CGA was established in 2003 by Dr Carol Goldstone, formerly director of the Social and Political Division at NOP and director of the Public and Social Unit at GfK Martin Hamblin.
Since we were established, we have worked for a wide range of clients, including: central government departments such as the Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education, Home Office and Cabinet Office; agencies and NDPBs such as the Charity Commission, Consumer Council for Water, Electoral Commission, National Audit Office and Office of Fair Trading; local authorities such as the London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Brent and Ealing and West Berkshire District Council; and other organisations such as the Fraud Advisory Panel, Institute for Volunteering Research, Pre-school Learning Alliance and Sheffield University. We are currently accredited on the framework agreements of the Department for Work and Pensions, Office of Fair Trading and Lifelong Learning UK.
We undertake both qualitative and quantitative research projects. In the case of qualitative projects we provide a full range of services – including design of topic guides and questionnaires, sampling strategies, recruitment, moderation, project management, analysis, report writing and dissemination of findings. In the case of quantitative projects we undertake all executive functions as the “thinking front end” at all stages of the project and commission a small number of carefully-selected fieldwork companies (all IQCS and/or MRQSA-qualified) to carry out fieldwork and data management on our behalf.
We see ourselves as an all-round market research agency – but with two particular strengths.
Our first strength is our considerable experience of carrying out research with people from hard-to-reach groups such as those with disabilities, lone parents, elderly people, unemployed people, homeless and insecurely-housed people, people in debt, young adults and people from black and minority ethnic communities. This type of research presents a number of challenges, from recruitment to survey design to ways of dealing with sensitive topics.
Our second strength is our ability to offer clients the sort of personalised, responsive and flexible service rarely available today from larger market research organisations and academic institutions. We work closely with clients at every stage of research projects in order to make sure that the research meets their information needs, which may initially need clarification and may evolve over the course of the research, within the limits set by their budgets. We pride ourselves on always giving satisfaction to our clients and welcome the fact that many of them have returned to us time after time
