UK / Public Services
Understanding Perception of Public Services at Hyper-local Level
"Our work generated over 200 pieces of media coverage and 60+ broadcast appearances, helping increase our share of voice in an ever more crowded space and inform our stakeholders."
Business issue
We know from our polling that public perceptions of public services can vary substantially across the UK, often along a North-South divide, or England vs devolved nations. And administrative data tells us public service performance is very granular and can vary between different places, sometimes even nearby locations, as services are managed across different geographies. Policy researchers, media, and the wider public are looking for a greater understanding of these varying perceptions at a hyper-local level.
Our solution
For our Understanding Society 2025 publication, we ran a large-scale survey of over 20,000 respondents, on perceptions of public services through our probability KnowledgePanel. We enhanced this data using MRP (multi level regression and post-stratification) to create estimates for each lower tier local authority in the UK. This meant collecting population statistics at a granular level, and modelling survey data to create local estimates. This allowed us to explore patterns that go beyond broad geographical divides, highlighting hotspots of particularly poor public perceptions. We also found that different areas faced very different struggles when it came to transport, health, education, jobs, housing, policing and overall quality of life and community cohesion. We created individual articles which explore implications for policy makers and the current Government.
For more information on this case study, get in touch here.
Impact
We have previously successfully used this approach during the 2024 general election, by using MRP to estimate the likely composition of the incoming parliament. Our work generated over 200 pieces of media coverage and 60+ broadcast appearances, helping increase our share of voice in an ever more crowded space and inform our stakeholders.
