Research Services
I work with organisations tackling complex social issues to help them understand impact, learn from practice, and improve what they do. I bring over 20 years’ experience in qualitative and mixed methods research, with a focus on health inequalities, homelessness, and lived experience.
Services
Evaluation, learning partnership and action research
Desgining and delivering evaluations that are proportionate, reflective and grounded in context. I work across formative, developmental and impact evaluations, often with charities and partnerships addressing complex social issues. And I work alongside organisations to capture learning and improve developing projects.
Theory of change
Facilitating the development of theory of change models that are practical, realistic and useful. I support teams to clarify outcomes, assumptions and learning questions through collaborative workshops and visual tools.
Qualitiative and mixed methods research
Carrying out research that brings together qualitative, participatory and secondary data methods. This includes in-depth interviews, focus groups and group discussions, and survey design.
Report writing and editing
Turning complex findings into clear, accessible outputs.
Facilitating lived-experience research
Training and supporting community and peer researchers to gain insights from their own communities, building on insider knowlege and trust. I also work as a lived-experience researcher myself in relation to long-term physical and mental health conditions.
Areas of expertise
Homelessness and rough sleeping
Multiple disadvantage
Health and social inequalities
Mental health and well-being
Drug and alcohol issues
Vioence against women and girls
Community empowerment and co-production
Systems change
My approach
I work collaboratively with project stakeholders to refine research questions, and to select and design the most appropriate research or evaluation methods and tools.
I feed back learning in real time, so that organisations can adapt their programmes in response to emerging findings, and take a ‘no surprises’ approach to evaluation.
I work alongside organisations as a critical friend, supporting them to better meet their aims.
I ensure my methods are asset-based, trauma informed, person-centred and positive experiences for the people I'm conducting the research with and really capture their voices.
I co-produce understandings and recommendations. I discuss emerging findings with participants and project stakeholders, including those with lived experience of the issues being researched, to check, refine and deepen my understanding of the issues and co-produce recommendations.
I communicate my findings through presentations and accessible, engaging reports that focus on sharing learning, good practice and recommendations in order to make a difference. These can include models and theories of change, case studies and quotations, graphs and figures.