Commitment to quality

At NatCen, we are proud of our reputation for leading the way in social research and delivering high quality work. We believe quality isn’t just about the end result, it means getting everything right along the way, and always aiming to improve and innovate.

Committed to meeting our clients’ needs

Achieving the right outcome starts with knowing our clients and understanding their needs and requirements. We will spend time with clients and involve them in the process. Equally, we won’t be afraid of challenging where we believe this to be in the best interests of the study. Knowing how we are doing and how satisfied our clients are helps us to continually improve so we will always seek and welcome feedback.

Committed to encouraging participation in social research

We will strive to deliver findings that are representative of society and actively encourage participation in our research by demonstrating how our work is used. We will carefully consider ethical issues and seek informed consent. We will make sure that our research participants, who give up their time and share so much with us, have a rewarding experience.

Committed to working with integrity and rigour

Scientific principles are at the heart of what we do. We will use tried and tested methods and develop cutting edge methodologies, underpinned by rigorous processes, to ensure the quality of our work and reliability of our findings. We use quality registrations as a way of checking that our processes are fit for purpose and deployed consistently. We also take our responsibilities under the Data Protection Act very seriously and will ensure information that we are trusted with is always securely protected.

Committed to having great people working for us

Our people are NatCen’s greatest ambassadors; they are energetic about their work and confident about the benefit that it can bring to society. Our mission and reputation allows us to attract the very best people and we repay this by investing in their development, providing opportunities to work on challenging projects and encouraging them to share their findings widely. As an organisation, we are enthusiastic about leading the way in social research, taking part in policy initiatives and debates, contributing to methodological innovation, and being vocal about our work.

Committed to delivering social research that provides understanding

We know that our research, insights and ideas have the power to shape decisions about public and social policy issues and services so we are focused on delivering findings that are clear, relevant and useful for society. In line with our charitable aims, we make a strong contribution to the policy and research communities - sharing our data, promoting our findings, and providing training and capacity building. Our political neutrality and commitment to our work enables us to speak plainly about our findings.