Sectors
Social Research ¦ Market Research ¦ Behavioural Insight ¦ Evaluation ¦ SROI
M·E·L Research is a specialist market, social and behavioural research and insights consultancy. But M·E·L Research isn’t a standard agency. Our vision is to make a positive difference to organisations, employees, customers and wider society. We push for social value – in why we work, how we work and who we work with.
We provide insight that enables public sector bodies and charities to improve their service delivery. We also explore attitudes and behaviours and evaluate interventions on key societal issues including poverty, mental and physical health and wellbeing, mobility, infrastructure and the climate and environment with residents, customers, employees, stakeholders and businesses.
We deliver social and market research services across various sectors, including housing, health and wellbeing, transport, culture and heritage, sport and activity and the environment.
To ensure we deliver excellent research with a purpose, we work with a clear set of values and quality standards.
More detail on our unique approach to delivering social value for communities, partners and the wider population can be found here.
What sector or service are you looking for?
Our team work in a diverse range of sectors, conducting research into wide ranging issues from local government to environmental impact studies.
Our highly skilled team are able to conduct many forms of research. Depending on the depth and scope of research required our team will recommend the most appropriate method of research.
Services
At M·E·L Research we believe that brand strength is built in different ways, but fundamentally being authentic to your brand identity throughout all contact points is essential.
Services
In order to maximise the impact of campaign investment M.E.L Research can test early creative ideas, through to final copies of creative. We can offer feedback on all types of creative including TV, posters, press, online, social media and radio. This can be done using various methodologies depending on the type of feedback needed, and the type of creative.
Services
Our dedicated team is poised to offer unparalleled support across various research requirements, adhering strictly to the highest ethical standards, ensuring every project we undertake is trauma-informed and fully integrates Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) principles, and utilising our own in-house team for the full range of fieldwork and analysis approaches.
Services
We have over 35 years’ experience in running quantitative research studies for a range of public services clients; from residents consultations to health and well-being studies to Survey of Tenants And Residents (STAR) projects amongst others.
Services
Evaluation is a key part of our business name and we apply rigorous, but practical evaluation techniques to help clients assess the impact and outcome of their project or programme; to determine what works and what doesn’t, why it works and how it can work more effectively.
Services
Qualitative research is all about gathering rich, detailed understanding and insight, that is often difficult to do through surveys and questionnaires. It allows us to research more complex issues and understand why people think and behave in the way they do.
Services
Our involvement in providing a voice to employees through employee experience research is driven by the fact that workplace experiences have critical impacts upon an individual’s financial security, social mobility, physical health and mental wellbeing.
Services
We have extensive experience in helping organisations, especially within the housing, local and national government, health, regulatory, environmental and voluntary sectors understand their customers’ needs, measure satisfaction and identify priorities for improvement.
It can be hard to know which market research consultant to choose when you’re looking for commission research. At M·E·L Research, we believe in transparency and are proud to share insights into the processes and outcomes of the research we’ve conducted for organisations in the past.
Case Studies
For the World Gymnastics Championships, as well as an economic impact evaluation, we also conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the fan, athlete, volunteer and delegation experience incorporating a diverse array of data sources to ensure a robust analysis.
Case Studies
M·E·L Research was commissioned to undertake a first of its kind study to analyse video footage from enforcement actions involving significant and high-volume debts, such as council tax arrears, non-domestic rates, parking fines, and penalties issued by authorities like Transport for London. The study took place between June and September 2024, and researchers from M·E·L reviewed 935 videos, 648 of which involved interactions with individuals subject to enforcement. This study is significant as it provides a unique and objective insight into real-world enforcement practices, which will enable the ECB to develop informed and targeted policy interventions aimed at improving fairness during enforcement.
Case Studies
The research aimed to investigate the extent to which female and non-binary fans experience discrimination at games, how this discrimination manifested, and their experiences of reporting discrimination, where experienced. A key focus of the research was in looking at how these experiences varied among different groups of fans, for example by ethnicity, sexuality or region. The research was to be used to get a greater understanding of the experiences of female and non-binary fans, and to help publicise the issues where they are occurring via a multi-channel campaign.
Case Studies
The Groundlings are an online research community of 250 Royal Shakespeare Company audience members and potential audience members. The community first began in 2023 and will continue until 2026 and potentially beyond. The group have been systematically sampled from the RSC mailing list to represent a broad spectrum of RSC audience members – from Patrons to those who have not visited but would like to, and including a boost of n=50 teachers who use RSC resources or undertake visits / outreach.
