ADR Scotland
This year, ADR Scotland has strengthened engagement across all our audiences and users, enhancing how we work with government, researchers and the public while updating our data offer and delivering impactful research.
Expanding our data offer for researchers
We've expanded the ADR Scotland data catalogue to include several new datasets, including the All Providers Qualifications Dataset and the Annual electricity and gas consumption at the property level, Scotland. Alongside this, we have focused on improving our supporting information on datasets through newly designed user guides and data dictionaries, which are now available for flagship datasets. Working closely with Research Data Scotland (RDS), we have also supported ongoing enhancements to their metadata catalogue and Researcher Access Service, helping to improve consistency, transparency and the researcher user experience.
Improving data access and governance remains a priority. ADR Scotland is supporting the Scottish Government’s Data for Research: Change Management Board to review data access and data ingest processes while maintaining secure, transparent and legally compliant systems.
Generating insights for policy, practice and the public
ADR Scotland’s research programme continues to generate valuable insights for policy and practice. Recent presentations at the International Population Data Linkage Network (IPDLN) Conference 2026 highlighted work on commuting patterns among nurses and midwives, factors associated with school absence in Scotland, and whether insufficient sunlight exposure may be an under-recognised risk factor for cardiovascular disease mortality in Scotland. We are also pleased to be expanding our research on trends in deaths at home during Covid-19.
Increasing engagement on administrative data research has been a key focus this year. We have welcomed new members to the Scotland Talks Data public panel and participated in public events such as Pint of Science and the Edinburgh Science Festival. Our knowledge exchange programme has been busier than ever with a monthly seminar series, an event on Scottish Child Payment and participation in the Scottish Parliament's Festival of Politics. To further strengthen engagement with policymakers, we also introduced policy briefings, with our inaugural briefing focusing on the relationship between childhood poverty and youth offending.
ADR Scotland has entered an exciting and ambitious phase. We have worked with partners across Scotland to deliver flagship datasets, new tools and resources, and gained insights from a breadth of new research. We have prepared for the new investment period and will now deliver improvement processes to data access and create ways in which researchers can deliver higher impact from their research. The team will continue to showcase and promote the value of administrative data linkage research, and its role in enhancing the evidence base for policy decisions.
At ADR Scotland, we are particularly proud of the research being delivered using administrative data. This research is helping to address some of Scotland’s most important social and health challenges, from educational outcomes and workforce issues, to inequalities in health and end-of-life care.
ADR Scotland research spotlight: Exploring context, factors and approaches to educational exclusions and absences
In 2025-2026, ADR Scotland’s research team for the Children and Young People theme built on previous research investigating factors influencing school exclusions, to examine factors linked to school absence in Scotland. The research looking into associative factors of authorised, unauthorised and persistent absence among secondary school pupils in Scotland was published as a journal article and a subsequent Data Insight in 2026. Socioeconomic disadvantage and additional support needs were consistently linked to higher levels of absence, but there were differences between authorised and unauthorised absence. The combination of poverty and poor emotional wellbeing, in particular, resulted in negative effects on school attendance.
At the ADR UK Conference 2025 in Cardiff, ADR Scotland researchers presented evidence indicating a strong association between low income and persistent absenteeism (missing 10% or more of the academic year) and the differing risks of non-attendance among pupils with additional support needs. Presentations at the IPDLN Conference 2026 in Rotterdam also highlighted ongoing work around attendance trajectories over time, additional support for learning and educational attainment.
We have been actively engaged with both the public and policy teams throughout 2026, presenting at a Pint of Science event, sharing our findings with the Children and Education Team at Scottish Government and publishing a short synopsis through a policy briefing.
Our future research aims to identify when gaps in attendance begin to widen, differences in educational pathways, and variations in additional support need identification and support provision across schools and local authorities.
ADR Scotland research spotlight: Understanding nurses’ commuting patterns and workforce sustainability
Before nurses and midwives arrive at work, they have already made a journey: the journey from home to the ward, clinic, care home, community setting, or other workplace.
This journey is not usually central to workforce planning. We often focus on how many nurses and midwives there are, where they work, and whether they remain in the workforce. However, how far people travel to work, and how they get there, may also matter for staff wellbeing, retention, transport planning and the environmental impact of health and care work.
In September 2025, the ADR Scotland Health and Social Care research team published a Data Insight exploring commuting patterns among nurses and midwives, using Census 2021 Individual Microdata Sample data for England and Wales. The study examined commuting distances and travel modes among nurses and midwives compared with similar occupations.
Findings showed that nurses and midwives were more likely to live close to their workplace, less likely to undertake very long commutes, and more likely to walk or travel by bus, although the car remained the most common mode of transport. The research highlighted that proximity to work does not necessarily translate into lower-carbon or more active travel choices.
The project has since developed into a full academic paper that models commuting distance while accounting for demographic, household, employment and regional characteristics. Results showed that nurses and midwives continued to have slightly shorter commutes than comparable workers even after adjustment. The findings also demonstrated that commuting patterns are influenced by a range of factors, including working hours, caring responsibilities, housing circumstances and transport availability.
Our future research will apply the same analysis to Scottish census microdata, enabling comparisons across different geographical settings. By looking at the journey before and after the shift, this project broadens how we think about health workforce sustainability. It shows how census and administrative data can help us understand not only how many nurses and midwives there are, but also how their everyday journeys connect health work to housing, transport, place and climate policy.
