Our Expertise

We provide evidence to help clients develop and evaluate policy, improve communications, understand their employees, and work effectively with their stakeholders.

Much of our policy work is for the Scottish Government and other public bodies, such as evaluating the pilot for free school meals, the sex offenders community notification pilot, school sight testing, young runaways, Salsus, tenant priorities for social housing, the consultation over changes to national qualifications among others.

Large continuous quantitative surveys such as the Scottish Household Survey and the Scottish House Condition Survey 2007-11 collect important measures to evaluate policy and track progress against Government objectives. Ad hoc studies, like public attitudes to Mental Health, or the Scottish Environmental Attitudes Survey, also provide data for policy development by Government.

Many clients have very specific groups that they need to reach. For some, our annual survey of Members of the Scottish Parliament provides a regular measure of reputation and communications. Some are focussed on the views and behaviours of people living in the capital, and we run a regular Omnibus Survey in Edinburgh for these clients. The web is a crucial means of communication for many organisations, and a specialist team undertake website evaluations and suggest improvements to the design and contents of their pages.

Research among employees is particularly sensitive, requiring top level commitment to develop action plans and implement change to ensure employee participation and overcome scepticism. Stakeholder research has become more common as public bodies find ways to improve they way they work with partners to provide public services.