About us

DHA are policy, research and communication specialists. We help communities, charities, networks and public sector agencies across the UK, and beyond, to understand and influence the world around them.

We work at all levels – from grassroots community projects to government agency initiatives – to deliver communications, advocacy and research expertise which helps shape real change, make sense of complexity and bring people closer to the decisions that affect their lives.

We specialise in arts and culture, global development and social change and sustainability, working across design, storytelling and strategy development through to policy advocacy, discourse analysis, evaluation and learning.

Our expertise

"Your flair and your close attention to detail made it a pleasure to work with you."

Cambridge Education

Storytelling lies at the heart of what we do and the way in which we help people shape the world around them. We use our writing and design skills to develop powerful narratives which combine clarity and coherence with compelling content to inspire understanding and action across different platforms.

Discourse analysis is the key to really understanding prevailing narratives around social disadvantage and, from that, building support for systems change. We combine discourse analysis expertise developed as part of our broader research and evaluation offer with the power of industry leading software and 'on the ground' communications experience gathered over two decades to work with partners to develop pragmatic recommendations based on genuine insight.

Projects

All Categories

Arts and culture

Global development

Social change and sustainability

All Tags

Americas

Artists

Asia

Cities

Content creation

Design and digital

Education

Environment

Europe

Evaluation

Governance

Health and nutrition

Housing

Media coverage

Music

Music education

Northern Africa

Oceania

Policy and advocacy

Research

Social policy

Storytelling

Strategic communications

Strategy

Sub-Saharan Africa

Analysing discourse around homelessness in the UK

Capturing learning to support young musicians

Promoting public funding for Scotland’s classical music

Strengthening capacity to promote healthy soil

Creating a clear narrative of people-focused regeneration

Championing scalable approaches to improve learning outcomes in Tanzania

Telling Sheffield’s story

Finding out what works in cultural interventions

Evaluating how to better support artists who work in participatory settings

Examining the role of the British Council in the UK City of Culture programme

Making the case for investment in music learning

Telling a different story of social disadvantage

Transforming access to data in the world’s largest school system

Making the case for food fortification

Increasing access to information, quality and governance of education in Punjab

Reviewing global action for girls

Building evidence for accountability in Somalia

Promoting value for money in healthcare resourcing

We’re hiring again!

4th November, 2021DHA

We’re looking for two new people to join us – a Global Programmes Manager to oversee the strategic development and delivery of a broad range of communication and advocacy activities and a Communications Assistant to help...

Another nail in the coffin of ‘Global Britain’

17th June, 2020Global development

‘DFID’s demise is another nail in the coffin of Global Britain’ – DHA managing director and former ministerial special advisor, Daniel Harris reflects on the end of an era. 1997. A new government department. DFID. Global Britain. T...

Don’t mention the war

15th May, 2020Coronavirus

Could ‘careless talk’ really cost lives? Jon Flinn looks at the language of the virus as lockdown eases in the UK Back in the war – the proper one – a whole series of propaganda posters promoted the message that ‘careless talk cost...

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Meet the Team

Daniel Harris

Managing Director

Daniel founded DHA and leads on our technical direction. He is a policy and strategic communications expert, advising and coaching global development programmes, agencies and NGOs on achieving reach and impact through creative communication and policy advocacy. Daniel draws on a career managing award-winning campaigns for trade unions, working as a special adviser to the UK’s first secretary for the Department for International Development and helping transform Liverpool into one of the UK's main arts and culture hubs.

Jon Flinn

Director of Communications

Jon helps organisations get their stories heard and leads DHA's communications and advocacy in the third and public sector. He has developed place-based narratives for culture bids across England and, as a former journalist, helps shape the narrative of our policy and research work with clients working in the arts and for social change and delivers media coverage.

He is a writer, workshop facilitator, media specialist and trainer. He is also an all-weather cyclist and a fair-weather kayaker.

Tamsin Cox

Head of Policy and Research

Tamsin builds organisations’ understanding and evidence base to help them improve their practice and share learning with others. She leads DHA’s research, analysis and evaluation work, particularly in UK and the Europe-wide arts and culture sectors. Her expertise includes: larger-scale public events, urban regeneration and place development initiatives; cultural workforce experiences, development and inequalities; grant-making practices; self-evaluation methodologies and collaborative evaluation techniques; and organisational reflection and strategic development.

Tamsin is a Fellow of the RSA, an Associate at the Institute of Cultural Capital (University of Liverpool/Liverpool John Moores University) and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Liverpool.

David Casey

Design

Dave transforms ideas into clear and compelling visuals. He leads on all DHA’s design work and brings more than 15 years’ experience to developing creative visual concepts that re-brand organisations and their focus, convey data and bring clarity to research reports, digital data visualisations and websites.

Dave is a keen drawer and photographer who is inspired by his surroundings, whether it be up a mountain or on the tube.

Brenda Balmer

Office Manager

Brenda ensures DHA keeps ticking over. She manages our finance and administration, helping us to maintain efficient day-to-day processes and systems so we can deliver projects on time, within budget and to a high standard.

Brenda is studying to become a fully qualified accountant and a member of the Association of Accounting Technicians. She loves to run and can often be found training for various charity races

Isobel Wilson-Cleary

Communications and engagement specialist

Isobel translates the complexities of pressing social issues into clear and accessible narratives that encourage individual and collective change. She manages DHA’s global development portfolio and brings a decade of experience from coordinating research uptake, developing digital creative content development and facilitating learning processes.

When not working Isobel can often be found with her head in a book, dreaming about her next travel destination or at board meetings for Beatfreeks and Birmingham Civic Society.

Anna Reeve

Communications coordinator

Anna is our creative lynch-pin, working across all channels to connect the different parts of key projects and turn them into something wonderful.

She is both a strategy planner and a content creator and leads on multi-channel campaigns that draw together video, animation, social media and print content.

She works across DHA’s client portfolio with specific focus on our development work.

Share your CV or organisational profile to discuss collaboration.

Connect with us

Liverpool - Birmingham - London

Head Office

PO Box 130
Liverpool, L31 1YW

Phone: +44 07395 795 422

Email: info@dhacommunications.co.uk

London Office

Trident Business Centre
89 Bickersteth Road London SW17 9SH

Phone: +44 (0) 798 930 9058