News and Blog

Exploring transitions to post-compulsory education in Wales

In a new ADR Wales Data Insight, researchers Dr Katy Huxley and Rhys Davies looked at the transitions to post-compulsory education in Wales. The team linked Welsh education data sources, allowing them to identify characteristics associated with those who do, and do not, transition to further learning. The linked datasets included the Welsh National Data Collection…

Gender pay and career progression gap widens with experience in the teaching sector in Wales

Recent analysis from ADR Wales’ researchers used administrative data to estimate career progression and pay differences among female and male teachers and school leaders in Wales. Using anonymised administrative data from the 2019 and 2020 School Workforce Annual Census (SWAC), ADR Wales education researchers found that 77% of the qualified teacher workforce was female, however: 15% of male…

Missed out: the households experiencing multiple deprivation in the least deprived areas in Wales

The Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) is the Welsh Government’s official measure of relative (‘ranked’) deprivation for small areas in Wales. WIMD is used by government and other organisations to target services to address social disadvantage. For example, as part of their programme to increase access to higher education, the Higher Education Funding Council…

Is job quality better or worse after the pandemic?

In a new, open access paper, Rhys Davies and Professor Alan Felstead share insights from quiz data collected before and after Covid-19 to examine what short-term effects the pandemic has had on job quality in the UK. The results show that non-pay-related job quality has improved, differences between occupations have shrunk and the growth of…

Offering a sporting chance: new techniques could help plan the provision of recreation facilities to improve participation

Our previous studies examining variation in access to sporting facilities in relation to socio-economic patterns in Wales have been predicated on an assumption of private travel as the means of transport. We are now including travel distances and times for alternative modes of transport as part of our accessibility calculations. These are derived from an…

Welsh children less satisfied with school during the pandemic than before it

This blog post is the second part of a series presenting preliminary findings on children’s well-being in Wales before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. It uses data from the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB) – Children’s Worlds, a worldwide survey on children’s subjective well-being, with this wave comprising 20 countries in total. The survey…

WISERD researchers present findings on teachers’ job quality

Katy Huxley, Alan Felstead (WISERD) and Francis Green (UCL) presented the first results of their research on the changing job quality of teachers to a fringe event at the National Education Union (NEU) annual conference in Harrogate today (3 April 2023). The evidence is based on a research project carried out by WISERD at Cardiff…

It’s time to rethink what citizen science really is

Citizen science is a popular method of gathering data for natural and social scientists, with the number of projects and publications produced growing year by year. A typical citizen science project uses volunteers to gather data that would otherwise be unaffordable or inaccessible. But, based on the evidence we gathered during our study of a…

How far can you travel from where you live by different modes of transport? Understanding Welsh Places now shows you

It probably comes as no surprise to hear that you can travel further in less time when travelling by private transport, such as in a car, than by public transport using a bus or a train. However, have you ever wondered what this difference looks like visually for the place where you live or work?…

International survey sees Welsh children in urban areas report decrease in overall well-being during pandemic

There is no denying that the disruption to daily life caused by the coronavirus pandemic had a profound influence on children’s well-being, with various international organisations (eg, WHO, UNESCO, WFP, UNICEF) requesting that more be done to assist children in coping with this, to  avoid long-term negative consequences. In Wales, data from the 2021 International…