Multiple UK policy initiatives aim to improve housing and local environments, frequently as part of strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change and meet Net Zero goals. Children are more tied to local environments in and around homes and schools, and vulnerable to environmental exposures than adults. Many environmental policies therefore disproportionately affect children. Consequently, timely and robust data are needed to quantify the long-term health and education impacts of living environments for children as they grow up, and assess the impact of implementing local and national housing, planning and environmental policies.
The aim of this study is to establish CLEVER: a research-ready, de-identified and annually updated national birth cohort of all children born in England from 2006 onwards - approximately 11 million children. CLEVER will be held in, and accessed via, the ONS Secure Research Service (SRS). Dwelling- or area-level environmental exposure data in or near the home (for example on housing quality, air pollution, local services or green space), can be linked to the cohort via Unique Property Reference Numbers and home postcodes derived from NHS address histories. This will allow national, longitudinal environmental exposure histories to be created for all children in CLEVER. Environmental exposures at or near schools can be linked to the cohort via education records. All geographical identifiers will be securely held by the ONS, separately to the main cohort.
The spine of this unique national cohort will be birth registration records linked to NHS birth notifications, which hold key information on health at birth. Children will be followed longitudinally via linked vital statistics and administrative health and education data. Children will also be linked to their mothers' and siblings' health records within the cohort, and mothers' and their partners' Census records. This will allow researchers to take familial risk factors for health and education outcomes into account, and develop more accurate indicators of family socio-economic status, a key confounding variable in environmental health research.