Matt Barnard

Matt Barnard is a social researcher, evaluator and behavioural scientist with 20 years’ experience of conducting mixed-method studies primarily focused on vulnerable and under-served populations. The aim of his work has been to understand the complexity of people's lives as well as develop and assess solutions to entrenched problems. Matt has held senior roles at the National Centre for Social Research, the NSPCC, the Anna Freud Centre and the Behavioural Insights Team and was head of evaluation at NHS Test and Trace during the Covid pandemic.

Matt is skilled in behavioural change analysis and has developed a new, integrated model of behaviour that is the result of a deep engagement with the theory and practice of behaviour change. The integrated model combines and extends existing theories and frameworks drawn from psychology, economics, behavioural economics and implementation science. He is experienced in qualitative and quantitative research design and evaluation using econometric techniques and randomized controlled trials.

Matt is also an expert in qualitative research and qualitative data analysis and co-author of one of the leading textbooks on the subject, Qualitative Research Practice. He has led major “what works” programmes of learning and evaluation at the UK Health Security Agency and the NSPCC and has also been the principal researcher on a range of high-profile studies, from a set of large, clustered randomized controlled trials for the Education Endowment Foundation to important primary research in the fields of drug and gambling addiction, prison reform and offender management.