Defining public engagement at ADR UK
In our strategy, we define public engagement as “a purposeful set of activities designed to promote an ongoing dialogue with the public about administrative data research, driven by active listening and responding.”
This enables us to better understand the views of all parties involved and maximise the impact of research, ensuring activities are meaningful and mutually beneficial.
The ADR UK Public Engagement Strategy for 2021-2026 details our cross-partnership vision, objectives, and principles for public engagement.
Leading the way in public engagement
ADR UK is a co-founding member of the Public Engagement in Data Research Initiative (PEDRI), a collaborative effort to raise the standard and impact of public engagement across the data research sector.
Other co-founders include Health Data Research UK, the Office for National Statistics, DARE UK, NHS England, and Research Data Scotland.
How does the public view administrative data research?
As highlighted in our review of public attitudes (2020), previous research has found that the public supports the use of administrative data in research - but only when:
These principles guide everything we do and supports the need for meaningful ongoing public engagement.
Our public engagement objectives and values
We focus on two main goals:
- Demonstrate trustworthiness: By listening and responding to public views on how administrative data should be used for research at every stage of our work, and meeting public expectations over and above formal legal requirements, our goal is to demonstrate trustworthiness.
- Maximise public benefit: Public engagement is an essential mechanism for understanding people’s needs and interests, to ensure research using administrative data is geared towards achieving the greatest public benefit possible.
And we apply five principles, ensuring our activities are ethical, designed for impact, and aligned to broader values:
- Meaningful public engagement: Using appropriate methods to engage the public with a clear purpose at every stage of our work is crucial, as is evaluating and adapting our approaches to ensure they are effective.
- A mutually beneficial relationship: We take a dialogue-based approach to listening and responding to public views regarding our work, while enabling our researchers to gain new insights and ideas to develop more impactful research.
- Being accountable: It is important that we not only listen to the public, but act upon what they tell us. Ensuring there are appropriate mechanisms for feeding the findings of our public engagement into our work is essential.
- Being inclusive: The voices we hear via our public engagement should be inclusive. Engaging with a diverse range of voices from across different backgrounds and identities and adapting our approaches to reduce any barriers to engagement is crucial to this.
- Openness and transparency: Telling the public about our engagement and how we are implementing its findings is essential for demonstrating trustworthiness. Regular, open communication about our work, which is clear and accessible to diverse audiences, is key.
How we hear public views
Our engagement activities focus on enabling people to shape research meaningfully – whether directly, or through voluntary and community organisations.
Public panels
Across the UK, our public panels give people the chance to help administrative data research deliver the greatest possible public benefit.
They offer insight on:
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Governance and safeguards
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Research priorities
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Public trust and communication.
Discover public panels
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The ADR England Public Insights Panel, established in 2024, is a diverse group of members of the public who contribute to shaping data-driven research and processes. The panel primarily supports the ADR England portfolio, the Integrated Data Service, and the UK Statistics Authority, but guests can apply to engage with the panel.
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The ADR Northern Ireland Public Data Panel (NIPDP), established in 2024, explores how data in Northern Ireland is collected and used for public good. The panel will support transparency, trust and public benefit in data use and members will help shape its development. NIPDP welcomes applications for its deliberation sessions (called Data Dialogues) from all sectors community, government, industry and academia - to help address data related issues openly and inclusively.
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In Scotland, since 2023, the ‘Scotland Talks Data’ panel is co-hosted Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR) and Research Data Scotland (RDS). The panel explore administrative data research and topics across the data journey.
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The SAIL Consumer Panel for Data Linkage Research was established in 2011 and acts as a public voice in ADR Wales work, providing input on governance systems, public engagement plans and research practices.
Working with the voluntary and community sector
We collaborate with charities, voluntary groups and community organisations to:
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understand local and community-specific needs
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co-design research questions and approaches
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amplify underrepresented perspectives.
These partnerships help us reach people who are often left out of conversations about their data.
Explore community engagement and partnerships
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ADR England oversees community representative panels made up of voluntary and community representatives, practitioners and others working directly with or on behalf of particular groups. For example, the Data First User Representation Panel is made up of representatives from organisations that work directly with or on behalf of people with experience of the justice systems, while the ADR England Children & Young People Representative Panel is made up of people working directly with or on behalf of children.
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ADR Northern Ireland holds a Data Workshop Series around themes of interest to both researchers and local organisations. These focus on raising awareness among voluntary and community groups about the power and potential of data in their own work and how complex questions can be answered using data, as well as embedding positive working relationships with this sector. Furthermore, by bringing key stakeholders onto steering committees for each of its projects, ADR NI maximises engagement with people and organisations with differing expertise and knowledge of the issues researchers are exploring.
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ADR Scotland engages with voluntary and community organisations via events and project-specific advisory groups. They bring valuable expertise and perspectives to our research, helping us to better understand context, priorities, sectoral challenges, and what matters to these communities.
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ADR Wales holds stakeholder workshops with devolved and local government and voluntary and community organisations to get feedback on work already done and gain input on future work.
Engaging children and young people
ADR UK is committed to ensuring that the rights and voices of children and young people are represented appropriately. We:
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work directly with young people
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partner with those who advocate for them
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make our work more accessible
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respond to their views and needs
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champion children’s rights in the data space
In June 2022, ADR UK published our approach to engaging with children and young people. The approach includes a commitment to inclusive ways of working. The approach was developed following a pilot study (2022) undertaken by ADR Scotland on directly engaging with children and young people about their data.
Public dialogue and attitudes
Public dialogue helps us understand wider views on data use.
In 2022, our joint dialogue with the Office for Statistics Regulation identified key public expectations:
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Be involved in decisions
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Focus on real-world needs
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Communicate clearly
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Minimise harm
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Apply strong safeguards.
“If I could offer advice to someone considering forming an advisory group for their project, I’d say go for it — your advisory group could become one of your most valuable resources. While it may seem intimidating at first, the insights, feedback, and support you gain will be well worth the time and effort.”
“BOLD engagement with the ADR England Public Insights Panel has proved to be invaluable. The insight from the panel has been of great value highlighting the importance across other government departments and internally within Ministry of Justice of our proposed research to engage with the public over the use of AI for those with complex needs.”
"I really enjoyed meeting the [ADR England Public Insights Panel] and telling them about Kids’ Environment and Health Cohort … It was useful to hear that the panel finds the research area important and that they generally support a data resource for research into children’s environmental child health and education to be established in England."
“For me as a researcher, engaging academics about research comes easier than engaging the public. Support from those who understand the needs and concerns of the young people, such as how to keep them engaged and or how to communicate in appropriate language, was crucial to the success of this activity.”
