The NatCen Blog

Here we’ll be talking about our research in the context of the latest news, opinion and
analysis through comments from our team of experts. We’d love to hear from you, so post comments or get in touch with us.

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Posted on 15 August 2019 by Miranda Phillips, Research Director

With growing waiting times for GP appointments, are A&E services under pressure?

While most people who go to A&E have an urgent medical problem, NHS data suggests that 15% of A&E use is not medically urgent. The issue of ‘over-use’ of emergency health services is an ongoing concern for both NHS providers and policymakers - and is also shared by the public.
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Tags: British Social Attitudes, GPs, healthcare
Posted on 17 July 2019 by Melanie Doyle, Research Director

Private renters and savings: Are private renters ready to buy?

Private renters make up around a fifth of all households in England – around 4.5 million households in total – and this sector is traditionally viewed as a transition into home ownership. But how well do this group’s savings reflect their buying aspirations?
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Tags: English Housing Survey, home ownership, housing, renting
Posted on 11 July 2019 by Nancy Kelley, Deputy Chief Executive

Over the rainbow?

It’s Pride month, our timelines are full of rainbows, and this week Westminster voted to extend same sex marriage rights to Northern Ireland. So are we really getting less tolerant of lesbian and gay relationships?
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Tags: British Social Attitudes, LGBT, diversity, relationships
Posted on 05 April 2019 by Svetlana Speight, Research Director

Gender gaps in how parents spend their time: do we see a trend towards more equality?

It is a well-documented fact that men are more likely to be in paid employment and to work full-time, while women take on more responsibilities around childcare and the housework. These unequal divisions of paid and unpaid work can affect job opportunities for women and men and result in long-term effects on earnings. As the UK prepares to examine results of this year’s gender pay gap submissions from private and public sector organisations, are we moving at all towards gender equality in home life?
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Tags: Gender equality, Gender pay gap, Parental time use
Posted on 15 March 2019 by Hannah Morgan, Senior Researcher

Public trust in official statistics

While there may be concerns around the levels of public trust in institutions and experts, both in the UK and worldwide, the British public still trust the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and believe in the independent nature and accuracy of the official statistics they produce. The latest figures also show an increase in public trust, albeit from a much lower base, in how the media and the government use official statistics.
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Posted on 07 March 2019 by Fatima Husain, Director of Children & Families (interim)

My career as a social researcher

Fatima Husain was born in Karachi, Pakistan. She left at the age of six and moved from country to country, eventually arriving in the UK around 20 years ago – a long time for her, and breaking a previous record of eight years in the USA. She is a single parent with a daughter, a 20 year old undergraduate studying Physics, and a son, 17, who is supposed to be revising for his A levels. After over 20 years in social research, Fatima is now the interim head of the children and families team at The National Centre for Social Research.
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Posted on 27 February 2019 by Sally McManus, NatCen Associate

Suicidal distress among men in midlife

Men in their forties are more likely to take their own life than other groups. As part of a study funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) we talked with midlife men with experience of suicidal distress, with bereaved family members, and with professionals working in the field. They described their experiences and suggested ways to prevent and respond to suicidal distress in this group.
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Tags: Midlife men, NIHR, Self-harm, suicide
Posted on 18 February 2019 by Mari Toomse-Smith, Director of Health & Biomedical Surveys

How to design a bespoke survey about pensions

The UK has an ageing population, and ageing workforce, and has introduced a range of policy changes to both State Pension and private pensions over recent years. It has never been more important to make sure that policymakers have reliable information about how the public is planning and preparing for later life. Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) recently commissioned NatCen to explore the feasibility of a survey in this area.
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Tags: methodology, pensions, surveys
Posted on 15 February 2019 by Jane Kerr, Senior Researcher

GPS technology’s role in supporting offender management

The ongoing debate over the use of custodial versus community sentences continued recently during a speech in the House of Commons. Rory Stewart, Minister for Prisons and Probation stated that ‘we have conclusive evidence that giving somebody a community sentence rather than a short custodial sentence reduces reoffending over a one-year period’. Innovative technology, in the form of Global Positioning System (GPS) location monitoring, has been outlined as a possible way to better facilitate community sentences.
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Posted on 14 February 2019 by Sally McManus, NatCen Associate

Self-harm: the questions we need to ask

Medical, social, educational and public health services need to understand and address self-harm. Since the early 1990s national UK surveys have sensitively collected information about experiences of non-suicidal self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts. What can we learn from these existing data sources?
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