Case Studies
City of Doncaster Council commissioned M·E·L Research to evaluate an alternative provision service for children and young people who were struggling to engage in mainstream education. The alternative provision comprised of two settings (Big Picture Doncaster and Vega College) and was based on the Big Picture Learning philosophy that originated in the US. It is a model of learning that focuses on one student at a time, with small class sizes and a curriculum taught in a way that is centred on the passions and interests of children and young people6. Based on evidence of impact in the US, the Council believed it had the potential to re-engage young people in learning, and ultimately improve their long-term life chances and outcomes.
Case Studies
In spring 2023 M·E·L Research were commissioned to undertake face to face interviewing to boost survey participation from those living within 6 GP practice catchments in Stoke-on Trent. These GP catchments were identified by the MIDAS team as those of comparatively high deprivation and low participation in the MIDAS population survey to date. A focus on these catchments also provided an opportunity to boost the number of participants from minority (non-white communities) given the demographic profile of the 6 surgery catchments.
Case Studies
Residents across the London Borough of Waltham Forest were reporting high levels of anxiety regarding their personal safety amid growing fears of increasing crime in their communities. It is within this context that the funding was secured two Community Safety ‘safer streets’ pilots to be delivered in two key areas: Chingford Mount and South Leytonstone. M·E·L Research was commissioned to conduct a qualitative review of the pilots and worked with the LBWF project team from the outset. The research worked directly with several key stakeholder audiences including: Project staff and partners (including the police); residents; elected council members and local business.
Case Studies
M·E·L Research were commissioned to explore the challenges and barriers that unique family groups (single, separated, foster, adopted, extended, families with children with a large age gap) experience when it comes to keeping their children safe online. How do parents feel about it, how do they engage with the topic, how do they talk to their children about it and what are the challenges? By providing this insight we were able to explore where NSPCC resources fits into the conversation, how they can support families and what the opportunities are for NSPCC.
Case Studies
Established in 1959, British Cycling is the national governing body for the sport of cycling in Great Britain. It oversees various cycling disciplines, including road cycling, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX, and cyclocross. British Cycling plays a crucial role in developing and promoting cycling at all levels, from grassroots participation to elite competition, and has even supported riders representing Great Britain on the international stage. Currently, British Cycling has around 137,000 members. Research was desired to explore potential reasons for some members leaving in greater detail so as to guard against lapsing memberships moving forward.
Case Studies
M·E·L Research was commissioned by the Wales Cancer Network to help assess the outcomes and impact of the all-Wales Rapid Diagnosis Clinics (RDC) programme. The RDC programme was a national initiative supporting Health Boards in Wales to provide General Practitioners (GPs) with a referral pathway and RDC to investigate vague symptoms that may be caused by cancer. RDCs aimed to: • Support earlier diagnosis for patients with vague, non-specific symptoms that could be cancer • Reduce cancer diagnoses via emergency presentations • Improve overall patient health outcomes by detecting cancer earlier • Improve patient and GP experience • Identify and manage other serious non-malignant disease or those at risk of developing serious illness • Provide reassurance and early discharge for those patients with no, or non-serious disease, thus increasing capacity through appropriate and efficient use of finite services
Case Studies
In March 2023, the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB commissioned M·E·L Research to undertake a process and outcome evaluation to explore and demonstrate how the personalised care approaches in the elective care, pre-op MSK pathway at SFH and the cancer prehab pathway at NUH were being delivered. In order to assist future decision-making and commissioning, understanding the challenges, learnings and impact was key. The evaluation also needed to explore the different approaches adopted by the Link Worker providers, namely PICS and Self Help UK.
Case Studies
Fair Housing Futures (FHF) was funded by the Nationwide Foundation’s Transforming the Private Rented Sector programme. It is a place-based collaborative programme to test and learn from interventions which improve the experience of ‘vulnerable’ people accommodated in Greater Manchester’s PRS. Fair Housing Futures has sought to explore ground-breaking solutions to the issues and barriers that vulnerable people face when private renting. FHF’s ambition is for the private rented sector in Greater Manchester to provide more decent, genuinely affordable homes for people in need.
Case Studies
To support Birmingham City Council in assessing the impact of the Better Mental Health Fund, M·E·L Research was commissioned to carry out an independent evaluation to provide insight into how the projects engaged with people across the city, what the experiences of people were and what the variations in impact were on different types of people. The evaluation also looked to assess the changes and opportunities created as a result of the grant and if projects had been cost effective through a value for money assessment.
Case Studies
Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, and South Lincolnshire Mind (CPSL Mind) has delivered perinatal mental health services since 2013. In 2021, CPSL Mind received funding from the Department of Health and Social Care to design and deliver a new service focusing on the wellbeing needs of pregnant women and new mums from the local Muslim Community in Peterborough. The Starting Well funded programme – Connecting Muslim Mums – was a two-year collaboration between CPSL Mind, The Lantern Initiative and a range of other local community partners.
