ATD Research and Consultancy
…where the attention is in the detail
We are a small consultancy specialising in the domains of criminal justice, health and wellbeing with research and practitioner experience across prison, probation, third sector and local authority provisions.
At ATD we use our academic training and passion for people to fuel long-lasting change. We deeply care about ensuring services and systems afford people opportunities to fulfil their potential. We specialise in qualitative research in the criminal justice, health and wellbeing sectors.
Our values
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Being true to our values, ethics and morals and showing up as ourselves.
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Leaving people better off than when we came. Empowering people to engage and share their story, knowing they have been heard, seen and valued.
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Being a trusted pair of hands. We have an outstanding reputation spanning over 10 years.
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Acting as a ‘critical friend’ to our clients. We convey the messages we hear from the ground to inform services and systems.
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Ensuring our recommendations are actionable and last beyond the lifetime of the project.
Our approach
We use our passion and expertise in research, evaluation and monitoring to create pragmatic recommendations for service delivery, practice and policy. We want to create better systems for those who commission them, work in them and use them.
Using methodological rigour to research complex issues.
Being trusted to carry the message.
Identifying recommendations.
What we do
We have experience of working in over 60 prisons nationally. We have worked on the frontline as practitioners as well as researchers which equips us with a robust understanding of the entire criminal justice system from courts, police and HMPPS. We have an in-depth and current knowledge of complex or multiple disadvantage.
Do you commission or run a service that you think is making a difference? Do you want to evaluate and capture the impact it’s making? Do you want to understand why it’s affecting change? Do you want to know how it can be optimised to support even more people? ATD can help.
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We can qualitatively evaluate the impact of new or existing services or make suggestions about where new services may need to be considered or implemented.
We can work with commissioners and service providers to help embed evaluation and monitoring mechanisms to ensure a legacy beyond ATD’s input.
We are adept at using methods such as critical realist evaluations to understand what works for whom and in what conditions. We have extensive experience creating and revising Theories of Change and Logic Models for complex and sprawling programmes.
We are skilled at analysing large bodies of qualitative data and triangulating this with secondary monitoring information and quality assurance data.
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We can provide an independent, academically rigorous evaluation of your service and dossier of excellence to provide to potential funders, partners and commissioners. We understand that the ‘small’ things really are the big things and can help you showcase these.
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We provide specialist training and consultancy for individuals nationally and internationally. We have a package of ‘trauma informed research’ training for front-line staff or other research bodies and have experience of designing gender responsive services for women in the criminal justice system.
What people say about us
“Sarah did an exceptional job on the delivery of the Blended Supervision Model evaluation. Her attention to detail and thorough analysis were evident and secured the publication of the results. For the duration of the project, Sarah overcame numerous obstacles with resilience and successfully engaged with policy and operational colleagues to address all key concerns with clarity. The project was challenging but Sarah demonstrated expertise and managed to maintain a high standard of quality.”
“I have worked with Sarah (Director of ATD) and commissioned research and evaluation from her over a number of years. She is a joy to work with, brings a huge amount of experience and knowledge with her, she is committed to truly engaging with those for whom services are commissioned and the “product” she provides is always of the highest quality and completely honest in its presentation of findings.”
“Open Road has had a longstanding professional relationship with Dr Sarah Senker for many years, from her time working alongside Open Road’s frontline teams to our charity commissioning Sarah to independently evaluate Open Road for our first impact report. Sarah has always been highly professional and focused in her approach and has been a pleasure to work with. We would be delighted to work with Sarah in the future, if the opportunity were to arise.”