Longitudinal research to gain insight into the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Clarion Housing residents
Years of data collection with the same group of residents
Surveys delivered to track attitudes and experiences over time
Residents completed all four surveys
Challenge
Clarion Housing is the UK’s largest housing association, owning and managing around 125,000 homes.
The 2020 Clarion’s annual resident survey, the Index (conducted by Enventure Research since 2017), included a number of questions relating specifically to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to develop an understanding of how residents were coping with and had been impacted by the pandemic.
The findings from the Index helped steer Clarion’s response to the pandemic and direct offers of support to those in most need.
The findings also highlighted a need to monitor the ongoing impact of the pandemic on residents and ensure appropriate support continues to be offered.
Clarion and Enventure Research therefore embarked on a long term research study, following up with residents who had taken part in the 2020 Index survey on a regular basis.
Approach
Enventure Research conducted follow up surveys in winter 2020, summer 2021, and winter 2022 with as many of the same residents who took part in the initial Index survey in summer 2020 as possible, allowing attitudes and opinions of this cohort to be tracked over a two-year period.
The questionnaires for each wave of the survey were designed in partnership between Clarion and Enventure Research, focusing on topics relating to the pandemic. Some questions remained the same across different waves to enable tracking of responses, whilst others were added or removed depending on the circumstances at the time.
Each wave of the COVID-19 research was administered via telephone by trained market research interviewers.
Following the final survey, eight in-depth telephone interviews were conducted with residents to explore their experiences of the pandemic in greater detail.
Outcome
As residents were contacted only if they had participated in the previous wave of the survey, the number of responses decreased naturally over time. The initial 2020 Index Survey was undertaken with a representative sample of 2,000 Clarion residents. Wave two of the research included 716 residents, wave three included 373 residents, and the final survey was completed by 177 residents.
The findings from each survey were provided to Clarion in a series of reports and presentations. The final report included a comparison of the results from all four waves, and incorporated qualitative feedback from the in-depth interviews as a series of anonymised case studies.
The reports provided Clarion with a wealth of essential insight into the unfolding impacts of the pandemic on the lives of Clarion residents over a two-year period, highlighting positive developments as well as causes for concern, and assisting in the development of direct support and interventions.
“We worked with Enventure Research on our longitudinal research project investigating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our customers, who are social housing residents. Over the two years the project ran for, Enventure Research provided support and expertise which meant it ran smoothly and produced robust findings; advising on methods, survey questions and presentation of results. Their reports met our business needs and were presented with total clarity. We have found Enventure Research to be collaborative, responsive and flexible and we would not hesitate to recommend them.”
Insightful research. Expertly delivered.
