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Families & children study

About this study

The Families & children study (FACS) is the 'go to' study for anyone interested in the lives of families with kids in Britain. It's already yielded interesting findings.

Conducted every year since 1999, each wave of interviews has spoken to approximately 7,000 people. The final wave of interviews took place in 2008.

The survey, commissioned and primarily funded by the Department for Work and Pensions, aims to measure living standards and outcomes. Key topics have included:

• household characteristics,
• health and well being,
• employment activity,
• receipt of benefits and tax credits,
• use of childcare,
• housing and material deprivation,
• and, more recently, attitudes to work and childcare.

Timeline

Potential policy impact

From the beginning FACS has been used to evaluate the effectiveness of Government policy set up to prevent families falling into hardship and poverty.

These policies include the Working and Child Tax Credits as well as the measures put into place by the Government to reduce child poverty.

Method

Since 1999 we have interviewed the same families every year, allowing us to make comparisons over time. We added new families each year from 2000-2008, to make sure that the survey was representative of Britain's families.

The study involved a face-to-face interview with the main participant, usually the female mother figure. In most waves of interviews, where applicable, we also conducted a 20 minute interview with partners.

Since 2003 we have asked children between the ages of 11 and 15 to fill in a self-completion questionnaire.

You can read the findings so far or visit the Families and children website

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Of interest: