User engagement strategy for statistics users
Updated 8 March 2023
Applies to England
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This document sets out our strategy for engaging with users of our statistical publications and ensuring we meet their statistical needs by complying with the ‘user requirements’ section of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics
1. Our objective
We will establish and nurture a mutually beneficial partnership between data providers, data producers and users of our statistics based on trust and on continuous and open dialogue.
Our foremost target is that all statistical outputs are trusted and authoritative. To this end, a critical objective of our strategy is to meet users’ needs through regular delivery of a range of statistical outputs and services, which is subject to considerations of practicality, legality and funding:
- reflect the views of users and are relevant to the range of uses to which they are put
- strike the right balance between users’ diverse and sometimes competing needs
- are published in an open and standardised format
- are presented and disseminated in ways that suit the wider community
- are accompanied by suitable explanation and documentation
- anticipate and respond to changes in users’ needs
2. Our users
Our users include:
- awarding organisations
- Department for Education
- government departments of Wales and Northern Ireland
- learners and parents
- media and publishing houses
- Ofqual staff
- researchers
- schools and further education colleges
- Education and Skills Funding Agency
- Institute for Apprenticeships
- training providers
- universities and other higher education institutions
- universities and colleges admission service
3. How we engage with our users
We have a publication and dissemination policy for statistical outputs that describes how we publicise our outputs.
We invite feedback and comments from users for each of our publications.
We hold user consultation before making any major updates to publications where needed.
We keep our staff updated with our outputs at training and information sharing sessions and via our intranet.