Equalities and hard to reach groups

Talking inequalities and promoting social cohesion are among the key challenges facing governments in the 21st century. While progress is continually being made – the implementation of the Equality Act 2010 being the most obvious recent example – ongoing cultural, economic and political change means new challenges are emerging almost as quickly. According to a National Equality Panel report published in Jan 2010, the gap between rich and poor is at its widest that at any time since the Second World War. At the same time, the population is becoming both older and more diverse – racially, ethnically and culturally.

Policy must respond to these challenges and research is an important part of this, both as a means of identifying the scale of inequalities that exist and of evaluating measures being taken to address these.

At Ipsos MORI we are highly experienced in reaching and researching key equality groups, including Black and Minority Ethnic groups, faith groups, disabled people, older people, and the LGBT community. This experience has been gained, not only through several ad hoc studies focusing specifically on equalities-related issues (see examples below), but also though our general population studies, including the Scottish Household Survey, in which we routinely take steps to ensure that the view of equalities groups are represented. This breadth of experience means we know how research equalities groups effectively and sensitively.

For more information, please contact Sara Davidson on 0131 220 5699.