Research Specialisms

Education, Children & Families

Evaluating the impact of communications and activities on young people and families

We work with a wide variety of clients and audiences to explore a range of issues relating to the development and learning of young people, from birth, through compulsory schooling and on into further and higher education and training. We also undertake stakeholder relationship and communications ‘audits' on behalf of a number of major organisations within the education sector.

Our clients include central government departments and agencies, local authorities, non-ministerial government departments, non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs), professional associations, and charities (amongst others). Our research has played a key role in both informing policy development and measuring its effect, in evaluating the impact of communications, strategies and initiatives, and in providing evidence on opinion and delivery/practice relating to the main education-related issues of the day.

We are able to offer a complete range of traditional and more innovative research techniques, from large-scale quantitative surveys (whether face-to-face, online or by post or telephone) to detailed qualitative research including depth and paired-depth interviews, focus group discussions and deliberative workshops. Where appropriate, we will partner with external specialists in order to complement our own skills.

Recent work includes:

Phase 1 of a project for Ofsted and the DCSF to develop a national survey of children to measure the five Every Child Matters Outcomes at a national and local authority level. The proposed methodology and questionnaire were developed through extensive consultation with a variety of stakeholders including workshops with Local Authorities and partner agencies in case study areas around the country, focus groups with headteachers to gain input into the feasibility of the suggested methodology, and a large online qualitative consultation to capture the views of additional local authorities, and partner agencies in particular. Following this, we revised the questionnaire and carried out two phases of cognitive testing with pupils in years six, eight and ten. We then refined the questionnaire further in light of the cognitive testing outcomes. Ofsted launched the survey in April 2007. Phase 2 of the project is now underway and is exploring options for research with children in special schools.
Qualitative research for the National Audit Office (NAO) exploring Children's Centres, to understand parents' and national charities' perspectives on their impact and development. The project formed part of a value-for-money study to help assess the effectiveness (and cost-effectiveness) of Children's Centres in meeting the needs of families and children to date, and to inform the wider rollout of centres.
The West Sussex Children's Trust developed a research programme to identify unmet needs among children and families in West Sussex to inform the refocusing and development of all relevant services across the county. As part of this, we carried out qualitative research among children and parents to explore needs and views of gaps. We used a "pathways" approach, mapping the life histories of individual children and looking at key events, circumstances and issues that have been experienced as difficult, or contributed to problems down the line - and mapping contact with services and its effectiveness alongside it - from the point of view of the child and of their parents.
A mixed quantitative and qualitative project on behalf of the Sutton Trust and the Treasury, to explore parents' aspirations for their children, the findings from which were presented to the (then) Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, and the Sutton Trust's chairman and founder, Sir Peter Lampl, at a ‘round-table' breakfast meeting in January 2007. The quantitative survey was conducted using the Ipsos MORI Omnibus, while we organised a half-day workshop with parents and children to complete the qualitative strand.
Working in partnership with the Schools of Education at the Universities of Nottingham and Leeds, we are conducting a six-year, quantitative longitudinal survey of trainee teachers who graduated in 2004, tracking them from their final year of training, into their induction year and first four years of teaching, in order to examine the nature and impact of teachers' experiences of initial teacher training, induction and early professional development on retention in the profession. The research, known as Becoming a Teacher, is being conducted on behalf of the DCSF, the Training and Development Agency for schools (TDA) and the General Teaching Council (GTCE). Almost 5,000 trainees (a sixth of all trainee teachers in the UK) took part in the first wave of the research in Autumn 2003, using a self-completion questionnaire administered via their training providers. Follow-up telephone surveys are being conducted every summer.
We are also working in partnership with the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) on behalf of the TDA to undertake a three-year longitudinal study examining support staff experiences of training and development.
On behalf of the DCSF, we have used the Ipsos MORI Omnibus to measure parental opinion on the physical punishment of children; this study comprises one of two strands of the Government Review of Section 58 of the Children Act 2004.
Also on behalf of the DCSF, we have undertaken a study of young people and their views about the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. The DCSF has a remit for developing a 2012 Education Plan which will facilitate the Department in meeting its 2012 programme objective: to maximise the social benefits, including health, education and volunteering, of hosting the Games. Using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the research has investigated the views of young people about the 2012 events and activities they would like to see and be involved in, during the lead up to the Games and in what is being promoted as the ‘Cultural Olympiad'.
In order to assess how easy it is for prospective students to find information about fees, bursaries, grants and loans, we conducted a qualitative study for the Office for Fair Access (OFFA). This involved a review of existing information on HEI sites, a series of interviews with stakeholders, a focus group with first-year HEI students and filmed, usability paired-depth interviews with economically disadvantaged A-level students, their parents and their teachers.
UCAS is the UK's central organisation through which applications are processed for entry to full-time first degrees, HNDs and university diplomas. The majority of higher education applications processed by UCAS are submitted online, making their website among the UK's most visited. UCAS commissioned us to undertake a usability study of their website. The research aimed to form a baseline assessment of the website as it then was, and results from the research are being used to inform the information hierarchy, navigation and design of the new website. We used a mixed methods approach, undertaking a series of accompanied browsing sessions with students and teachers in schools, sixth form colleges and further education colleges, as well as running an online survey. While the latter provided a broad picture of satisfaction and usage of the site, the qualitative phase highlighted specific usability issues as well as assessing expectations of the site.