Families and Children Study
Introduction
The Families and Children Study (FACS) is a refreshed panel study of approximately 7000 families in Britain, investigating the circumstances of all families with dependent children.
It provides nationally representative cross-sectional estimates for all households with dependent children as well as panel data for all six of the annual waves that have been completed thus far.
It covers a range of topics including: health; disability and caring; education; income; benefits and tax credits; childcare; child maintenance; housing; material deprivation; transport; and labour market activity.
Families are sampled from child benefit records and are followed every year until their children are no longer dependent. New families, i.e., those that have had new babies are added to the sample every year. The mother is the main respondent. Partners are interviewed too (by proxy from 2007 onwards) and in some waves children aged between 11 and 15 are given a self-completion questionnaire.
FACS is commissioned and managed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and is co-sponsored by the Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Transport.
Within DWP FACS is primarily used to generate evidence in relation to child poverty and welfare to work policies for families, and in relation to childcare and child support.
FACS data is available from the ESRC data archive: