Communications Qualitative Research

The Department for Education (DfE) is responsible for children's services and education in England, including early years, children's social care, schools, higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and wider skills. Our ambitious goal is to provide world-class education, training and care for everyone, whatever their background.

The DfE Communications Directorate contributes to this ambition by driving changes in awareness, attitudes and behaviours through effective communication with multiple external audiences, such as parents, teachers, school leaders and governors, children's social workers, businesses, and young people. Our work cuts across all areas related to DfE strategic priorities, including post-16 and skills development, schools, and children's safety and wellbeing.

Insight and evaluation are at the heart of all government communications. The Government Communication Service (GCS) advocates the use of robust audience insight to ensure communications are relevant, meaningful and effective. An in-depth understanding of our key audiences (including their attitudes, habits and preferences) is integral to identifying the role for communications as a lever for change and the design and implementation of effective communications strategies. It is also vital that we evaluate our communications to understand what is and what is not working, and learn from that to improve effectiveness.

We are therefore looking to establish a four-year (2+1+1) call-off qualitative research contract to generate actionable audience insight and contribute to the evaluation of our communications.