Public & resident attitude market research

Research with members of the public is about far more than just the size and scale of the task at hand; it’s about how you engage your audience/s with the topic you are presenting, appreciating the range of complex – and sometimes emotionally charged – opinions and responses that may be generated and knowing how best to handle and interpret these responses to best effect. At DJS Research, we have the knowledge and experience to take clients through the entire end-to-end process, or to provide essential support on key areas as required.

Public attitudes do not exist in seeming isolation; they are shaped by many different factors including the social and historical context of the time, access to education, popular culture, the media as well as wider social and policy-based changes. Conducting effective residents’ surveys, and public opinion and attitudinal research, requires an understanding of the complexities of the wider social context in which they sit, as well as an appreciation of the range of beliefs, opinions and emotionally charged responses such research may trigger.

Ensuring impartiality, accuracy and engagement in public and resident attitudes research

The collective experience of our dedicated public sector team spans well over three decades, and between them they have conducted many large-scale research programmes on topics including health, sport, education, environmental issues and consumer protection.

Our children and young people specialists have a particular strength and personal passion for conducting research that explores the responses of younger audiences and their parents/carers.

DJS Research we have vast experience of research that involves achieving large, representative samples, of adults, children and young people across the UK or within other defined geographies, often in quite short timeframes, to explore attitudes and public opinion on a wide range of issues within the public sector.

Examples of our work conducting residents’ surveys and attitudinal polls

Recent examples of highly effective public engagement projects which we have delivered for a range of clients include:

Exploring the attitudes of children and young people towards UK politics for the Electoral Commission: A nationwide quantitative and qualitative research project, amongst 11–25 year-olds, to understand their attitudes and behaviours towards politics in the UK. The project involved pre-consultation focus groups, cognitive debriefs, a nationally representative online survey of over 2,500 children and young people and a series of post-analysis focus groups.

“The research enabled us to produce a report that clearly highlighted the need for political education for children, aimed at MPs… Working with DJS Research was a great experience. I never had to chase them or worry about any issues with the research. Despite the complexity of the project, it was completed on time and within budget.”
Sandy Grant, The Electoral Commission

Sensitive handling of people with long-term health conditions for Sport England/Age UK: Our attitudinal survey (which is now quarterly) engaged 2,000 people with long-term health conditions to explore activity levels, attitudes towards physical activity and awareness of the We Are Undefeatable campaign. 

Public perceptions study for British Cycling: This quarterly survey, of 4,000 adults and 500 children, explored public perceptions of cycling and cycling behaviours across the UK.

Public panel surveys for Woodland Trust: We have conducted numerous successful projects to help increase awareness of the impact of trees and woodland on the environment. These have included online panel surveys of c. 5,000 responses, segmentation analysis, and campaign evaluation.

Met Office public perceptions survey: For several years DJS Research has managed the annual Met Office Public Perceptions Survey, conducted with residents aged 16+ across the UK (1,400 interviews annually).

Push to web survey for the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA): For this recent project we recommended a push to web survey to obtain information from the general UK population to inform an inquiry into the mobile phone market. A random sampling approach was needed to fulfil audience requirements within extremely tight timeframes; interim data was delivered just a week into the fieldwork with a further sample of 800 mobile phone users (which almost mirrored the UK population in terms of age, sex and religion) generated at the four-week mark.

Our team has also conducted dozens of resident surveys for a range of local and combined authorities in areas such as Greater Manchester, Herefordshire, North Tyneside, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Nottinghamshire and across many London boroughs such as Lambeth, Southwark, Merton, and more.

For further information on how we can assist you with your public attitudes or resident survey research, please contact Research Directors Julie Hollingsworth on jhollingsworth@djsresearch.com or Jenna Allen on jallen@djsresearch.com.