Justine Menzies is a Principal Researcher in the Scottish Government’s Children and Families Analysis Unit in Education Analytical Services focussing on early child development.

She has worked in Scottish Government analytical services for over 10 years and has been involved in the public sectors for over 20 years in local government, NHS, Audit Scotland and HMICS covering areas such as justice, education, children’s services, health, and policing.

Having worked across a range of areas within the public sector, Justine now specialises in life course prevention and in particular early child development. Her research interests include; epigenetics, home learning environment, early child development, preconception, parental engagement and maternal and child health research. Justine is a keen advocate of making better use of administrative data and longitudinal studies to better understand the life course and cumulative advantage or disadvantage. Justine also works with a range of academics and is a member of the Generation New Era steering group.

“I am delighted to be an ADR Ambassador. Administrative data offers the opportunity to generate unique insights across a wide range of services many of which we all interact with. By applying a life-course, prevention-focused approach to the use of administrative data, we can better understand opportunities for primary prevention and early intervention. This enables us to generate valuable insights that support more informed policymaking, improve services, and ultimately enhance the lives of people across Scotland and the UK. There is immense potential within the datasets collected by different administrations to deepen our knowledge, foster greater collaboration across sectors, and enable more person- and family-centred approaches.”