Research, Evaluation and Behaviour Change Consultancy

Applied research, evaluation and behaviour change support for health, wellbeing, public services and digital health.

I support organisations, research teams and service providers to understand people’s needs, evaluate services and programmes, and develop evidence-informed approaches to behaviour change. My work brings together applied research, evaluation, health psychology and behaviour change science to help teams generate useful insight, make better decisions and improve services, interventions and digital tools.

I have particular experience across public health, digital health, wellbeing, prevention, long-term conditions, health inequalities and service improvement.

At a glance

  • Research and evaluation

    Designing, delivering and interpreting applied research and evaluation projects.

  • Behaviour change consultancy

    Understanding behavioural barriers and opportunities, and developing evidence-informed responses.

  • Public health and digital health

    Supporting services, programmes and tools across health, wellbeing, prevention and service improvement.

  • Strategic and advisory support

    Helping teams make sense of evidence, priorities, implementation challenges and next steps.

Understanding behaviour in context

Many health, wellbeing and public health challenges involve behaviour, from engaging with services and using digital tools to following guidance or navigating complex systems.

But behaviour is rarely changed by information alone.

People’s actions are shaped by capability, opportunity, motivation, emotions, identity, trust, service design, practical constraints and wider inequalities. I help organisations understand these influences and translate them into realistic, useful interventions, services, products, training, evaluation frameworks or recommendations.

How can I help

  • I support the development and refinement of behaviour change interventions, services, programmes, tools and resources.

    This may include clarifying the behavioural problem, identifying target behaviours, mapping barriers and facilitators, developing logic models or theories of change, selecting behaviour change techniques, designing intervention components and translating evidence into practical materials.

    This work may be useful when you are developing a new service, improving an existing programme, creating a digital health product, designing public health resources, or trying to make an intervention more engaging, inclusive or implementable.

  • I design and deliver evaluation and research projects that help organisations understand whether a service, programme, intervention or product is working, how it is being implemented and what could be improved.

    This can include evaluation frameworks, logic models, theory of change, process evaluation, mixed-methods evaluation, qualitative research, stakeholder interviews, surveys, evidence reviews, implementation learning and practical recommendations.

    I am particularly interested in evaluations that do not only ask “Did it work?”, but also explore how, why, for whom, under what conditions and what needs to change next.

  • I work with digital health teams and organisations developing apps, platforms, online tools, digital services or AI-supported products that aim to support behaviour change, engagement, self-management, prevention or wellbeing.

    This may include reviewing user journeys, identifying behavioural friction points, strengthening engagement strategies, improving onboarding, developing behaviour change content, advising on intervention logic, or helping teams think through evaluation and implementation.

    Digital products often fail not because the idea is poor, but because the behavioural assumptions are unclear. I help teams examine what users are being asked to do, what may make that easier or harder, and how digital tools can support meaningful change without becoming overwhelming, generic or unrealistic.

  • I support work focused on prevention, health promotion, health improvement and public health behaviour change.

    This may include projects related to lifestyle behaviours, long-term conditions, mental health and wellbeing, substance use, smoking, physical activity, diet, vaccination, screening, service access, inequalities, communication, misinformation or public engagement.

    My approach is grounded in behavioural science, but also sensitive to context. Public health work needs to consider not only individual behaviour, but also systems, environments, access, trust, stigma, culture, resources and inequality.

  • Some organisations need senior behavioural science input at strategic points in a project. I can support teams to clarify direction, review plans, sense-check assumptions, advise on evidence, strengthen proposals, develop recommendations or bring behavioural insight into decision-making.

    This can be helpful when a team already has strong subject expertise, but needs additional behaviour change, health psychology, research or evaluation input.

Who I work with

I work with organisations and teams developing, delivering or evaluating work related to health, wellbeing, behaviour change or public benefit.

This may include:

  • public health teams

  • local authorities

  • charities and social enterprises

  • digital health companies

  • start-ups and innovation teams

  • NHS-related projects

  • universities and research teams

  • behaviour change, health promotion or prevention programmes

  • organisations developing services, tools, training or interventions

Typical questions I help with

Organisations often come to me when they are trying to answer questions such as:

  • What behaviours are we actually trying to change?