Case Studies
The programme focused on improving the inclusivity, accessibility and relevance of mental health and wellbeing information in communities. Although the information produced for this programme is open to all, the programme focused on increasing access to relevant information for three priority audiences – children and young people, people experiencing poverty and people that experience racial inequality.
Case Studies
English Heritage (EH) sought to evaluate the interpretation work across nine historic sites within its estate, aiming for a significant shift towards a qualitative measure of success. Recognising the need for a nuanced understanding of visitor experiences, EH commissioned MEL Research Ltd to undertake this comprehensive framework development and evaluation.
Case Studies
It had been some time since tastecard’s personas were last reviewed and there was a requirement to re-fresh the findings. Ello has significant data on its members and was able to understand both their product orientated behaviours and actions to a good extent (via 1 st party data) as well as having a broad understanding of what their customers are like via Fresco by CACI profiling. However, there was room to understand the drivers of behaviour in more depth, particularly in relation to specific dining and entertainment behaviours, as well as to review customer perceptions around the tastecard product.
Case Studies
Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was the 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Liverpool, United Kingdom, as Ukraine—the winner of the 2022 contest with the song “Stefania” by Kalush Orchestra—was unable to host the event due to the Russian invasion of the country. We undertook a large-scale longitudinal study of Liverpool residents, across 6 months, to understand the impact of Eurovision from a wellbeing, tolerance and community perspective.
Case Studies
The Birmingham Weekender ran between 26-27 August 2023 with over 100 free events to enjoy at Bullring & Grand Central, the New Street Station concourse, Birmingham Markets and elsewhere. M·E·L Research consulted on the design of the questionnaire, and were responsible for scripting and hosting the software. We conducted face to face fieldwork during the course of the weekend, interviewing attendees using a systematic sampling approach.
Case Studies
M·E·L Research were commissioned to host and conduct a visitor survey with attendees at the festival during the course of its run, as well as to undertake a specialist economic impact assessment for the event to understand the profile of attendees at the event, the impact that the festival had upon them and the economic impact that it had on the local area.
Case Studies
The four events under evaluation were Taste Liverpool. Drink Bordeaux in June 2022, Liverpool International Music Festival in July 2022, River of Light in October-November 2022, and the World Gymnastics Championships in October-November 2022. In addition to conducting the Visitor Satisfaction and Social and Economic Impact studies for the World Gymnastics Championships, M·E·L Research were also commissioned to conduct a pre-event survey with ticket bookers to understand what they were hoping to get out of the event, and also wrote a report summarising the performance of the Championships in relation to its KPIs, incorporating data from the visitor survey, athlete and volunteers survey, expenditure reports and media reports, among other sources.
Case Studies
The primary objectives of this follow up research were to collect fresh insight into residents’ perceptions of their local area, explore in more depth residents’ views on local safety issues, and to identify priority issues to address and where possible, benchmark perceptions within Bushbury Hill against national data.
Case Studies
To address these financial challenges and plan for budget balancing, LCC initiated a comprehensive programme of activities. This included online polling, publications in ‘Leicestershire Matters’, participatory budgeting, engagement with Council officers, and targeted stakeholder events. A key component was the commissioning of M·E·L Research to conduct a deliberative community study, allowing residents to review, explore and understand the budget pressures and their implications before giving their opinion.
Case Studies
The survey is conducted via telephone by M·E·L Research’s experienced CATI team who work at various times throughout the day and at weekends to ensure that residents are called at convenient times and that tenant response profiles do not skew heavily towards a particular cohort. On a quarterly basis, we provide Leeds Federated with a number of outputs; along with the data tables with key cross breaks, Leeds receive a written report to share with internal stakeholders which includes trend analysis and demographic breakdowns to illuminate any substantial variations.
Case Studies
This was the first survey Great Yarmouth Borough Council have run in line with the TSM guidelines. Our report also included actionable Key Driver Analysis of the core measures to understand how satisfaction withs specific aspects of the service provided by GYBC’s Housing Service correlates with overall satisfaction, and spatial analysis of the results by Ward to understand if there were any geographical variations in results. These added value elements ensure that the findings can be actioned effectively by the team at GYBC.
Case Studies
M·E·L Research needed to provide methodological rigour which balanced with the wider TSM guidelines, allowed for ability to benchmark data with other councils and public sector bodies (in this case against Housemark data), an ability to correlate data across the most recent TSM survey and the earlier TSM surveys that M·E·L had previously produced for Cannock Chase Council. Given the subject matter an inclusive approach to research participation, a positive experience for residents taking part, and ensuring representativeness of the Cannock Chase response profile was key.
