On Saturday 9 September 2006, Dr Roger Mortimore (Ipsos's Senior Political Analyst) spoke at the EPOP Conference in Nottingham*, on "Ethnic Minority Voters and Non-Voters at the 2005 British General Election", delivering a paper by himself and Kully Kaur-Ballagan (Ipsos Head of Ethnic Minority Research). The paper, which draws on Ipsos research conducted for the Electoral Commission after last year's election, explores the turnout and votes of Britain's various Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities. Turnout is strongly associated with a positive attitude to elections in general, as might be expected; but there is also some evidence of a strong community effect, with those who live in areas with many other BME residents disproportionately likely to have voted. Surprisingly, there is no evidence that attitudes to the government's policy in Iraq had any significant effect. The findings also illustrate how a high quality research design, including respondents from...
Public expectations of the NHS are running ahead of what the health service can deliver, according to new research published today by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) ahead of the release of monthly NHS waiting time figures on Friday.
The Stroke Association has worked with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Ipsos to gauge awareness of the relationship between salt and high blood pressure — a major contributing risk factor for stroke. The survey of over 300 Britons of south Asian origin found that only 19 people (six per cent) knew the maximum recommended salt intake was 6g a day, with a tiny proportion, five per cent, naming stroke as a primary health concern.
The research findings from the present study bear a striking similarity to those from MORI's earlier research on the regulation and revalidation of doctors. This may reflect one of the findings of the qualitative research: that even though doctors and the other professionals covered by the research are not seen as having the same roles, people seem to find it difficult to talk about non-medical healthcare professionals without also talking about doctors. They therefore fail to treat them as separate groups. This came across strongly in the focus groups, where respondents tended to focus on doctors, even when asked about non-medical healthcare professionals.
A recent Ipsos omnibus survey, published by Kingsmill, has found that almost half of parents in Britain would welcome more information about healthy eating for children 'a great deal' (45%). Moreover, more than four in five parents would welcome this 'at least a little'.
Pulse Check
Pulse Check delivers key insights from Ipsos' Political Monitor, Political Pulse, and Public Services data, along with reactive polling, to help you navigate the evolving political landscape.
The SEA role was piloted within Job Centre Plus (JCP) over two years in seven areas where ethnic minority unemployment is significantly higher than the national average. The initiative was intended to increase ethnic minority employment through the building of strategic and innovative relationships between local employers and the JCP.
New research shows that local authority planners are increasingly satisfied with the consultation carried out by mobile network operators, for base station sites to support mobile phone use. Ipsos research carried out over the past six years shows positive improvement in all areas of consultation and information year on year. The main findings of the research were:
Two thirds of the British public (64%) believe that it is fair to say that Tony Blair is "all spin, but no substance" according to Ipsos's latest political poll exclusively for The Sunday Times. Just 28% of the public say that this criticism is unfair, giving a "spin over substance" index of +36. The public is divided about whether this accusation can be applied to Gordon Brown: 41% say it can and 45% say it cannot (an index of -4). A large proportion of the public have yet to decide about David Cameron, but where people do give an opinion they are more likely to say he is all spin, but no substance. Cameron's spin index is +11 (with 42% saying he is all spin and 31% saying he is not). Opinion about the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell, divides three ways: 28 % agree he is all spin, but no substance; 36 % say he is not; and 36% say they don't know. This gives Campbell an index score of -8.
Some commentators have noted in recent months that Ipsos's voting intention figures are "more volatile" than those of the other companies, which in one sense is true; but they have also assumed that this implies they are less accurate, which is not necessarily the case, and some of them have clearly not understood why our figures sometimes move more dramatically than those in other polls.
The Department of Health has released the latest Ipsos research looking at the overall state of the NHS in the eyes of patients and the public, including Ipsos's regular tracking of public views of the NHS and a recent wave of the in-depth Plain English workshops. These workshops help improve the way communicators in the NHS get across key health messages to the public by understanding how NHS communications are received and identify practical "jargon-busting" tips for local NHS communications teams.
