We are pleased to announce a new iteration of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset is now available via the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) Secure Research Service.

The new iteration of LEO is now available, including additional years of data and introducing exciting new linked datasets. This will open up a host of new research opportunities for researchers using this data for the public good. Read further information in this email.

About LEO

LEO brings together de-identified administrative data from education, social care and the labour market, enabling researchers to study people’s journeys through childhood and into adulthood. Its purpose is to enhance the life chances of current and future learners, by improving the evidence base available to central and local government, the broader education system, and the public.

More specifically, LEO draws together education records from schools, including national achievement test scores and qualifications, and further and higher education institutions. These are linked to information on employment and self-employment, earnings and out-of-work benefit claims from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions.

The LEO Programme team, working as part of the ONS’ Secure Research Service, have worked to make this new iteration available as quickly as possible. Our partners at ADR UK continue to fund development of LEO, including support to DfE to help make these data more accessible.

About the new iteration

We are pleased to confirm that applications can now be made to access the second iteration of the LEO standard extract via the ONS' Secure Research Service. This iteration includes:

• refresh of existing data up to 2020-21
• highly valuable new data sources such as:
  • the Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR)
  • COVID-19 Furlough data 
  • additional geographic variables 
  • UCAS applications data (Eng. University Applicants) 
• new services enabling onward linking to additional organisation level data
• shorter times between application and access for new project applications and faster turnaround times for project change requests
• improved metadata, guidance and knowledge base
• access to longer project extension periods (now up to five years) upon approved request.

Accessing these data

Guidance on accessing the service itself and the LEO research community can be found online.

The FAQ document which is available on the guidance page includes instructions on how to apply to join the online LEO Research Community available on “KHUB”.

Please send any questions you have to the leo.programme@education.gov.uk mailbox. The LEO programme team may experience a backlog of queries with this new iteration, however will answer as many of these as possible in the FAQs.