Understanding Society User Support

Dear Understanding Society team,

My name is Matteo and I would like to ask you some clarifications regarding, namely, the Secure Access dataset "Understanding Society: Wave 1, 2009-2011: Linked National Pupil Database: Secure Access", and the Special Licence dataset "Understanding Society: Waves 1-5, 2009-2014: Special Licence Access, School Codes".

The "Understanding Society: Linked National Pupil Database: Secure Access" study contains nine files extracted from the National Pupil Database (NPD). These can be linked (within the Secure Access service) to "Understanding Society" participants using the cross-wave personal identifier (variable pidp). For this, applications must be submitted via the UK Data Service. However, my questions to you are the following: in order to access both "Understanding Society" data and the linked NPD data, is it sufficient to apply to the "Understanding Society: Linked National Pupil Database: Secure Access" study, or is it necessary to apply for both "Understanding Society" data and for "Understanding Society: Linked National Pupil Database: Secure Access"? In other words, does the "Understanding Society: Linked National Pupil Database: Secure Access" study contain both "Understanding Society" data and the linked NPD data, or does this file only contain NPD data? Secondly (and conditional on my previous question), does the "Understanding Society: Linked National Pupil Database: Secure Access" study only contain data from Wave 1 of "Understanding Society", or does it also contain data from later waves of "Understanding Society"? If this study only contains data from wave 1 of "Understanding Society", is it not possible to link the "Understanding Society: Linked National Pupil Database: Secure Access" study with all existing waves (i.e., Waves 1-5) of "Understanding Society"? The User Manual for the "Understanding Society: Linked National Pupil Database: Secure Access" study indicates that more recent NPD records than wave 1 of "Understanding Society" are included in this data release (e.g., KS3 and KS4 achievements in 2012, 2013). Could you please confirm this is correct? Finally, the Special Licence dataset "Understanding Society: Waves 1-5, 2009-2014: Special Licence Access, School Codes" contains the codes of children’s current schools and those of recent school leavers. Similarly to my previous question, in order to access both "Understanding Society" data and the linked school codes, is it sufficient to apply to the "Understanding Society: Waves 1-5, 2009-2014: Special Licence Access, School Codes" study, or is it necessary to apply for both "Understanding Society" and the "Understanding Society: Waves 1-5, 2009-2014: Special Licence Access, School Codes" study? In other words, does the "Understanding Society: Waves 1-5, 2009-2014: Special Licence Access, School Codes" study contain both "Understanding Society" data and respondents' school codes, or does it only contain respondents' school codes?

I thank you very much in advance for your highly valuable help, and I look forward to your response.

Best Regards,

Matteo