TNS BMRB has an outstanding reputation for successfully delivering large, complex and challenging social surveys. We are trusted with a number of flagship government surveys including continuous and longitudinal studies, and have designed and undertaken some of the most groundbreaking social surveys commissioned in the UK in recent years.
Our success is founded on combining technical expertise, operational excellence and methodological rigour with a readiness to innovate to solve challenging research problems and drive value for our clients. Our research teams are led by highly experienced social survey practitioners and are supported by a dedicated Survey Methods Team. Our operations division delivers fieldwork of the highest quality and benefits from an in home CAPI fieldforce dedicated to conducting random sample social surveys, as well as a large-scale CATI fieldforce. We have the experience and technological capability to deliver seamless mixed mode survey solutions including web and postal interviewing as well as CAPI and CATI.
Major social surveys that we have conducted in the past decade include:
- The British Crime Survey. We have held the contract for the Home Office’s flagship survey since 2001, when the survey moved to a continuous data collection strategy. The current design involves 46,000 interviews with adults aged 16 or over and 4,000 interviews with 10-15 year olds. The survey uses a partially clustered random sample design proposed and designed by TNS BMRB and consistently achieves a response rate of around 75%.
- The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey. TNS BMRB Scotland was awarded the contract to conduct the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey in 2007. It involves continuous in home CAPI interviews among a random sample of 16,000 adults a year.
- The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport (The Taking Part Survey). We have conducted this large-scale continuous survey for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and its associated bodies since 2005. At its largest the survey has involved in home CAPI interviews with a random sample of over 27,000 adults per year, and a further 3,000 interviews with 11-15 year olds.
- The Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. TNS BMRB has been lead contractor on this major study for the Department for Education since the first sweep in 2004 which involved interviews with 15,000 young people and their parents. We have pioneered the use of web interviewing within a sequential mixed mode design since Wave 5 of the study, enabling the survey budget to be significantly reduced without compromise to data quality.
- The First National Survey of Homeless Families, a survey for the Department for Communities and Local Government of 2,500 families living in temporary accommodation, conducted in 2005-06 in partnership with the Centre for Housing Policy at the University of York.
- The First National Survey of Adults with Learning Disabilities for the Department of Health. Working with Lancaster University and Central England People First, and involving people with learning disabilities in co-creating the research from design through to the report published in 2005, we conducted interviews with over 2,900 people.
- The NSPCC’s National Survey of Child Safety and Victimisation, the largest study of child maltreatment conducted in the UK. Completed during 2009, the survey involved over 6,000 interviews with random samples of parents, children and young adults. Administered using a combination of CAPI, CASI and Audio CASI, the survey asked about a wide range of topics including the experience and witnessing of physical, sexual and emotional violence.