We understand the landscape in which public, voluntary and community sector organisations work, and help provide organisations with the information they need to make important decisions about their future.

Bespoke support and advice

Our team of experienced consultants are skilled in offering organisations bespoke support and advice. We are flexible in our approach and take the time to get to know each client and understand their unique requirements.

Planning and consultation

We can provide support with feasibility studies, mapping studies and options appraisals, by making informed recommendations based on our in-depth findings.

We also assist organisations across the sector with their strategic and business planning, in order to help them engage staff, communities and other stakeholders in their development activities.

Examples of our recent work include:

• Carnegie UK Trust  – conducted consultations with stakeholder organisations on behalf of the organisation to inform the Trust’s 2016-2020 strategy;

• Home Scotland – commissioned to conduct market research to shape its strategy towards care and support provision across Scotland.

• Aberdeen City Council (Social Work Department – Children’s Services) – evaluation of the Reclaiming Social Work Programme.

Knowing and demonstrating the difference that projects and programmes are making is crucial to organisations of all sizes.

Evaluation helps organisations determine their value, learn how to be more effective, and strengthen the services they offer to individuals and communities.

Making evaluation count

Our evaluation work covers large national programmes for the Scottish Government, NHS and national charities, as well as smaller-scale projects that are working to improve outcomes for people in local communities.

Self-evaluation support

We also provide organisations with support to develop their outcomes and plan how to measure their impact. We can advise on and provide organisations with the skills and tools to evaluate progress towards their goals.

Examples of our recent outcomes and evaluation work include:

• Big Lottery Fund in Scotland – support on outcomes development, evidencing need, and approaches to self-evaluation to a broad range of applicants and grant-holders.  This includes helping organisations describe what they hope to achieve and how they will measure it, as required in all types of funding applications;

• NHS Education for Scotland  – completed a two year evaluation of the roll out and impact of Leading Better Care, a new role framework for senior nursing staff; and

• Museums Galleries Scotland – evaluation of their Heritage Lottery funded internship programme.

We understand that having a strong evidence base is integral to recognising what works and what doesn’t within a project or organisation. We support clients to think about the evidence that they need, developing creative research solutions in order to help them strengthen and evolve. We work on projects of all sizes and tailor our approach to meet the specific needs of each client.

A practical, informed approach 

We are experienced in using a wide range of qualitative and quantitative techniques, and ensure that we deliver insight that is both robust and practical.

Examples of the approaches we use include surveys, focus groups, interviewing, deliberative workshops, community consultation, case studies and impact assessment.

Recent research and analysis work includes:

• Scottish Police Authority – focus groups and interviews with the public to understand the impact on communities of ‘Stop and Search’ practices;

• Scottish Library Information Council – deliberative workshops with members of the public around Scotland on the future direction of library services; and

• Scottish Environment Protection Agency – facilitated workshops with the public on SEPA’s role and remit to help it engage more closely with the general public