ADR UK Ambassadors
ADR UK Ambassadors are people working in and around government who are committed to improving the use of administrative data for public good research. They play a key role in supporting ADR UK’s mission, building connections between academia and government to drive forward evidence-informed policy and practice.
Sharing the exciting potential of administrative data research with new audiences: Mark Green
Mark Green is Professor in Health Geography at the University of Liverpool, where they focus on examining the social and spatial drivers of health inequalities. This year, Mark took up the role of co-host of ADR UK’s new podcast, Connecting Society, working alongside Shayda Kashef (ADR UK’s Senior Public Engagement Manager). Here, Mark reflects on their experience.
Could you briefly describe your role as a co-host of Connecting Society?
I am one half of the podcast hosts, alongside Shayda. My role is to bring the perspective of a researcher to the show, as someone who has worked widely on using a range of administrative datasets to answer real-world research questions. I am always excited about data, but I understand that not everyone is - so my job is to ask questions or highlight why the public should be interested in how their data is used for public good.
Why did you decide to get involved in hosting the podcast?
Advocating for administrative data to researchers is easy as you are often preaching to the choir. However, reaching a wider public audience is far harder to do as they might have diverse opinions or not really understand what administrative data is. I have been an ADR UK Ambassador for a few years now and there have been limited opportunities to really reach a large public audience. So, when the chance to become a podcast host came up, I found it an exciting opportunity to be able to talk about the benefits of administrative data to a much wider audience than I normally do. It also appealed to me as something creative in my role - science can be dull sometimes, so having a space to do something different felt fresh and exciting.
What have you learned through your role in the podcast?
When I started, I was worried that we wouldn't have enough to say or that I would be 'found out' as not knowing anything about administrative data. So, I ended up spending a lot of time prepping for episodes - reading around the literature, writing questions, thinking about interesting angles to bring. In the end, I learned that our guests were all passionate about administrative data, and giving them the space to talk about this was the best way to showcase the positive ways in which data about our everyday lives is used to make society better. That and being prepared to go way off topic - who knew that talking about Bacardi rum and bats was going to feature!
Do you have any advice for current & future ADR UK Ambassadors looking to diversify the ways they advocate for administrative data research?
Define the audience that you want to appeal to and keep it narrow in scope. You have to tailor your messages to different audiences and you cannot expect to reach everyone with the same story or dissemination method. It is really hard to do, so taking your time to think about who is interested, who you want to speak to and the best way to do this will help to maximise potential reach and impact.
Supporting better outcomes for children: Koulla Yiasouma
Koulla Yiasouma is a qualified social worker and Chair of the Oberstown Children Detention Centre. This year, in her role as an ADR UK Ambassador, Koulla has contributed to some key events focused on supporting better outcomes for children through administrative data research. She reflects on this work.
For the majority of my career, I have worked with and for children and young people to support them and the system to achieve better outcomes. Measuring outcomes and impact has always been more of a challenge than it should be. As a child’s rights practitioner and advocate I have found robust data to be invaluable both in understanding the situation and finding a common language. Good data collection is a key tool in realising a state’s obligation to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other rights standards.
This is the reason I was delighted to accept the offer of being and ADR UK Ambassador and to have participated in two events in Northern Ireland this year. The first was the launch of the Education Outcomes Linkage which, amongst other things, seeks to understand the impact that adverse childhood experiences have on children’s education, learning and development.
Another was the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and ADR UK launch of the Insights report into young people in care. This was a sobering reminder of the work still to be done to ensure much better outcomes across every aspect the lives of young people and adults who are care experienced.
I have been impressed at the collaborative approach that the ADR UK team takes to accessing and analysing administrative data and it has been an honour to have gained some insight into their work.
