Impact case studies
Insights generated from ADR UK’s data are making a real-world impact across the partnership – demonstrating how evidence unlocked through administrative data can improve people’s lives.
This year we evaluated our programme impact in depth through an independent review of our work. The findings have helped us identify where we are delivering the most value and how we can continue to strengthen our work in the future.
Read on to learn more about the evaluation and explore just a few examples of our impact this year:
Returning a £5 return for every £1 invested: evaluation findings
This year, our mid-term evaluation was conducted independently by Oxford Insights and Lateral Economics, with support from the Open Data Institute. It assessed ADR UK’s progress to date and provided recommendations for shaping our future direction.
Using a mixed methods approach, the evaluation drew on stakeholder interviews and surveys from across government and academia, alongside bibliometric and economic analysis.
A key finding was the estimated return on investment: a “conservatively estimated” partial benefit-cost ratio of £5.05 for every £1 spent to date. This highlighted the significant value ADR UK delivers for both government and academic researchers.
This evaluation has been essential in helping us understand what we have achieved, and where to focus our efforts moving forward.
Generating policy-related evidence on the intersections between care experience, ethnicity and youth justice involvement
This project, using the ADR UK funded Ministry of Justice (MoJ) & Department for Education (DfE) linked dataset for England, explored an important gap in understanding about the relationship between experiencing care, ethnicity, and youth justice involvement in England.
Findings identified disproportionately high rates of youth justice involvement and custodial sentences among care-experienced children (compared to those who had not been in care), which particularly affected some racially minoritised groups.
The project was the largest longitudinal analysis of care experience, ethnicity and youth justice involvement in England to date and made national headlines.
Project highlights include the researcher and ADR UK Fellow, Dr Katie Hunter (Manchester Metropolitan University), feeding directly into policy conversations with the Youth Justice Board and into a government strategy to support care-experienced people in the prisons and probations service.
Tackling youth homelessness through linking data: Impact in Northern Ireland and Wales
Homelessness is a critical issue for society, with wide-ranging impacts for individuals and communities. This year, ADR Northern Ireland and ADR Wales have delivered impactful research to support efforts to prevent youth homelessness – each using data in innovative ways, while working closely with charities, statutory agencies, and those with lived experience.
In Northern Ireland, ADR NI instigated a unique portfolio of research using population-level data from individuals presenting as homeless. This information was linked to administrative data on demographics, health care, maternity care, social services interactions, and mortality – the first data linkage of its kind in Northern Ireland.
The research is the result of meaningful and sustained engagement between researchers, statutory agencies, Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations, and Experts by Experience (EBEs). A steering committee involving the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and other key stakeholders is helping to shape the research and ensure findings reach those with the power to act for public benefit.
Partnering with organisations such as Voice of Young People in Care (VOYPIC) and Homeless Connect has ensured that the voices of historically excluded EBEs are shaping the research process. This has demonstrated both the need and support for linkage between homelessness applicant and social services data for research. Together, these groups identified a shared priority: preventing homelessness in young people with experience of social services support.
In Wales, Dr Ian Thomas and Professor Peter Mackie from the ADR Wales Housing and Homelessness team have been working with charities across Great Britain to improve how data is collected and used in Upstream – a school-based intervention to prevent youth homelessness.
Developed in Australia and now adopted in Wales (by Llamau), England (by Centrepoint), and Scotland (by Rock Trust), Upstream uses a screening tool to identify pupils at risk of homelessness and offer timely support. ADR Wales worked with Llamau to clean and prepare the data, producing a statistical report on the characteristics of pupils and the scale of youth homelessness in Wales. They also explored links between truancy, school suspension, and homelessness risk.
As Upstream expands, ADR Wales has been working with Llamau, Centrepoint, and Rock Trust to design a new data system that includes the personal details needed to link screening data to education records – enabling evaluation of long-term outcomes, such as whether supported pupils are diverted from homelessness.
These case studies highlight how ADR UK’s partnerships and data expertise are helping to inform policy, improve services, and ultimately support better outcomes for young people at risk of homelessness.
Demonstrating the power of administrative data to shape policy priorities in Scotland
The need for robust evidence in social care isn’t just important – it is urgent. While Scotland has long been a leader in health research using administrative data, social care has lagged behind. This is largely due to limited access to research-ready datasets, a challenge not unique to Scotland but seen globally. Fortunately, this is changing.
With an ageing population, evolving care needs, and growing pressure on public services, Scotland is now harnessing innovations in data science to meet these challenges head-on.
In March 2025, ADR Scotland hosted a ‘Data with Impact’ event on Adult Social Care, bringing together representatives from government, academia, and the third sector. The event showcased the potential of existing data and helped identify research priorities that are now shaping the Scottish Government’s Social Care Research Strategy.
The strategy will outline the research priorities of the Scottish Government’s social care analytical unit, highlighting the importance of supporting and developing social care research through collaboration between policymakers, analysts, and the wider research community to enable evidence-informed policymaking.
Academic case studies demonstrated the value of linking administrative data while also highlighting challenges in data sharing, standardisation, quality, and access. Attendees explored the potential of three key social care datasets (Source, Health and Care Experience Survey (HACE) and Care Home Census) to address pressing policy questions—such as understanding service flows, unmet needs, access patterns, and support for the workforce and unpaid carers.
Researchers can request access to all three social care datasets via eDRIS. ADR Scotland is committed to providing enhanced metadata for all three datasets by the end of this year. By expanding the community of accredited users and fostering collaboration, the programme aims to support impactful, policy-relevant research for the public good.
Evidencing the impact of higher education on labour market earnings using Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO)
Research conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, co-funded by the Department for Education and UK Research and Innovation, used linked administrative data to estimate the returns to higher education for students and the taxpayer. The research used the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) Standard Extract, an ADR England flagship dataset, and was carried out using the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Secure Research Service.
The research has been widely cited by both policymakers and government, including within a report from the Social Mobility Commission, the Augar Review of post-18 education, and a white paper on spreading opportunity more equally across the UK.
The findings showed notable variation on returns between subjects, with law, economics and medicine graduates demonstrating greater lifetime returns than their peers who studied languages or creative arts. The research also reported variations in earnings growth between men and women.
The improved information about the costs and benefits of different higher education degrees is beneficial for students thinking about whether, where and what to study. It can also inform policymakers considering the optimal design of the higher education system.
The team analysed those who attended secondary school in England, incorporating variables such as school test scores; university attendance; subjects studied, and earnings.
