Approach to data collection

The purpose of the proposed HWB Census was to make more health and wellbeing evidence available for use at all levels of the system, from schools, to local areas to nationally. Data is collected once for use at the most granular level, reducing the burden and providing consistent evidence to support the wide range of needs.

The approach taken with the HWB Census in Scotland was a new approach with central government working collaboratively with local authorities to support each local authority to collect their own data in a consistent way which also provides data at a national level. This approach enables consistent evidence at local and national level for meeting legislative duties. Detail on the relevant legislation is set out in Chapter 7 UK GDPR and data protection. While the relevant legislation specifies that both local authorities and Scottish Ministers have duties on reporting, it does not specify what evidence is used. Therefore it was for each local authority to decide whether to undertake their own HWB Census as the method for gathering the evidence they need.

Once local authorities collected their data, it was shared with Scottish Government for use nationally. Scottish Government published (at aggregate and local authority level) the measures reported in the existing four frameworks – the National Performance Framework, the National Improvement Framework, the Children and Young People’s Outcomes Framework, and the Children and Young People Mental Health Indicator Set. Where local authorities have shared their data with Scottish Government, as Scottish Government publish the indicators reported in the frameworks, local authorities no longer need to provide these indicators directly.

This model of collaborative working supported:

• flexible local data collection
• introduced consistency in data collection
• minimised burden in school-based data collection (compared with the previous landscape of differing local and national approaches)
• introduced efficiencies by meeting data needs at all levels from a single data collection, and providing a shared set of resources for use
• worked to reduce the costs of data collection (when compared with the previous landscape of differing local and national approaches) as identified by the feasibility study.

It is important to note that as the HWB Census was a local authority data collection, it was for local authorities to decide whether to use the digital platform, the questionnaires or the support materials provided. Local authorities also had the flexibility to add, remove or adapt questions to meet their local evidence needs. Further detail on the questions included is set out in Chapter 6 Question development. If a local authority chose to include additional questions to meet their local data needs, any additional development was undertaken locally.

In the 2021/22 Census collection, Scottish Government asked local authorities to share only the responses to questions in the core questionnaires (additional questions included locally did not provide consistent national data and so were not included in analysis by Scottish Government).

Local authorities also had the flexibility to amend question wording or response options. In 2021-22, seven local authorities amended questions, ranging from small changes to the question wording or response options to changes which were not comparable to the questions in the core questionnaires. Where a local authority adapted questions, these were shared with Scottish Government. Data cleaning for Scottish Government use of the data compared any amendments to questions to determine comparability. Where amendments provided comparable data these were retained. Where changes did not provide comparable data, these were excluded from Scottish Government analysis.

For the local authorities who used the HWB Census materials each local authority chose to (1) use the core questionnaires (2) adapt the core questionnaires and (3) use the digital platform provided or (4) use an alternative platform to self-administer their own HWB Census. This underlines the fact that the HWB Census was 32 individual local authority HWB Censuses, rather than a single national Scottish Government HWB Census.  All of the materials were developed centrally to reduce the burden on individual local authorities. Local authorities chose to use the materials, adapt the materials, or develop their own materials (see below, page 13, for the materials developed for use). These were available for local authorities to use in collecting their own health and wellbeing data at a time interval that best met their local need. Scottish Government encouraged all local authorities to undertake their own Census in the same school year, and to share their data with the Scottish Government to allow national analysis to be undertaken. Letters to Directors of Education asked local authorities to consider collecting their own data using the HWB Census materials and, if so, to indicate what stages they planned to include, and to nominate a local authority representative (irrespective of whether they were going to use the HWB Census materials) for membership on the Implementation Group. It was a local authority decision to use the materials as developed.

This approach ensured each local authority has access to its own data first and foremost, so that it had the evidence to inform and monitor their legislative duties as soon as children and young people had taken part in their local Census, whilst minimising the burden on local authorities and ensuring a degree of commonality and consistency across Scotland.

Once each local authority had undertaken its own Census the Scottish Government asked each local authority to share their data in order for the Scottish Government to produce national and local level results that provide the evidence required nationally, for example the National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan, Children and Young People’s Outcomes Framework, National Performance Framework, and policy development and monitoring. This approach of sharing data was therefore similar to other statistical data collections.

Scottish Government published the HWB Census Technical Report, which sets out which local authorities collected data, and the data cleaning and processing undertaken by Scottish Government to produce the published analysis.

To minimise burden on individual local authorities, the Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland led on coordinating the provision of core materials and tools for local authorities to use if they so choose. These included:

• Questionnaires
• Digital platform for collection
• Parental/carer consent letter (including translations into Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Polish, Romanian and Urdu)
• Template for DPIA and Privacy Notices
• Instructions and guidance on using SmartSurvey (including adding school names, applying the accessible theme etc)
• Class response sheet
• Communications toolkit
• Instructions for schools
• Instructions for teachers
• Pupil leaflet
• Summary checklist of activities for implementation
• Local Authority presentation template
• Guidance on considerations for pupils with additional support needs in mainstream and special schools
• Guidance on Consent
• Guidance on the use of SDQ and WEMWBS scores, and scoring tools
• Guidance on implementing disclosure control in school level data, tools and examples
• Scottish Government methodology for producing national analysis

The Implementation Group supported the collaborative approach, with the group identifying solutions to issues raised during implementation and data collection and providing a platform for local authorities and Scottish Government to share knowledge and good practice.

Data controllership arrangements

Figure 1 below sets out the data flows for the HWB Census.

Figure 1: HWB Census data flows

As the local authorities collect and analyse their local HWB Census data they are the data controllers and Scottish Government is their data processor (for those local authorities who use the SmartSurvey platform the Scottish Government has provided them access to). There is a Data Processor Agreement in place for this part of the process. 

There are separate arrangements in place for when local authorities share their data with the Scottish Government, and Data Sharing Agreements are in place for this part of the process.  Only then did the Scottish Government become the data controller of the data it then holds for its own statistical analysis and research purpose.
Post-Census Action: In January 2022, the ICO asked the Scottish Government to reconsider the data controllership arrangements for the HWB Census, specifically whether the project was as joint data controllers. In February 2023, following the response by Scottish Government, the ICO notified they were satisfied that local authorities and the Scottish Government are all separate data controllers within the HWB Census model. Correspondence between the Scottish Government and ICO on this matter has been published.