Consultancy - Shirley Henderson

Consultancy

I offer consultancy to gather evidence, conduct interviews, analyse findings, check sources, and compile clear reports and other content.

Publications spread out on wooden floor

“Shirley completed a complex piece of work for us, drawing together information from consultation events, an online survey, and analysis of the resulting data, to create a coherent and powerful report with recommendations for the Scottish Government based on the findings. Her approach was sharp, analytical and thoughtful. She ensured that the voices of women, children and young people were central to the recommendations with well-reasoned arguments that she drew from available sources. She is also great to work with – warm, professional, punctual and quick to assess what was required. Her in-depth knowledge of gender-based violence policy and practice in Scotland, coupled with her excellent writing, organising and editing skills, meant that she was able to complete this substantial and complex piece of work very quickly and to a very high quality. “
Scottish Women’s Aid

Examples of consultancy work

I have particular expertise in violence against women and gender-based violence. A few examples are:

AnalysisInterviewsResearchWriting

Evaluating domestic abuse advocacy

Follow-up interviews with women who have completed with the Dundee Women’s Aid MIA Service to assess MIA practice and effectiveness

ConsultancyEvaluationInterviews

Evaluating Shakti Women’s Aid outreach and independent living service

Evaluation based on desk research, interviews with project staff and focus groups with service users

ConsultancyEvaluation

Evaluating process and progress in setting up new rape crisis centres

For Rape Crisis Scotland, evaluations based on desk research and interviews to assess process for developing new rape crisis centres, including, most recently, Orkney and Shetland

ConsultancyEvaluation

Evaluating Lanarkshire Domestic Abuse Response

For NHS Lanarkshire GBV Services, evaluation based on desk research, interviews with partner agencies and focus groups and interviews with service users

AnalysisConsultancyEditingWriting

In the pink? In the red? Or in between? for Parenting across Scotland

Summary and full report of what parents say about their family finances drawing on a PAS-commissioned Ipsos MORI telephone survey and case studies supplied by PAS partners

AnalysisConsultancy

Family Friendly Working Scotland report

Write the ‘Modern Families Index’ by analysing and summarising the Scottish findings of a national survey, and researching and writing the context to accompany these

media coop

Working with Shirley is a real pleasure: she hits the ground running with her knack for succinct, clear, accessible writing and deep knowledge of the policy background. Whether writing for the web or print she magically turns a paragraph into a sentence or a sentence into a short phrase, without losing the meaning. Shirley wears her considerable writing skills lightly and is quick and totally reliable. Value for money and lovely to work with!

Parenting across Scotland

It's an absolute pleasure to work with Shirley: She ensures that information is in clear, accessible English that will entice people to read it. Her work is thorough, well organised, meets deadlines and is of a very high quality. Best of all, Shirley will always go that extra mile to make sure that the finished product is top class.

Scottish Government, Equality Unit

Shirley has worked on many projects for the Scottish Government, including producing a monthly electronic bulletin on violence against women issues highly valued by stakeholders; drafting statutory guidance; and a training module on equality impact assessment. She is punctual and highly committed, and can always be relied on to meet deadlines and produce work of a very high standard, in a variety of styles, to suit different audiences.

Community Justice Scotland

Shirley’s service was professional, thorough and friendly. We were impressed with the results and her work gave us reassurance that our work was published to a high standard.

One Parent Families Scotland

Each time we’ve worked with Shirley, we have been impressed with her professionalism and her ability to turn our ideas into accessible and relevant reports that capture what we want to communicate. She takes an interest in the subject, asks great questions, and guides us through the process from start to finish. She has been invaluable in helping us articulate the value of our work and communicate our ambitions for the future.

Scottish Women’s Aid

Shirley has a deep understanding of gender and violence against women, so she hits the road running with every piece of work. And she always delivers. In a sector fraught with short timescales, scarce resources, and tragic stories, she’s the safest pair of hands we know. Her experience and clear analysis of tasks and topics mean that she makes links that add value to reports, research and proposals: links that we are too close to make.

NHS Lanarkshire, Gender-based Violence Services

Friendly, professional and focused, Shirley delivers on time and as agreed. I’ve worked with her on many projects from guidance materials to service evaluations. Her close engagement and the way she works really suit me, as a busy statutory professional. She gets on with the task, and gives just the right kind of updates and feedback to ensure you know your project is on track. At the final stages, her attention to detail ensures nothing is missed.

ECAS

Our old website was very text heavy and not the most accessible from a language perspective. Shirley did a fantastic job of distilling key messages. Her input into finalising the site navigation and preparing a style sheet was also much appreciated. We have received lots of positive feedback on how much easier our new website is to understand.

West Lothian College

Shirley used our new tone of voice guidelines and completely rewrote our content, ensuring every section of our prospectus and all case studies embodied the brand, were accurate and also consistent. She was incredibly easy to work with and flexible which worked well for us. She provided a style sheet so we could see her approach. And this has helped us to ensure consistency in our future work as it led to us changing our approach to writing and proofing content. We have used a number of editors/proofreaders over the years and none have come close to the level of detail and professionalism as Shirley.

Independent consultant

I am impressed by Shirley's skill and ability to take the rawest, thinnest, sketchiest material and turn it into a document that informs, educates and enlightens. Not only that, but she ALWAYS knows where to put the apostrophe!

Blake Stevenson Ltd

Shirley is an excellent researcher, writer and editor. We know that if we contract with her we will always be sure of high quality, thorough, and intelligent work delivered on time and in a professional and friendly manner.

The Graphics Coop

Shirley's a great person to work with. She comes up with the goods as briefed, on time and at a very reasonable price. She's a good sounding board too. We've been working with Shirley for over 25 years now so we should know!

media coop

Shirley is the queen of clarity