I’m an independent consultant, with 9 years experience leading research, change and evaluation projects in the third and public sectors. I am passionate about evidence-based policymaking and data-driven social innovation. In my consultancy, I aim to promote human-centred service design, participatory and deliberate approaches to social policy and services.
Currently, I am looking for opportunities to work with organisations that want to develop more deliberative and accountable organisational practices.
Previously, I have worked with housing and homelessness organisations, women-focused services, poverty-alleviation and community investment programmes. My previous work include social value measurement, development of impact measures and Theory of Change methodology, and evaluation of programmes.
I have extensive experience in full-cycle research project management, including the following:
- evaluation of programmes (e.g. employment, mental health, financial capability support services)
- developing impact measures for organisations and project, including social value calculations (Using Social Value Bank)
- market & benchmarking research to support organisational change projects and mergers
- research projects to support policy campaigns
Examples of recent research projects
Social Care market review (2023)
I have conducted a wide-scale market review of three care markets in the UK: adult social care, children social care, and childcare. The work, delivered to a large social justice charity in the UK, identified key cross-sector risks and opportunities, and further informed new service development.
Merger Support (2022/2023)
As a research consultant for Eastside People, I have delivered over 5 merger projects, supporting large national charities to identify their strategic direction. As part of merger projects, I develop methodology to assess potential partner suitability based on a range of criteria and subsequently identify potential acquisition/merger targets.
Digital Poverty in Social Housing (2022)
Provided research support to HACT and Hyperoptic project on the issue of digital poverty in social housing. More details about the project can be found here.
Retirement Housing Options Research (2022)
Full-cycle research project for a large national charity on existing retirement housing products. Developed a specific methodology to score housing products to ensure suitability for clients and the organisation.
Shelter Scotland: evaluation framework for Affordable Housing Programme (2022/2023)
Alongside HACT Head of Social Value, developed mixed-method social value evaluation framework to assess the social value created by Affordable Housing Supply Programme delivered by the Schottish Government. Currently, working with a group of social landlords and social housing providers to monitor the impact of Government’s programme. More details about the project can be found here.
Spelthorne Community Support: HACT Evaluation (2021)
Conducted an evaluation of five community support programmes run by A2Dominion housing association (research design, qualitative and quantitative data analysis and report write-up). More details about the project and the report can be found here.
Mental health and financial capability projects: HACT evaluation (2019-2020)
Carried out evaluation of Earn it Don’t Burn it (a financial capabilities and support service) and Breathing Space (mental health support service), run by housing association Orbit. Earn it Don’t Burn it was an innovative project measuring changes in financial behaviours, such as ability to budget and confidence to manage money among others. The report can be found here.
Breathing Space evaluation was carried out using a mixed-methods approach, incorporating quantitative and qualitative research, desk review of Orbit documents and wider literature, and a Social Value assessment. The report can be found here.
L&Q: Learning to Succeed evaluation (2019-2022)
Evaluation of a three year long innovative multi-level education intervention, delivered by L&Q and Construction Youth Trust. Evaluation included analysis of pre- and post- intervention surveys, interviews with key stakeholders, participants observation and document analysis.
Young Women Criminal Justice Project (2021)
Research on experiences of young women in the Criminal Justice system and transition out of it. Please see here for more details about the research.
Voices from the Lockdown (2020-2021)
Research for a sector-wide campaign on the support for vulnerable women and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research included an in-depth analysis of vulnerable young women’s experiences in the lockdown (interviews with service providers and vulnerable women, focus groups, analysis of sector-wide service provider survey). The report can be found here.
Testimonials
Marija routinely delivers insightful and precise research evidence designed for real-world application.
Dr Rob Wray, Research Director, Data Clan
Marija routinely delivers insightful and precise research evidence designed for real-world application.
A passionate and authentic lead, Marija’s trademark style combines operations experience with pioneering and bold research analyses devices. Our most recent collaborations range from e-vehicle feasibility in London social housing operations fleets to pure social housing community cohesion research. Marija combines and leans on her own doctoral research for enhancements to optimise outputs for clients.
Dr Rob Wray, Research Director, Data Clan
Marija has worked as an Associate Researcher with the HACT research and consultancy team since April 2019. In that time, Marija has been involved with the delivery of a wide range of HACT pieces of work, including process and impact evaluations of community investment activities delivered by housing associations, a large-scale research project looking measuring the social impact of affordable housing in Scotland, and HACT’s wider work on social impact measurement.
Marija is skilled in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis techniques and is attentive to detail both in terms of project management and research activities. I would highly recommend Marija to lead on and deliver research and consultancy projects as she consistently produces high quality outputs and is a pleasure to work with.
Dr Frances Harkin, Head of Research, HACT (Housing Associations Charitable Trust)