As society becomes more diverse it poses challenges for public services. The approach of 'one size fits all' becomes less appropriate for service delivery and the same applies to consultation processes. Urged to 'listen to the customer', organisations find themselves having to deliver not to 'the community' but to a range of different communities, often with widely differing cultures which can make them 'hard to reach'. The reasons why groups can be 'hard to reach' range vary enormously from age or alienation to language and life style. These issues are no longer confined principally to the larger cities as changing patterns of migration are impacting on public services in rural areas.

We fill a gap in the market by offering a research service that specialises in reaching the 'hard to reach'.

Many public organisations draw a proportion of their clients from disadvantaged communities and hard to reach groups. Such communities are often excluded from product research as they have little purchasing power. As a result, many market research companies have comparatively little experience in working with such groups. Add in the problems of interviewing in deprived areas, (access to tower blocks, interviewer safety), together with the difficulties associated with social exclusion, and it is easy to see why a specialist research service is required.

Community Consultants have an excellent track record in conducting research and consultation studies with 'hard to reach' groups. On the survey side we have an experienced field workforce that is used to working in deprived areas. Many of our interviewers are bi-lingual so we can cover many of the main language groups.

On the qualitative side our practice of community recruiting entails working with a community to find appropriate participants and venues. Over the years this practice has consistently achieved a good attendance at our focus groups. Finally, we have experienced moderators with policy backgrounds in public services who can put over complex issues in simple language.