De Staic Research offers freelance research consultancy and independent evaluation, with particular experience in healthcare, higher education, surveys and staff experience research. We support organisations commissioning a complete project and teams needing an experienced researcher to work alongside them.
Drawing on more than 25 years of applied research experience, we combine quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches to produce clear evidence and practical recommendations.
Evaluation that answers useful questions
An evaluation should help you understand what is happening, why it matters and what to do next. We work with you to define the questions, develop a proportionate evaluation framework and identify evidence that can realistically be collected.
We take a realist evaluation approach, asking what works, for whom, when and under what circumstances, and why. We look beyond whether an intervention works overall to explore how its resources and activities interact with people’s experiences, responses and local circumstances to produce different outcomes. This helps explain why an approach may benefit some groups or settings more than others, and identifies the conditions needed to adapt or deliver it successfully elsewhere.
Questions may include: Is the service reaching the people it was designed for? How is delivery working in practice? What do participants and staff value? What barriers affect access or implementation? What outcomes are observed, and what other explanations need to be considered?
Healthcare, neighbourhood health and the care sector
We offer evaluation and survey support for health services, community and neighbourhood health initiatives, prevention and health inequalities work, and care sector projects. Relevant topics include access to services, patient and service-user experience, care workforce wellbeing, staff perspectives and service improvement.
Approaches can combine service activity data, participant surveys, interviews and focus groups. Findings are interpreted in context, recognising the limits of the design and available data when assessing change or attributing outcomes to a programme.
Explore our neighbourhood health and community service evaluation and care sector research, surveys and evaluation services.
Higher education and workforce research
We support research and evaluation relating to teaching and learning, educational programmes, student experience, staff satisfaction and wellbeing. Equality, diversity and inclusion can be considered throughout the design, participation, analysis and reporting.
Explore our higher education research, surveys and evaluation service, covering educational programmes, student experience, staff research and training.
Find out about our staff satisfaction surveys and EDI research and consultancy.
From planning to practical findings
Planning: research questions, evaluation frameworks, theories of change, appropriate study designs, sampling and realistic data collection plans.
Data collection: questionnaire design, online surveys, interviews, focus groups and review of relevant documents or existing datasets.
Analysis: quantitative analysis using SPSS, qualitative analysis supported by NVivo or ATLAS.ti, and integration of findings where a mixed methods approach is appropriate.
Reporting: accessible reports, tables, charts, presentations and recommendations tailored to your audience and agreed reporting requirements.
A complete project or targeted support
We can help design and deliver a project from start to finish, or provide research support at a particular stage. Scope, deliverables, timescales and fees are agreed before work begins. See organisations we have worked with.
Discuss your research or evaluation needs. Tell us about your project, the decisions you need to inform, your timescale and the support you are looking for.