Case Studies
M·E·L Research needed to provide methodological rigour based upon a recognised evidence-based engagement index, an ability to benchmark data with other councils and public sector bodies, an ability to correlate data across both surveys, an inclusive approach to research participation, a positive experience for residents taking part, creativity in question design to respond to emerging issues and clear and innovative communications of research findings, including post-survey analysis sessions. A stratified random locational approach was used for sampling, with all Census Output Areas (COAs) per ward ranked by deprivation. The target number of interviews was 1,100. The final number of interviews achieved was 1,101, undertaken via in-person door-knocking.
Case Studies
To support Welsh Government in assessing the implementation and impact of the Period Dignity grant, M·E·L Research were commissioned to carry out an independent evaluation. Er mwyn cefnogi Llywodraeth Cymru i asesu gweithrediad ac effaith y grant Cyfnod Urddas, comisiynwyd M·E·L Research i gynnal gwerthusiad annibynnol.
Case Studies
To support MHF and WWT in assessing the implementation and impact of the Blue Prescribing programme at the London Wetland Centre, M·E·L Research were commissioned to carry out an independent evaluation to understand the implementation and outcomes of the pilot programme.
Case Studies
The London Borough of Waltham Forest commissioned M·E·L Research to deliver four waves of its Resident Insight programme. This longstanding research programme tracks the perception of Waltham Forest residents regarding their neighbourhood and Council services. Each wave comprises 750 interviews conducted face to face at pre-selected sample points, selected by stratified random location sampling. A qualitative follow-up is also undertaken after each wave.
Market research can be fraught with issues surrounding transparency, data security and the quality of analysis applied to research. That’s why we’re fully accredited to ISO 9001, 20252 and 27001 as well as cyber essentials plus certified.
Stay up to date with the latest news from MEL Research.
M·E·L News
January 2025
The Invictus Games is an international multi-sport event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women, both serving and veterans. It uses the power of sport to inspire recovery and support rehabilitation. In 2025 they are taking place in Whistler and Vancouver, Canada.
M·E·L News
January 2025
Tamsin Maries writes: This month marked the four year anniversary of my first Long Covid symptoms. Back in January 2021 we were all in lockdown. I was a few months into a new research job, juggling homeworking, homeschooling and childcare. Zero breaks, high stress.
M·E·L News
January 2025
M·E·L Research is proud to be partnering with the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP), which provides high quality, evidenced-based advice to the Legal Services Board, on a pivotal project aimed at understanding consumer experiences and preferences across all forms of legal service delivery.
M·E·L News
January 2025
M·E·L Research is pleased to announce our partnership with Breakthrough T1D, the newly rebranded organisation formerly known as JDRF UK. This transformation represents a significant milestone for the organisation, although its mission remains the same:to accelerate life-changing breakthroughs to cure, prevent, and better treat type 1 diabetes (T1D) and its complications. The rebrand will support Breakthrough T1D in increasing reach and engagement, and ultimately, help to raise more funds to drive toward cures.
M·E·L News
December 2024
As the cost-of-living crisis continues to impact households across the UK, the ability to keep homes warm during winter has emerged as a significant public health concern. Two recent reports—Keeping Warm at Home During Winter in Wales and Cold Homes in Wales: Is the Satisfactory Heating Regime Appropriate for Health and Well-Being? – provide critical insights into how heating behaviours and well-being have been affected. These findings carry important implications for policymakers as they seek to address fuel poverty and protect vulnerable populations.
M·E·L News
December 2024
We are thrilled to announce that The Groundlings, our collaborative online community project with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), has been longlisted in the Using Data category for the prestigious 2025 Digital Culture Awards!
M·E·L News
December 2024
Having recently passed our ISO 9001 and 27001 audits with very positive feedback, it’s a good time to reflect on why these accreditations are so important to us at M·E·L Research—and, more importantly, what they mean for our clients, writes Toni Hogg.
M·E·L News
November 2024
Understanding and implementing trauma-informed and inclusive research practices is becoming an essential skill for social researchers. In recognition of this, we have worked with the Social Research Association (SRA) to develop a new course to provide foundational knowledge and practical tools for designing research that prioritises both inclusivity and a trauma-informed approach. Running over two mornings via Zoom, this course is aimed at researchers looking to develop a deeper understanding of these critical methodologies.
M·E·L News
November 2024
M·E·L Research is pleased to announce that Ruth Gosling has joined the organisation as an Associate Director in our quantitative research team. Ruth brings over 20 years of experience in market and social research, having worked with a diverse portfolio of clients across the public and private sectors.
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