We are looking for an experienced Consultant to support the delivery of work across the company. This is a full-time post (37.5 hours), with some out of hours work required occasionally. The salary scale is £23,000-£29,000 (dependent on experience). The successful post-holder will be based in Edinburgh and should have the following:

• An academic degree-level qualification

• A background in research and consultancy in the areas of social research and organisational development

• A good understanding of the public and third sectors

• Substantial relevant work experience

• The ability to deliver on time and within budget

• A strong client focus, good communication and relationship building skills

• Knowledge and experience of a variety of qualitative and quantitative research and analysis methods including desk research, interviews and focus groups

• Experience of contributing to winning contracts

• Ability to work as part of a team essential

• A full, clean driving licence and access to a car

Further information about the company can be found on our website, and if you would like to have an informal discussion about the post, please call 0131 667 2919 to speak to one of the Directors.

If you are interested, please submit a letter of application and a CV to barbara@blakestevenson.co.uk before the end of closing date –15th March 2019.

The Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, in partnership with Carers Trust and Scottish Young Carers Services Alliance, commissioned Blake Stevenson to gather the views of young carers on their mental health and wellbeing.  For this project, we collaborated with a local illustrator who attended the Scottish Young Carers Festival with us to work with young carers to design illustrations for the survey while we piloted the questions.

We distributed the survey through carers’ groups and analysed the results in collaboration with the University of St Andrews Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children team. This allowed us to make comparisons not only between young carers with different levels of responsibility, but also between the young carers sample and other young people who don’t have caring responsibilities but are from similar demographic groups.

Our full report, ‘Coping is Difficult, But I Feel Proud’, was laid before the Scottish Parliament today, and can now be read on the Children and Young People’s Commissioner’s website: http://www.cypcs.org.uk/ufiles/CopingWithCaring.pdf

The Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) regulates nurses and midwives in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It sets standards of education, training, conduct and performance so that nurses and midwives can deliver high quality healthcare throughout their careers.

Blake Stevenson was appointed by NMC to test the nursing competencies and education framework that individuals use as part of their work.

Onyema Ibe, Director, says: ‘We were keen to win this piece of research, particularly as the work involved testing Welsh language versions of both the nursing competencies and education framework with core stakeholders, and it also offered us the opportunity to work UK wide.’

The Scottish Government commissioned Blake Stevenson, in partnership with Arrivo Consulting, to evaluate the role, function and effectiveness of the Third Sector Interface model and Voluntary Action Scotland (VAS), and to explore what the future strategic direction and approach to third sector support in Scotland should be at the local level.

This comprehensive study involved a survey of all 32 TSIs with depth studies in 11 areas and analysis of TSI and VAS performance data and other background information. We conducted a large number of interviews and focus groups including third sector organisations, local strategic partners, VAS internal stakeholders and national stakeholders.

The final report has been well received and can be found here http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00512189.pdf

The year has come to a poignant close behind the doors at 3 Boroughloch Square, as Blake Stevenson sees the departure of founding partner, Glenys Watt.  Glenys was given a tremendous Blake Stevenson send-off at a well-deserved retirement party and ceilidh at the end of November.  However, she leaves in the knowledge that the company has been taken over and is the safe hands of long serving directors, Onyema Ibe and Jennifer Lambert.

Jennifer Lambert and Onyema Ibe, Directors, said ‘Glenys will be missed by us all, but we have been planning for her departure for over a year to ensure a seamless transition for our clients and our staff.’

Following its appointment earlier this year by Edinburgh International Book Festival, Blake Stevenson is nearing completion on the development of an impact measurement framework for the Booked! Programme.

Jennifer Lambert, Director, says ‘We were delighted to have this opportunity to work with Edinburgh International Book Festival on what has been a very enjoyable process from start to finish. Our work involved undertaking a Theory of Change exercise with key staff and partners, designing research tools and testing these in practice at various Booked! Events.’

The framework will assist in measuring outcomes for the Booked! programme of events which take place across Scotland throughout the year.

Libraries continue to be a hot topic in the press and National Libraries Day on Friday was a timely reminder of the important role they play in communities across Scotland.

We have undertaken various pieces of work during the past couple of years involving libraries – each of them rewarding in different ways. Our consultation work with the public to gather their views on the role of libraries in future informed the development of the recent National Strategy for Public Libraries in Scotland.

People confirmed to us the important role that libraries play in so many people’s lives, and the evolving role of libraries to being community hubs offering a huge range of services.

For the past two years we have been involved with an innovative programme of leadership development in the libraries sector across the UK and Ireland. Carnegie UK Trust, with its long history of engagement with libraries, commissioned us to evaluate its Library Lab Programme which offered employees in the libraries sector a fabulous opportunity to take part in a leadership skills development programme over an 18 month period at the same time as undertaking a project with the support of a carefully selected mentor.

We are at the mid-way point now, and the call for applicants for the second cohort of participants is currently live on Carnegie UK Trust’s website.

Read our blog about our experiences of evaluating the programme here

We are currently undertaking qualitative research for the Scottish Police Authority on the public’s experiences of stop and search, and the impact of the policy on individuals and their communities. We are currently recruiting people to take part in the research. Please share the information below with anybody resident in the selected areas who may be interested in taking part.

Can you help us? Will you take part in research about the police’s stop and search practices?

£10 shopping voucher for every participant.
Blake Stevenson Ltd (an independent research company), is doing research for the Scottish Police Authority to find out what people think about stop and search in Edinburgh North and South, Glasgow South and East, and Dundee. Can you help us?

Who can take part:

• People aged 16 and over who have been stopped and searched themselves
• Other members of the community who have views on stop and search
• People who work in local organisations (eg community leaders, project workers, community workers etc.)

If you are willing to take part, please contact Jessica on 0131 667 2919 or jessica@blakestevenson.co.uk