Flexible, bespoke, and always on point, supporting every stage of your research, planning, and evaluation journey.
Community consultation and social research
Getting the views of people in your community is important, but it’s not always easy to do well. Gaining an understanding of the needs of whole groups and communities, whether they use your service or not, is vital in understanding people’s needs and in planning future services.
My belief is that a hands-on, participatory approach is a brilliant way for people to share their thoughts and stories directly with professionals and the wider community. When feedback is focused and well presented, it can give service providers and commissioners loads of useful insights straight from the people who know what they need. Visual or audio recordings can add another layer to the usual written reports, making it easier to spread the word about what’s been learned.
Here’s what I can do:
Work closely with people in your local community to understand what are their needs and to convey these findings in a range of accessible formats including audio, film, written reports, or a mixture.
Collect meaningful feedback alongside participants, capturing authentic stories and experiences that complement other data, using a range of methods including focus groups, workshops, interviews, surveys.
Support people to tell their stories, express themselves with confidence, and have a stronger say in shaping the services that affect them.
Project/programme evaluation
Flexible, bespoke, and always led by you, I support every stage of your monitoring and evaluation journey, making sure you get insights you can act on.
Service providers need to understand what is working well and where improvements are needed. It’s essential to demonstrate both efficiency and effectiveness, providing robust evidence to funders and other stakeholders.
In short, this means showing what has been accomplished, how well it has been done, and most importantly, whether those you serve are better off as a result.
Here’s what I can help with:
Establishing your monitoring and evaluation systems – When you’re in the early stages of a new initiative, I’ll support you in shaping and planning its elements, ensuring they’re suitable for intended participants and anticipating any obstacles. Additionally, I’ll help set up straightforward and effective systems for monitoring and evaluating progress.
Improving your monitoring and evaluation systems – If your project is already in motion, I’ll work alongside you to assess progress, pinpoint which monitoring and evaluation practices are effective, highlight areas for improvement, and offer straightforward, practical recommendations to boost your project delivery.
Evaluating outcomes achieved – To demonstrate the real difference your project or is making, I help you focus on the outcomes i.e. how better off are those you support? I will work with you and your service users, to evaluate and showcase what has been achieved, using your preferred methods and using a mixture of written reports, audio, and film.
“Geraldine is extremely knowledgeable about Result Based Accountability and running and managing organisations. She has a good understanding of the dynamics of groups and organisations, and is also very experienced in education and social care work in a range of settings.”
— PRAXIS CLIENT
Results Based Accountability (RBA) training and support
Results Based Accountability™ (also known as Outcomes Based Accountability) is a practical, common-sense approach that uses outcome-focused thinking to improve the well-being of communities and service performance.
Developed by Mark Friedman and detailed in his book Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough, this framework has been widely used in Wales, across the whole of the UK, and many other countries, by public and voluntary organisations, partnerships, and collaborative groups. RBA provides a clear and structured approach to improving outcomes by asking simple but powerful questions. It is not theory heavy. It is practical, partnership-focused and rooted in the idea that change happens most effectively when communities and organisations work together around shared goals. For more information about how RBA has been used, see my blog post.
My services include tailored training sessions, development support, and practical tools to help you implement RBA effectively.
I offer the following:
Introduction to RBA™ - training workshops for community groups, strategic partnerships, management teams, and frontline delivery teams.
Ongoing planning and review sessions – You’ve completed the training and are keen to put the approach into practice with your team or multi-agency group, but find that you’ve got some more questions about how best to make sure it works. I can offer short calls or visits to review and address any challenges you’re experiencing.
Practical Tools and Resources: Bespoke templates, frameworks, and user-friendly monitoring systems that make outcomes-based working accessible and achievable for teams of all sizes.