The National Children’s Bureau are looking for 1-2 young people in Wales to be involved in research for an Early Life Cohort Study.

What is the study about?

University College London (UCL) has been commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to conduct The Early Life Cohort Feasibility Study which will conduct a proof of concept test of a new national birth cohort study for the UK. If successful, the feasibility study will pave the way to the first new national birth cohort study in the UK for more than 20 years.

The feasibility study will collect rich data on several thousand babies born across the UK in the year 2021, capturing the economic and social environments into which they are born, and their health, well-being and development in their first 9 months. In doing so, the study aims to paint a nationally representative picture of the circumstances of this new generation, and the multi-faceted factors shaping their lives now and into the future.

The data from both the feasibility study and the future large-scale national cohort will be of great value to the policy and practice communities across the children’s the sector. 

As a leading children’s organisation in the UK, the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) is supporting the feasibility study by undertaking a number of activities including a stakeholder engagement event and consultations with children/ young people and families to help inform the study as it is being implemented. 

We are inviting a small number of young people to take part in a discussion group on Saturday, 11th September (10.00-12.30) to invite your views and opinions on how the study should be carried out. All views within the group will be kept private and confidential. Any points that you make will be aggregated with all of the other responses, and no individual or organisation will be identified in any report produced. 

I’m interested. What do I have to do?

There are a total of three meetings for this project – one in September 2021, the second in February 2022, and the last one is in August 2023.

The first session for the Early Life Cohort study is taking place on Saturday 11th September between 10AM-12:30PM (online).

NCB will provide you with a £20 voucher for taking part in each meeting.

If you’re interested, email Richard Nugent from NCB on rnugent@ncb.org.uk. He will then send over the details on how to join the sessions. You can also ask Richard for more information if you’d like.

The deadline for those interested is 1st September 2021, so be quick!

If you’re able to make three meetings and are younger than 25, you can apply.