Catalogue description Records of the Statistics, Research and Intelligence, and Planning Branches

The Statistics Branch was set up in 1960/1961 as an independent branch within the Ministry of Education, but was quickly absorbed into the newly created Research and Intelligence Branch of the Ministry of Education. This branch was established to keep ministers informed of educational research throughout the country and to identify areas of promise or need. It acted both as a focus for, and a stimulus to, research work, by grant-aiding and commissioning, although the branch itself did not undertake research. From 1962 the branch administered a fund from which it commissioned and supported research projects, mainly in universities. Additional funds were set aside for bodies such as the Central Advisory Councils for Education in England and Wales, the National Foundation for Educational Research, the Curriculum Study Group and, initially, the Schools Council.

From the mid-1960s, the Planning Branch was set up in succession to the Research and Intelligence Branch. The Planning Branch was responsible for departmental planning organisation, for programme analysis and review, for educational research and for providing economic advice to the secretary of state and ministers. Statistics continued to be produced by a small unit within the Planning Branch. These included the means of measuring curricula in secondary schools; the collection of statistics on university students and staff, and their use in appraising shortages of, for example, science and technology graduates; the collection and analysis of statistics for students in further education establishments, and specific research projects.

In 1969 a unit was set up within the Planning Branch of the Department of Education and Science to carry out computer projects. From 1971, the Statistics Branch again had an independent existence, and the Automatic Data Processing Unit (ADP) became part of this branch and played a vital role in capturing and analysing data and producing statistical reports. The Statistics Branch was divided into three divisions responsible for: further and higher education manpower and science statistics; schools, teachers, arts and libraries statistics; and automatic data processing, computer installation, and international and educational finance statistics. In the 1980s, a Statistics and Computing Services Branch was formed, and from this evolved a separate Statistics Branch with its own technical resources.