SYSTRA’s Social & Market Research team are putting people first

New policies, schemes and services are likely to have wide-ranging impacts on diverse groups of people and stakeholders.

In the public sector there is an increased focus on providing an evidence base for decision-making, encouraging accountability for public funding, and on providing thorough evaluations of policies, strategies, schemes, services and products. In the private sector, competition has intensified, with regulatory and market forces meaning businesses must focus more than ever on meeting customer needs and expectations to survive!

Addressing these challenges requires specialist research skills to ensure robust decision making. Organisations need help understanding when and how to undertake research, to gain the accurate insights they need into consumer and user behaviours and preferences, and to ensure they put people at the heart of everything they do.

With over 40 years’ of experience, SYSTRA’s Social and Market Research team provide customised social and market research, public and stakeholder consultation, monitoring and evaluation to give clients a detailed understanding of the impacts, implications and viability of proposals, policies, strategies, schemes, services and more! With experience stretching across transport, environment, sustainability, water, energy, net zero and decarbonisation, the team are well versed in supporting clients with complex research topics.

Find out the ways in which SYSTRA can support your research needs below!

SOCIAL MARKET & RESEARCH

SYSTRA manage all stages of research from design and fieldwork, through to analysis, reporting and presentation of results.  Our dedicated team has expertise in a wide range of research techniques, including opinion surveys, travel diaries, secondary data analysis and evidence reviews. We also engage with participants across focus groups and workshops, online communities, accompanied user journeys and depth interviews.

We have a strong track record of undertaking research with groups that are traditionally hard to reach, including young people and the elderly, disabled people, minority ethnic and faith groups, and victims of crime.

Public & Stakeholder Engagement and COnsultation

We help our clients design effective and compliant public consultations, asking clear and pertinent questions that are easy to understand and respond to. We collect and analyse consultation responses and produce reports of the findings to help our clients:

• Understand the breadth of reactions to potential new policies or interventions.
• Measure strength of opinions.
• Generate new ideas.
• Make informed decisions about how they can best achieve their objectives.
• Build an evidence base to justify new policies, strategies, services and branding.

We use a wide range of research techniques to engage with stakeholders to meet the specific requirements of each project.  We recognise that engaging with stakeholders often requires technical discussions of a sensitive nature. We are highly experienced in using a range of techniques to contact the most suitable people and engage them in the process. We have a strong track record of engaging with decision makers, senior representatives, charities, politicians and other stakeholders about sensitive issues.

MONITORING & evaluATION

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) provides learnings on ‘what works’ including what impacts have been observed, for whom, and what mechanisms led to outcomes. In line with the UK Government’s Magenta Book (HMT, 2020), SYSTRA understands the vital role of M&E in the policy cycle.

Our experience tells us it is essential that M&E activity has a clear purpose and focus, and is proportional, co-creative, flexible, inclusive, practical, transparent and rigorous.

SYSTRA has extensive experience in scoping M&E programmes and frameworks, including defining suitable and proportionate metrics for assessing the performance of schemes and developing Evaluation Questions, Logic Models and Theories of Change.

SYSTRA has completed process, impact and value-for-money evaluations for a wide range of policies, strategies, schemes, services and products. These range from large-scale evaluations of UK Department for Transport (DfT) programmes, to small-scale evaluations for local authorities.

Our leadership in this field stems from our earlier work in helping the Department for Transport draft guidance on M&E of Local Authority Major Schemes, and extends to our current extensive portfolio of major programme evaluations for DfT, including working with the Departments’ Centre for Excellence.

If you’d like the Social & Market Research team’s help with uncovering public or stakeholder opinions, or you just want to learn more, please:

• Find more information on Research, Consultation & Evaluation services here
• Reach out to Director of Behaviour Change and Research, Carry Stephenson, [email protected]

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