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Case Studies

Case Studies

Culture-Heritage-Market-Research

Creative City Grants: Process & Outcomes Evaluation

The Creative City Grants Programme was funded through a £2 million grant from Birmingham City Council. The programme aimed to be a catalyst to increase community-led artistic creation and boost local pride and funded in excess of 100 individual projects across the creative and heritage sectors in Birmingham during the Commonwealth Games Cultural Festival. The evaluation used a mixed methods approach to engage with all 106 of the projects in a tiered way, with sampling undertaken to account for the range of project type in terms of format, offer, audience and geography among other considerations.

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Case Studies

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Temporary Accomodation for West Midlands Homelessness Task Force

M·E·L Research was commissioned by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Homelessness Taskforce to undertake a research project into families in temporary accommodation (TA) across the region). The taskforce was established in 2017, and is committed to identifying and addressing gaps in policies, procedures, laws, structures, systems and relationships that either cause or fail to prevent homelessness. Temporary housing for families is an integral part of homelessness provision and one that is currently used at a high level and presents real challenges to both households using it an organisations providing it.

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Case Studies

Health and wellbeing social research agency

Covid-19 response to seldom heard groups in Buckinghamshire

The Public Health team at Buckinghamshire Council asked us to carry out research to support their Covid-19 recovery planning and response. We used an entirely qualitative approach to speak to stakeholders and residents among communities at risk from or vulnerable because of coronavirus.

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Case Studies

Health and wellbeing social research agency

Evaluation of Keighley Community Health Grants Social Prescribing Programme

M·E·L Research were commissioned to carry out an independent evaluation of the Keighley Community Health grants programme, a programme that aimed to improve health outcomes for people in Keighley by supporting both community groups and community businesses to engage with social prescribing.

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Case Studies

Environment and Climate Research and Evaluation

Biffa Award Impact Evaluation

Since 1997, Biffa Award has awarded grants to community and environmental projects across the UK. To date, nearly £180 million has been awarded to thousands of projects. An evaluation was delivered which focused on the impact the fund has had on projects from 2015 to 2020.

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Case Studies

Hands in a circle Employee Experience Research Agency

Surrey County Council Organisation Wide and Quarterly Pulse Surveys

Surrey County Council commissioned M·E·L Research to deliver two research programmes. The first was an organisation-wide Staff Survey, and the results from this survey were also used as a baseline for the quarterly pulse surveys which were introduced in January 2021 and which will continue until 2026.

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Case Studies

Flashing Light - Emergency Services Market Research Company

National Fire Chiefs Council Leadership Project Research

The National Fire Chiefs Council’s People Strategy has six key areas for improvements of which Leadership is key to all. A Leadership Project has been established by the NFCC to form a response to the challenges facing current and future leaders in the Fire Sector. M·E·L Research worked with the Leadership Project team to explore demand, buy in and perceived challenges in four key workstreams within the Leadership Programme (Coaching and Mentoring, Talent Management Direct Entry, and Supervisory Leadership).

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Case Studies

Yellow house to show Housing Market Research

NUS & Unipol Accommodation Costs Survey

A student accommodation cots survey has been running for since the late 1960. M.E.L Research supported the roll out and analysis of the 2021 iteration in partnership with Unipol and the NUS, with the resulting report published in December 2021. Overall, responses accounted for 473,684 bed spaces. This marks a high point in the survey’s history and represents 68 per cent of the purpose-built student accommodation sector, up from a 60 per cent participation rate in 2018/19.

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Case Studies

Local Environment

East Park Consultation for Wolverhampton City Council

M·E·L Research was commissioned to help the Council with a resident engagement programme which sought to engage all sectors of the community. To understand who and where East Park communities of interest were, a stakeholder mapping exercise was undertaken before planning targeted engagement activities. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to consult with local communities to capture their views on the future of East Park including household surveys (for those in a 1 mile radius of the park), a supplementary young persons’ survey, in-park surveys and wider qualitative engagement with local schools and community groups.

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Case Studies

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Evaluation of Council Tax Incentives in Wales

We evaluated local implementation and delivery of the four Council Tax intervention measures introduced and assessed the impact of these measures on residents and councils. We carried out a survey of all local authorities in Wales, with an English and Welsh version, carried out an online focus group with care leavers and interviewed seven representative organisations in Wales, feeding all results into a joint report with a policy consultancy partner.

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Case Studies

Engaging Schools, Learners and Employers for Warwickshire County Council

In order to evaluate the impact of the ‘Skills for Employment’ initiative WCC commissioned M·E·L Research to conduct qualitative research with education providers (schools and colleges) and businesses. The research objectives were to gather additional facts and data on the impact of the programme; obtain feedback on awareness of the programme; obtain feedback on the administration of the programme; ascertain what specific difference (if any) it has made to young people, education providers and businesses.

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Case Studies

Health and wellbeing social research agency

Uptake of Children’s Flu Vaccine in Muslim Communities

‘The national childhood flu immunisation programme 2020 to 2021 Information for healthcare practitioner’ document highlighted that some individuals in the British Muslim community consider the porcine gelatine product to be forbidden. Uptake of the flu vaccine in children in Lancashire & South Cumbria is below the national target and has been particularly low in areas where communities may refuse the vaccines due to their cultural beliefs. The PHCT commissioned M·E·L Research to undertake qualitative research to gather views from Muslim parents that live in Blackburn with Darwen, Preston and Burnley. The research will help to identify the potential barriers and solutions to increase flu vaccine uptake in the future. It will also be used to support potential changes to service delivery and thereby reduce health inequities amongst the Muslim community.

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Case Studies

Crime & Justice Market Research Company Gavel Icon

Ethnic Minority Experiences of Legal Services

In short, despite shopping around more than White British consumers, they are less likely to have a good experience of the service and the outcome and less likely to trust providers. The focus of the project was thus to focus less on providing data, and more to provide stories and illustrations of the impact on real people. To understand the experience of ethnic minority legal consumers through a deep-dive qualitative approach. To elicit detailed stories and experiences to provide insight into what actions can be taken to enable stakeholders to do more to improve the experience of these consumer groups.

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Case Studies

Culture-Heritage-Market-Research

UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK – Brand Awareness Tracking

We work across UNBOXED in several different research and insight strands, a part of which is undertaking brand awareness tracking across the UK, using a place-based approach to focus in on communities which should have been impacted by the events.

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Case Studies

Health and wellbeing social research agency

Samaritans Online Harm Prevention

Samaritans is a suicide-prevention and awareness charity that offers various venues of support for those experiencing mental health challenges and people who are supporting loved ones with mental health challenges. They work to prevent mental health crises, and to act when people do experience them. Samaritans asked for our help to explore responses to existing messaging found across social media platforms and forums pertaining to self-harm and or suicide.

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