Adding Insight and Maximising Impact

The local government research unit works to provide clients and the wider sector with a broader understanding and narrative around the factors influencing customer satisfaction and drivers of high performance and reputation.

Managing Performance

Our work on the 2008 Place Survey results (Mind the Gap: Frontiers of Performance in Local Government V) looks at the extent to which perception ratings about local councils and services in different local areas are higher or lower than we would expect given local circumstances such as the population profile and geography (and in turn provides a ‘gap’ score which shows whether perceptions are more or less positive than would be expected).

Understanding Reputation

Ipsos MORI has led the way in research on the reputation of local government. For example, to support the ‘My Council' Campaign, the Local Government Association (LGA) commissioned Ipsos MORI to examine how residents perceive local authorities and why. The subsequent report, The Reputation of Local Government, provides a detailed scrutiny of the issues local authorities need to consider, including relations with the local media.

Improving Communications

To modernise successfully, councils must capture the attention and imagination of their local communities. Research by the Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute has shown a strong link between resident satisfaction with their council and how well the council keeps them informed. Research we conducted on behalf of CLG, LGA and IDeA (now LG Improvement and Development) was used to inform a good practice "toolkit" which offers practical support to those authorities committed to improving their communications. This can be found on the LG Improvement and Development website.  We have also been testing marketing and communications materials with members of the public for various local authorities and conducted communications segmentation to help councils understand how to target their information to communities. 

The Global Context

We work both in individual countries and with multi-national organisations focused on understanding local issues and views, covering virtually every social policy area.  We can help the sector put findings into context by using our monthly Global @advisor survey of citizen attitudes across 23 countries and in-house normative databases of stakeholder, employee and citizen perspectives.   For examples of the kind of international data and context we can provide please read out latest paper on citizens' views of local areas and municipal government across the world.