OUR CURRENT PROJECTS
We work across a range of areas, drawing in specialist expertise to deliver a highly professional service to clients.
VULNERABLE CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
Louise Starks has worked with voluntary and community organisations including Railway Children, Barnardo's, The Children's Society and The Prison Service to understand the risks and vulnerabilities our children face to today. Starks Consulting is currently working with The Children's Society to evaluate their Prevention
Programme with SocialQual looking at how professionals can identify vulnerable children and put the necessary support in place to prevent long-term negative outcomes.
PARENTS AND FAMILIES
Starks Consulting is currently working with Ecorys on behalf of the Department for Education to evaluate the setup of Family Hubs across the UK. This involves interviews with service leads across authorities, tracking of families, and interviews with parents.
Starks Consulting has recently completed a study looking at the merits of online learning for parents for the West Yorkshire Integrated Health and Care Partnership. Our report can be seen here.
For Kirklees Council, we are working with the Early Help Strategic Partnership to help shape the parenting programmes offered to parents in their area. This involves consultations with partners and parents and a survey of the early help workforce.
We are also working with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to evaluate the impact of their Safeguarding Alliance which works to improve the quality and consistency of safeguarding across Greater Manchester.
SPORTS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Starks Consulting is delighted to be working in the sport and physical activity sectors. We are working with Sporting Equals across several inclusion projects looking at how community groups can be supported to improve engagement in physical activity. Sporting Equals provide important capacity building support through experts who understand what is required to engage communities who are less active. Their Sweaty Programme which Starks Consulting evaluated had fantastic results for young women who were given the opportunities to engage in sports such as football, badminton and even watersports. Some have gone on to do Level 1 coaching, so further improving engagement in their communities. Louise is also working with Chrysalis Research to support the evaluation of Team GB and Paralympics GB Get Set programme. This programme support teachers and communities with ideas and resources for healthy lifestyles and encourages young people to get active! This is all close to Louise's heart being a keen squash and padel player and training to be a Level 3 Personal Trainer!
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Starks Consulting has been commissioned by NHS England to evaluate the impact of FGM pilots on non-pregnant women. This is an important piece of research which is looking at the impact and cost-effectiveness of support for survivors of FGM. We have delivered studies for Kinship evidencing the value of their support for kinship carers, in particular, the impact on their health and wellbeing. Our report can be seen here.
Recently we completed a fantastically heart warming study for UK Men's Sheds to showcase the impact of Sheds on men's as well as women's mental wellbeing. Our report provided Men's Sheds with statistically significant evidence that Sheds reduce isolation and improve mental wellbeing of its members. We loved this piece of work and hope all the men we met and who gave their time up are doing grand!
EDUCATION
We have delivered many studies for the Department for Education looking at school improvement programmes such as the value of NLEs and SLEs. We have researched the merits of extending Key Stage 4 into Year 9 students for schools wanting to prepare students earlier for their GCSE studies. We are currently working in partnership with York Consulting Ltd to complete a process evaluation of RISE, a targeted peer to peer support programme for school who are required to improve their performance.