  • Why are people not engaging with a service, programme, product or intervention?

  • What barriers and facilitators are influencing uptake, adherence, retention or outcomes?

  • How can we develop a behaviour change intervention that is practical, inclusive and evidence-informed?

  • How should we evaluate a public health, digital health or wellbeing intervention?

  • What should we measure, and how can we understand not only whether something worked, but how and why?

  • How can we build behavioural science into a digital health product, app, platform or user journey?

  • How can we make behaviour change recommendations that are practical for staff, services and users?

Ways of working

Project-based consultancy

Support for a defined project, such as an evaluation, intervention development process, evidence review, qualitative study or behaviour change review.

Retainer-based support

Ongoing advisory input for teams who need regular research, evaluation or behaviour change expertise across several workstreams.

Fractional behavioural science leadership

Senior-level behavioural science input for organisations that need strategic direction, quality assurance or specialist leadership without a full-time post.

Selected clients and partners

I have worked with a range of organisations across the public, academic, and third sectors. Examples include:

  • The Academy of Medical Sciences
  • NHS Digital
  • Suffolk County Council
  • Wakey App
  • Norfolk County Council
  • Smoke Free App
  • Middlesbrough Council
  • ResMed
  • Public Health England
  • Norfolk and Nowich University Hospitals
  • Natural England

Client reflections

  • Chiron App | Development Team

    “Fantastic knowledge of digital health behaviours, and the research behind it. Dorothy provided workshop style sessions to a team building a new digital health app which is focused on changing behaviours - we all found the experience to be very helpful and it has certainly changed our practice/designs.”

  • Suffolk County Council | Dr Angela Fletton, Head of Behavioural Insights

    “I have recommended Dorothy to several professionals across the region. Her technical understanding of behaviour and behaviour change lends itself well to supporting many projects in the public sector. Her knowledge, skills and positive attitude mean that it’s always a pleasure to work with her.”

  • Wakey | Dr Marilis Oeren, Chief Research Officer

    “Amazing work! The work was presented in a systematic (COM-B model as framework) and coherent way. The list of the literature was very useful.”

  • Smoke Free App | Dr David Crane, Founder, CEO

    “Dorothy is a prompt, very professional and reliable consultant. She has a good understanding of factors relevant to uptake and engagement with health apps and the importance of evaluating these to assess effectiveness. I highly recommend working with her!”

  • Open Health Digital Initiatives | Dr Olga Perski, Co-Director, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow,

    “Having collaborated with Dorothy on several projects focused on behaviour change and digital health, I’ve found her to be a very professional and incredibly dedicated researcher who cares deeply about the work she is undertaking. Her qualitative and quantitative research skills are excellent, she has in-depth knowledge of behavioural science, and she can make project findings accessible to multiple audiences. I warmly recommend her.”

  • NHS England | Dan Berry, Head of Behavioural Science

    “Dorothy worked with the NHS England team creating an 'alpha' version of new wellness and prevention services for the NHS App. Dorothy provided iterative, timely, and practical advice, using rapid evidence reviews and behaviour change frameworks to inform agile design. She was excellent at turning potentially off-putting jargon into actionable insights for designers. I would not say this of all similar expert behavioural scientists!”

  • Suffolk County Council | Emma Dixon

    “Dorothy was very helpful in providing us with an hour long workshop at relatively short notice for our first ever youth conference. We wanted to empower young people and get them understand how behaviour change works and how best to use that knowledge in helping change behaviour around them. We had great feedback from her workshop!”

  • Norwich and Norfolk University Hospitals | TOSCA Clinical Team

    “Dorothy was friendly and professional. She demonstrated a good knowledge of relevant health behaviour change theories and their applications, explained them clearly, and worked hard to apply them to the project data in a way that would be helpful to the wider team.”

Discuss a project

If you are developing, improving or evaluating a service, product, programme or intervention, and would like behavioural science input, you are welcome to get in touch.