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Case Studies

Case Studies

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Islington Council: Licensing Consultation

Islington Council commissioned M·E·L Research to conduct a detailed consultation on the proposals to re-designate a borough-wide Additional Licensing scheme, and to introduce Selective Licensing in a further 9 wards: Barnsbury, Caledonian, Tufnell Park, Mildmay, Highbury, Junction, Laycock, Canonbury, and Clerkenwell. The consultation ran for 13 weeks and sought to gather local views on the proposals, including the proposed licensing conditions, fees, variations to the licence, and alternatives that the council could consider.

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Case Studies

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Shelter: Tracking Research into Impact of Service Provision

Shelter is the leading charity in the UK on homelessness and housing issues. Shelter has a strong, established voice on the issues of home quality, availability, affordability and tenure security through both campaigning and advocacy. Shelter runs campaigns to raise awareness and seeks to influence housing policy, working with government and other organisations to advocate for changes that can deliver sector wide improvements.

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Case Studies

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British Dyslexia Association: Quantitative Online Survey (Plus Qualitative Focus Groups & In Depth Interviews)

The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) is the voice of dyslexic people. They campaign and advocate to influence government, organisations and institutions to become dyslexia-friendly and accessible, to enable dyslexic people to reach their full potential. The BDA commissioned M·E·L Research to conduct research to understand and quantify the lived experience of dyslexic young people aged 13-18, to deeply understand how dyslexia impacts their lives.

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Case Studies

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The Bat Conservation Trust: Online Survey Into Public Attitudes Towards Bats

The Bat Conservation Trust commissioned M·E·L Research to conduct a large-scale nationally representative quantitative research to better understand public attitudes toward bats. This included developing and piloting a repeatable survey, establishing baseline data, and generating insights to guide audience targeting and strategic planning.

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Case Studies

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Midland Heart Customer Satisfaction Measurement Programme

In 2024, M·E·L Research were appointed to deliver a major transactional research contract for Midland Heart, one of the largest social landlords in the West Midlands. For the next three years, we will be delivering up to 14 monthly transactional surveys, covering key areas of service delivery.

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Case Studies

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Liverpool Major Events Programme: World Gymnastics Championship

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.

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Case Studies

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Research into Body Worn Video (BWV) Footage for the Enforcement Conduct Board (ECB)

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.

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Case Studies

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Kick it Out: Sexism and Misogyny in Football

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.

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Case Studies

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Royal Shakespeare Company – Longitudinal Online Community in the Culture Sector

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.

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Case Studies

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Doncaster Big Picture Learning: Evaluation of Alternative Provision

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.

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Case Studies

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MIDAS Population Study – University of Keele

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.

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Case Studies

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London Borough of Waltham Forest Community Safety Pilots

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.

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Case Studies

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NSPCC Child Online Safety

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.

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Case Studies

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British Cycling Focus Groups with Lapsed Members

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.

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Case Studies

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All-Wales Rapid Diagnosis Clinic Programme Evaluation

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

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