What is being done with the information we have collected so far?
What is being done with the information and what has been found?
Information gathered from the study so far is already being used to help improve services to young people. This section describes some of the things that have been done with the information and some of the findings so far.
Firstly, we would just like to remind you that all your answers are treated as strictly confidential by the Next Steps research team. This means, for example, that no-one at your school, college or workplace, no-one who lives with you and no other government department will ever be able to identify you through what you tell Next Steps. When the results of the study are written up in published reports, it will be impossible to identify you or your family.
Your personal details (name and address) are kept separately from the information you give us and in secure conditions (including encryption) which ensure they cannot be accessed by anyone outside the research team. When we need to transfer data between DCSF and the research team we use an extremely secure on-line method not copying data to media such as disks.
Your personal details will never be passed on to outside organisations, apart from research organisations doing more work for the DCSF or DIUS on the Next Steps study who will be legally obliged to keep them confidential.
Addition of examination results
If you have ever been to a state school, information about your examination results will be added to your answers from something called the National Pupil Database (NPD). The NPD is made up mainly of information the DCSF collect from state schools every year. We do this so we don’t have to ask you so many questions about exams you have done in the past, which helps to make the interview shorter for you.
If you are at an independent (‘private’) school (or were attending one when you took your GCSEs), and have never attended a maintained secondary school, then DCSF will link your answers to a database which contains only examination results such as GCSEs and A-Levels. Again, this is so we don’t have to ask you about your results.
To learn more about some of the findings from the study please click the headings below
Here you can find a selection of findings from the study so far. We will update this section in future to reflect the findings from the study and the ways in which we are using the information you gave us.
Favourite subjects for those hoping to go to university (Click to show/hide)
We asked you about degree subjects that you would want to study if you went to University. The top ten choices were:
1. Law or Business Law
2. Medicine
3. Physical Education or Sports Science
4. English or English Literature
5. Drama or Theatre Studies
6. Art & Design
7. Psychology
8. Computing or Information Technology
9. Mathematics
10. Business and Management
Your Health (Click to show/hide)
We asked you about how you had been over the previous 12 months. Overall you were positive about your health with more than 95 per cent of you saying your health was either very good or fairly good. Boys were more likely to report their health as very good and were also less likely to say their health had been not very good, or not good at all. Less than one in 200 of you said your health had not been good at all.
Using Computers (Click to show/hide)
85% of young people have access to a computer at home and over 90% have access to one at school. Over 90% said you use a computer to help with your school work. There are a variety of ways you use computers to help including: word processing spreadsheets computer graphics emails surfing the internet for information to help with homework. Of those of you with a computer at home almost all of you are also using your computers for reasons other than your schoolwork. The chart below illustrates some of the most popular uses.
Use of Computers (Apart from for school work)
Caring responsibilities (Click to show/hide)
Some of you help to look after others in your household. More than one in 20 of you had some kind of caring responsibilities and in most cases, this involved spending between 1 and 5 hours a week. We also asked you about who it was that you helped to care for and most commonly it was a brother or sister.
Relationships with parents (Click to show/hide)
Young people are more likely to talk to their mums than to their dads about things that matter to them – 61% say they talk to their mums more than once a week or most days but only 40% say they talk to their dads as often.
The overwhelming majority of young people get on well with both their parents; 97% of young people say they get on well or very well with their mother and 95% say they get on well with their father. However, most young people and their parents quarrel now and then – 22% of young people say they fall out with their mother at least once a week and 18% say they fall out with their father at least weekly.
What you ended up doing after Year 11 (Click to show/hide)
A few times we have asked you what you wanted to do after finishing Year 11 and last year we were able to find out what you actually ended up doing. The majority of you planned to stay on in full time education and more than 80 per cent of you who planned to, did indeed remain in full time education.
Nearly one in ten of you had said you planned to leave full time education and one of the alternatives was to get a full time job. Over half of you who had intended to get a full time job did so, while the rest either remained in education after all or had not yet found a job.
Ways in which young people spend their free time (Click to show/hide)
On a normal school day 85% of young people watch TV for at least one hour after school .
79% of young people help around the home by doing some household chores such as cooking, cleaning, washing-up or gardening. On average you spend three hours a week helping out.
Almost a quarter, 23%, of young people have a paid job which they do in their spare time. This normally takes four hours a week (on average young people receive £14 for this work).
A small proportion of young people, 5%, have to look after other members of their family because they are disabled or sick. On average these young people spend six hours a week looking after relatives.
Playing computer games is very popular amongst young people with 34% playing 1 to 2 days a week; 15% 3 to 4 days and 22% playing 5 or more days a week. When playing computer games young people, on average, play for nearly two hours a day.
In a 7 day period 37% of young people say they had friends round once or twice a week and 25% had friends round 3 times or more. As well as this, one third of young people say they go out with friends once or twice a week and 46% say they go out with friends 3 or more times a week.
In addition to watching TV, playing computer games meeting friends etc you still find time to read for pleasure and play sports. 58% report reading books, magazines, newspapers etc. for pleasure more than once a week or most days. Similarly, 65% say that at least once a week, they do sports such as football, aerobics, dance lessons and swimming.
What you think about other things (Click to show/hide)
We’re not only interested in what you’re doing and what you want to do, we’re also interested in what you think about other things in your life. Most young people seemed to have a strong sense of control over their own lives. For example, over 90% of you agreed or strongly agreed that if you work hard at something, you’ll usually succeed, and 70% of you disagreed or strongly disagreed that how well you get on in this world is mostly a matter of luck. However, a small proportion of you (9%) agreed or strongly agreed that people like you don’t have much of a chance in life. Even though it is a small number, it is something we are concerned about. The results from the Next Steps Study will be used to help improve the services the Government offers to young people so that every young person gets a chance in life.
If you want to find out more about the data we have collected from Next Steps, then please follow the link below to the DCSF Research and Statistics Gateway where a report on the data that has been collected from Next Steps will be available on the 26th June.
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SBU/b000795/index.shtml.
