Freelance projects for 2022
Evaluation of No Wrong Door
Foundations – a What Works Centre for Children and Families – seeks better outcomes for children, young people and families by bringing the best available evidence to practitioners and other decision makers across the children’s social care sector.
No Wrong Door is part of the Department for Education’s Strengthening Families, Protecting Children (SFPC) programme. No Wrong Door® (NWD) is an integrated service and approach to supporting young people in or on the edge of care. The model combines a defined culture and practice with a range of services, support and accommodation options and a team of specialists working together through a shared practice framework. At the heart of the model is a residential Hub, which provides short-term placements and outreach (Edge of Care) support up to the age of 25.
In 2022 I was contracted to work as part of a large analytic team coding a substantial qualitative data set generated for the evaluation of No Wrong Door. We examined interviews conducted with a range of professionals responsible for implementing NWD at their local authorities (e.g., frontline staff, like key workers, psychologists, police, and senior managers with oversight of the programme) and young people using the service. This was an important point in the trial for the DforE to take stock of progress and understand how things were working (or not) so far. We are looking forward to hearing the outcomes of the evaluation, which is set to finish in 2024.
2. Understanding the experiences of men subjected to intimate partner violence (IPV) in same-sex relationships
2022 also brought with it a collaboration with Dr Steven Maxwell, then based at Glasgow Caledonian University and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh & Waverley Care, to deliver a project commissioned by NHS Lothian.
Colleagues at NHS Lothian Sexual Health Services reported frequent disclosures of IPV by men in same-sex relationships in this context. Staff wanted to know more about men’s experiences and how best to support them.
This was an exploratory qualitative project, therefore, seeking to understand the experiences of men who had been subject to intimate partner violence in same-sex relationships.
Steven conducted narrative interviews with men and then asked me to code the data, develop the thematic analysis and write the majority of the final report (bar literature review and discussion). Thematic analysis helped identify the unique relationship factors, forms of IPV, impact on wellbeing and barriers/facilitators for accessing help from services.
3. Asylum seekers’ views of COVID-19 testing and safety in their accommodation
Napier Barracks
In 2022 I also worked with the UK Health Security Agency, All Hazards Intelligence, Evaluation Unit, providing qualitative expertise to the Social Research and Evaluation team.
I had input into an evaluation exploring asylum seekers’ views of COVID-19 testing and safety at accommodation sites in England. I was asked to improve the quality of data being collected, which involved redesigning data collection tools, training inexperienced staff in interviewing, coding and analysis, and working with interpreters to address the language barriers that had been encountered early on in fieldwork. I contributed to data collection and led on the coding, data analysis, write-up, and presentation of findings. This was delivered at pace and in response to rapid changes in policy.
I also had an advisory role in another qualitative study examining the rule of voluntary services in supporting migrant workers and refugees during the pandemic. I offered input into the design of data collection tools and advised on the approach to coding and analysis.
4. Evaluation skills development
Another piece of work I did in 2022 was commissioned by the Crown Prosecution Service, Research, Policy and Strategy Directorate. The CPS is the principal government agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. They also are funded by central government to deliver programmes that aim to improve the service for the public. Best practice is to include evaluation in publicly funded programmes; important for accountability and transparency. The organisation was in the early stages of planning to embed evaluation in their work.
I was asked to co-ordinate the development of Evaluation Work Plans in line with best practice for evaluation (e.g. Nesta; The Green Book). This firstly involved conducting a gap analysis, comparing where programme leads ought to be with planning and carrying out evaluation with where they were. This involved carrying out interviews with senior staff who were in charge of programmes, such as the Rape Review. Interviews helped identify that staff needed support to develop evaluation skills and guide them on evaluation design. I developed resources to illustrate to key staff what ‘good’ evaluation looked like, and provided guidance on the development of plans.
Separately, I was also asked to conduct a scoping review of literature on best practice for public engagement of victims to inform improvements to the service.
5. Support needs of patients and families affected by Stage 4 Ocular Melanoma
Finally, I was able to make a small contribution to the work being carried out by my freelance colleague Anneliese Levy of Thoughtful Content for OcuMel UK.
OcuMel UK is a registered charity run by eye cancer patients and family members https://www.ocumeluk.org/. They provide support for anyone affected by eye cancer. They commissioned Thoughtful Content to conduct a series of qualitative interviews with patients with Stage 4 eye cancer, and affected family members, to help tailor information and support provided by the charity.
Interviews were found to be emotionally demanding, which I have a lot of experience of managing. Anneliese asked me to help with data generation by conducting six online depth interviews, which I was very glad to do. Anneliese used these data to help tailor her recommendations for service improvements.
Dr Rosaleen O'Brien 