NEWS - ADR UK Annual Report 2023 – 2024 out now!

ADR UK Annual Report

This year, ADR UK agreed on the priorities and activities for the final two years of the current investment period, which runs until March 2026. This has enabled ADR UK’s core partners to allocate an additional £1.2 million in funding to key activities, renewing our efforts to transform research access to administrative data. Public good has remained at the core of our work, and this year’s report highlights the potential of recent developments to improve people’s lives. Dr Emma Gordon, Director of ADR UK states:

As we work towards securing our next investment period beyond March 2026, it’s a good time to reflect on the impact of our programme so far. Given the already considerable achievements of the ADR UK partnership – a selection of which are highlighted in this annual report – I have full confidence in our direction as we build the power of administrative data research to deliver public good. 

You can access the ADR UK Annual Report 2023 - 2024, by clicking on their dedicated microsite or by visiting https://reports.adruk.org/annual-report-2023-2024/. 

There is also a news article from ADR UK which can be read: https://www.adruk.org/news-publications/news-blogs/adr-uk-annual-report-2023-2024-producing-data-driven-insights-to-improve-lives/

The full report is an excellent summary and using the menu at the top of each page or the buttons at the bottom of each page - ensure that it is easy to navigate through the report in order.

Highlights from ADR Scotland

However we understand that some of you may only have five minutes, so we would encourage you to visit the ADR Scotland section by visiting https://reports.adruk.org/annual-report-2023-2024/a-year-in-review/adr-scotland/ 

ADR Scotland unites expertise from the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR) and Scottish Government’s Data for Research and Analytical Platforms team. Together they are working with key delivery bodies across Scotland to transform how public sector data is accessed and utilised by researchers, who deliver outputs that guide charities, local authorities and policymakers to make decisions that aim to be for the public good.

One highlight from this year is that ADR Scotland has seen a marked increase in the speed and efficiency of the process to ingest datasets. This has led to a wider range of datasets being made available through the National Safe Haven for research across many policy areas. These include datasets around education and service leavers, as well as data contributing to UK-wide analysis exploring agriculture and the nursing and midwifery professions.

To drive policy engagement and impact, this year ADR Scotland has expanded its communication & policy engagement team and launched the Data with Impact series. This series aims to build collaboration among national and local government, academia and other sectors to identify policy-relevant data and research opportunities on a range of priority themes. It has also allowed us to produce non-academic and child friendly graphics to help summarise our research papers, in addition to our new Research Overview reels and videos.

Within our section, there are detailed summaries of our recent work including:

• Research on Growing up in Kinship Care
• Research on Cycling to work can benefit your mental health
• Building the Researcher Access Service

Looking forward

As we draw closer to the end of the current funding period, ADR UK remains ambitious to continue on this trajectory of impact. ADR UK has commissioned an externally-delivered evaluation of the progress, impact and economic benefits of the programme, to inform our business case for future funding. Read more about ADR UK’s plans for the year ahead.