Background
Since 2017-18, Treasury has led a major project designed to improve the quality and availability of data for research, evaluation and policy making.
The Social Investment Data Resource – or SIDR – is a linked, administrative database containing de‑identified information on individuals who have had contact with key government agencies. The SIDR aims to build upon WA’s long and successful history of linking data for research purposes, and to progress recommendations outlined in a 2016 review of data linkage by Professors Fiona Stanley AC and Peter Klinken. It seeks to do so by improving access to data for researchers and policy analysts, including by reducing cost and wait times.
Approach
Development of the SIDR has been a collaboration between the Data Linkage Branch in the Department of Health, Curtin University’s Centre for Data Linkage (CDL) and partner agencies, including the Departments of Communities, Justice, Health, Education and WA Police. Treasury’s role has been to broker the data linkage arrangements for the SIDR, including negotiating the release of datasets from agencies, and to manage and oversee the contract with CDL.
Outcome
Initially, the SIDR will be used to support research relating to the Government’s Target 120 program. In this regard, Treasury’s Data Analytics and Service Redesign team has been granted ethics approval to use SIDR to conduct research into risk factors associated with youth reoffending, as well as to evaluate the success of the program over time.
Treasury is also working actively with stakeholders, including policy analysts and the broader research community, to make the SIDR available for other approved research projects, including to support the Government’s Our Priorities agenda. Looking forward, Treasury is seeking to increase the breadth and coverage of the SIDR, with the objective being to embed and enhance its status as a major research asset for policy making in WA.