Data collection resulting from the compilation of existing data sources to assess the link between local housing markets and education markets through an analysis of children's travel to school.. This research was funded by the ESRC Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (SDAI). The data show the existence of key socioeconomic determinants of school travel distance and mode, whereby the socioeconomic background of the child plays an important role in explaining how children get to school as well as which schools they attend. Children from more deprived backgrounds face non-trivial transport hurdles if they wish to access 'better' schools, in the form of significantly increased travel distances and lesser potential to use active forms of travel. How children travel to school is a major public policy concern, reflecting socioeconomic differences among the population. Policies enhancing school choice may contradict public health efforts to promote walking and cycling. Equally, the built form, urban structure and the local housing markets may determine school travel behaviour, encouraging excess commuting with implications for environmental sustainability and public transport provision. This study will exploit secondary data from Ordnance Survey, HM Land Registry, the Pupil Census, and British Household Panel Survey to examine how the built environment and residential housing markets relate to families’ choices about schools and school travel in a selected case study locality (Sheffield). Spatial analysis techniques will be used to construct spatial measures of the built form (eg density, accessibility and pedestrian ‘permeability’), to classified neighbourhoods by housing market characteristics, and to model the pattern of pupils’ home-school journeys. The generalisability of the findings using BHPS data will be examined.The research will produce outputs tailored to national and local policymakers and practitioners: Local education planners will understand better accessibility to school for different population groups. Land-use and transport planners will be able to understand better the relationships between schools, housing and transport and journey behaviour.
Compilation of secondary data sources. Schools data were obtained from the Department for Education and Sheffield City Council data. House-price data were derived from Land Registry data for the period September 2007 - August 2011. Urban form data was generated from a range of sources such as the Ordnance Survey Integrated Transport Network and postcode directory. Census data was downloaded from NOMIS. The dataset consists of: 1. Department for Education data on Sheffield's primary and Secondary schools for the four years from 2007-8 to 2010-11. This data includes: pupil rates (FSM, BME, SEN etc), Key Stage results for the school + English national average. Faith status of school. 2. Core 2011 census socioeconomic variables at the output area level, a tailor-made house-price index for Sheffield (constructed using Land Registry data) and several urban form variables for Sheffield (residential, cul-de-sac, junction density etc) using which a geodemographic cluster analysis for Sheffield was undertaken. 3. Shapefiles of de facto primary and secondary school catchment areas based on the core 65% of pupil intake for 2010-11 (please also see metadata notes within the shapefiles in GIS). 4. Shapefiles of the 7-category geodemographic cluster analysis created for Sheffield using the above dataset and k-means cluster analysis after Vickers (2006). The dasymmetric file shows the clusters overlaid upon a layer of residential density for Sheffield. Detailed documentation and methods information is available via the linked publications.
