotlight on datasets currently available in the SRS
Virus Watch - England and Wales
Virus Watch has collected personal and special category data to help inform the national public health response to the coronavirus pandemic. We will share de-identified data from our baseline, weekly and monthly surveys as well as laboratory data. Virus Watch will provide data relevant to a wide range of audiences involved in pandemic response.
Over 50s Lifestyle Study - Great Britain
The Over 50s Lifestyle Study is a follow-up to the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey. It contains data on people aged 50 to 70 years in Great Britain with a focus on the characteristics of those leaving the labour market, their motivations to return, funds in retirement, health and partner information.
Dataset of the month
The Business Register and Employment Survey
The Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) publishes employee and employment estimates at detailed geographical and industrial levels. It is regarded as the definitive source of official government employee statistics by industry.
The survey records a job at the location of an employee’s “local unit” workplace. Employment is calculated by adding the number of working owners (this includes sole traders, sole proprietors and partners who receive drawings or a share of the profits, or both, but are not paid via Pay as you Earn) to the number of employees employed by a business.
The BRES has two purposes, collecting data to update local unit information and business structures on the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) and producing annual employment statistics. It is important that the information held on the IDBR is correct as it is a comprehensive list of UK businesses, which the ONS and other government departments use as a sampling frame for business surveys.
BRES employment statistics are widely used, particularly by local government planning departments who use it to forecast trends in employment in their specific areas. It is also an important data source for analyses of business activity.
Case study of the month
Racial equality in the teacher workforce
A research study using secure data found that there is an under-representation of people from ethnic minority backgrounds within the teacher workforce in England. This is most pronounced at senior leadership and headship levels, which is largely driven by ethnic disparities in progression rates during the early career stages. This research provides important insights for establishing a more equitable teaching profession in the future. It was cited by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Race Equality in Education, which used the research to highlight the importance of racial equality.
To read the case study in full please visit the Administrative Data Research (ADR) UK website.
You can also listen to the authors presenting this research at 11:00 today, Thursday 18 May, during their Research Excellence Series Talk.
Funding opportunity coming soon:
ADR UK Research Fellowships using ADR England flagship data
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ADR UK will soon invite applications for ADR UK Research Fellowships using ADR England flagship datasets. Grants will be available for projects up to a value of £175,000 (full economic cost). These Research Fellowships will be funded for up to 18 months in duration. The call for applications will open on 5 July and you can find out more by registering now for an applicant webinar.
Exploring the quality of administrative data using qualitative methods
The Methodological Research and Development Hub at the ONS regularly publishes articles in the ONS working paper series. Read the latest paper which explores the quality of administrative data using qualitative methods.
Contact methods.research@ons.gov.uk for more information.
In case you missed it...
The future of data access: A showcase of the Integrated Data Service
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Last month the ONS hosted a two-hour virtual event to introduce SRS users to the Integrated Data Service (IDS).
We welcomed around 500 members of the research community for a packed agenda, including presentations, a pre-recorded video demonstration, and a question and answer session. Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to the event, which was just the first iteration in supporting SRS users in their transition to the IDS.
Around 180 questions were received during the event and ONS colleagues are now working to collate them, provide answers, and disseminate them to attendees. Thank you for your patience as we work to communicate the most up to date information.
Events
Becoming a code artisan: hints and tips to write and share effective code
On Thursday 25 May at 10:30, the ONS and ADR UK will host an exclusive 90-minute workshop covering the principles of writing and documenting clean and readable code.
This interactive workshop is ideal for those who are interested in sharing value added code for addition to code repositories, or for supporting wider analytical publications.
Please note that this event is now sold out but you can email srs.engagement.team@ons.gov.uk to add your name to the reserve list.
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ONS Research Excellence Series 2023
Thursday 18 May, 11:00 to 12:00
Jack Worth and Dawson McLean from the National Foundation for Educational Research will be providing a virtual presentation on 'Racial equality in the teacher workforce', which received a commendation for collaboration at the 2022 Research Excellence Awards.
Thursday 15 June, 11:00 to 12:00
Dr Becky Arnold from the University of Keele will provide a virtual presentation on 'Controlling the spread of COVID-19 in vulnerable settings', which won the ONS Cross-government Analysis Award at the 2022 ONS Research Excellence Awards.
Have you listened to the latest podcast episode?
Local data: How new data sources are helping to calibrate communities
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In the latest episode of Statistically Speaking, we shine the spotlight on local data and look at how good statistics for small areas make for better targeted policy interventions, and more effective use of valuable public resources.
Regular maintenance to the SRS – Researcher update
Following some recent enquiries, this is an update on the weekly and monthly timetable of scheduled maintenance, which is carried out to keep the SRS running smoothly for researchers.
To allow your code to run effectively and without interruption, please avoid running your analysis during these times.
Weekly maintenance
All servers are rebooted between 07:00 and 07:30 every Monday morning and the SRS will not be accessible during these times
Monthly maintenance
Updates are applied on the final Saturday of every month between 07:00 and 11:00. The SRS will not be accessible for the duration of this maintenance.
Dates for monthly maintenance 2023
- Saturday 27 May
- Saturday 24 June
- Saturday 29 July
- Saturday 26 August
- Saturday 30 September
- Saturday 28 October
- Saturday 25 November
- Saturday 30 December
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