Skills, Employability & Workforce

With over 22 years of research and consultancy experience, Andy has a strong track record of delivering high-quality assignments for public and private sector clients. He has a diverse portfolio of work covering the arts, culture, and heritage as well as social welfare advice, employability, education, community safety, health, and social care. He has delivered consultancy assignments for a range of clients across the UK including DCMS, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Violence Reduction Partnerships, Carers Trust, English Heritage, Welsh Government, Groundwork UK, Youth Sport Trust, Visit Scotland, Skills for Care, Age UK, The King’s Trust and Arts Council England.

Andy is a specialist in delivering formative and summative evaluation studies and evidence reviews. He has a background in evaluating area-based and community-led regeneration programmes and formative and summative evaluations of capital projects within the heritage sector. In the arts and cultural sector, Andy has worked to increase participation across the sector, assessing programmes aimed at diversifying funding streams and building resilience within arts and cultural organisations.

Andy has hands-on experience in public sector service delivery drawn from roles within the police and the NHS.  He has a strong track record of leading research projects within the health and social care sector, including work exploring the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics in adult social care.

In addition to his undergraduate degree in Geography, Andy has an MPhil in Geography and a Postgraduate Diploma (with distinction) in Urban Policy & Regeneration. He is also a member of the Social Research Association and the UK Evaluation Society. Outside of work Andy takes a keen (friends would say obsessive) interest in local history and is a regular visitor to historic properties and heritage sites. Andy is also a keen cross-fit enthusiast as well as a fanatic football supporter.

Anna is an experienced social researcher, having worked in research and policy consultancy for the past 7 years. She is an experienced project manager and has delivered a wide range of local, regional and national evaluations. Anna’s areas of expertise are wide ranging and include employability and social inclusion, nature-based interventions and connectedness and community regeneration.

Anna is trained in advanced qualitative and quantitative research methods and has delivered countless mixed-method projects for public, private and third-sector clients. In particular, Anna specialises in qualitative research and focuses on developing analytical processes and methods to ensure that qualitative data is captured, analysed, and reported on in an engaging and meaningful way.

Anna joined Wavehill in 2017, and brings a wide range of experience with her, having previously worked at national charity Brook, and Bristol-based drug and education policy think tank, Transform. Anna has a BA (hons) in History and an MSc (with distinction) in Public Policy, both from the University of Bristol.

Declan is an Economist and Associate Director at Wavehill with a background in project delivery and local government, working in economic development. Bringing various data analysis and economic modelling skills to the team, Declan is an accredited ONS researcher, Declan manages a range of project areas at Wavehill including business support and innovation, employment and skills, renewable energy and place based regeneration. Declan also works across the Wavehill portfolio supporting value for money assessments, including for wellbeing and cultural led initiatives.

Interested in economics for its practical application to ensure resources are being used efficiently and benefits maximised, providing clear project impacts, Declan specialises in quantitative research and using national and international literature and policy to support local economic development. He has led on a number of business cases, funding bids and strategy development, as well as economic impact assessments and a range of project evaluations and policy research. His previous projects include local and national pieces for clients in the private, public and third sector, including Welsh Government and central government departments.

With a 1st Class degree in Economics and Politics, Declan is skilled in report writing and carrying out policy research, manipulating and modelling data in Microsoft Excel, Power BI and ArcGIS and undertaking comprehensive survey designs using Qualtrics.

Originally from Devon, Declan works out of the Wavehill Bristol Office and in his spare time plays national league hockey, while enjoying running, climbing, mountain biking and weekends away in his van.

Oliver has been involved in economic development and regeneration for over 20 years, both as a practitioner and as a consultant.  He has worked in consultancy for the last 14 years, managing and delivering a variety of initiatives: developing strategies, undertaking economic impact assessments and appraisals, and conducting project, programme and organisational evaluations. He has delivered work on behalf of Central Government Departments, various departments of the Welsh Government, Local and Combined Authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships in addition to work on behalf of the private and third sectors.

His areas of expertise are wide ranging, encompassing; business support, innovation and enterprise, employability and workforce skills, renewables and physical regeneration.

Prior to consultancy, Oliver worked for the South West Regional Development Agency where he was involved in managing economic development projects and supporting strategic and partnership development in relation to enterprise, business support, skills and innovation. Prior to this, Oliver was employed as Strategy Officer for Sussex Enterprise where he managed a variety of European funded business support and enterprise projects and led on the development of the Business Link delivery plan in Sussex.

In addition to his undergraduate degree in Geography, Oliver has a Masters (with distinction) in Local and Regional Economic Development. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Member of the Institute of Economic Development, of the UK Evaluation Society and of the Social Value network.

Oliver has a particular love for the outdoors and in his spare time, when he isn't ferrying his children around, you'll typically find him on (or in) the river/sea or at the beach.