All organisations need support from time to time
Including the life-savers and the life-changers
More and more people are turning to charities and other voluntary and community sector organisations for help because they provide a crucial lifeline of support in these difficult and uncertain times.
In the face of heightened demand and an increasingly complex landscape, it is vital that these organisations stay strong, stable and sustainable so they are in the best possible position to respond to the needs of people and communities, both now and in the future.
With decades of senior-level experience of working in neighbourhood safety, crime reduction, youth and criminal justice, mental health and addiction, as well as with young people, families and communities, we offer targeted, timely, practical advice and support to organisations that are looking to build their reach, impact and lasting legacy.
Targeted, timely and practical support
By advising and supporting the leaders of these organisations and complementing their strategic, commercial and operating capacity, we help to deliver real and lasting change. Everyone benefits: the organisations themselves, their donors, partners, supporters, and the people and communities they work with. Ultimately, by working alongside these organisations as a critical friend, our aim is to help create safer and healthier neighbourhoods that are full of opportunity for everyone.
Strategy
- Board-level strategy review workshops (in person and online)
- End-t0-end strategic reviews
- Arms-length guidance and critical friend input on strategic and business planning activity
- KPI review and development
- Development of strategic action steps and associated guiding policies
- Leadership advice and support relating performance issues
- Team support, and development momentum around a strategy.
Operations
- Organisational change programmes: advice and facilitation
- Capacity, structural and ways of working reviews
- Leadership structure and job role development (clinical and non-clinical)
- Advice and support on recruitment and selection of key leadership and specialist roles
- CEO and leadership mentoring and support linked to mergers and other key aspects of organisational change.
Growth & diversification
- Full-scale business model reviews
- Horizon scans
- Market insights
- Market intel gathering and penetration analyses
- Feasibility reports, funding plans, options appraisals
- Project mobilisation and implementation support.
Income generation
- Fundraising plans, cases for support and campaigns (including research, development and writing)
- Proposition development and design
- Grant applications, funding proposals and donor reports
- Bid co-ordination, writing and review
- Partnership strategy development and implementation, and partner/funder relations
- Bid/risk assessment protocols and processes
- Social value positioning linked to public sector tendering requirements
Communications
- Drafting and producing strategic plans, annual reports, impact reports, and briefings (including design, content management, writing, editing, publication, dissemination and distribution)
- Internal communications strategy and implementation linked to mergers, acquisitions and organisational change.
Regulatory compliance
- Advice and support on regulatory compliance (e.g. CQC, CIW, Ofsted, Estyn, HMI)
- Regulatory improvement and turnaround programmes
- Clinical and non-clinical operating policies, procedures and practice guidelines
- Leadership mentoring, development and support linked to inspection visits and improvement plans.
A strategic mindset
Charity and voluntary sector leaders reach out to us for help when they’re looking for a break-through. They want to get a new idea off the ground, establish themselves in a new market, grow their reach and impact, or avert a commercial or financial crisis.
We help them to develop the right drivers for change, to create a strategy that addresses their key business risks and challenges, and to move forward with high-leverage action steps that unlock new markets and funding streams for them.
Business strategy
We focus on identifying and overcoming an organisation’s key strategic business challenges.
Goal setting
We help set clear and memorable objectives that boards and leadership teams can align on.
Action steps
We help leadership teams develop and implement prioritised strategic tasks and activities.
Results
We help establish specific metrics and milestones to be measured and met over the lifetime of a strategy.
Strategy and systems
Safe and inclusive communities that are full of opportunity, well-being and support are the bedrock of a better world. A better functioning social system is key to making that world a reality. So we always take a whole-systems approach, looking also beyond service delivery towards the community, family and peer-to-peer relationships that are integral to the wider environment in which services are delivered.
Sharing insights
We grow commercial understanding of the social ecosystem and deepen understanding of need, systems, services, markets and funding streams
Changing narratives
We build change stories around the organisation's legacy and key strengths, as well as its drivers for change
Risks and challenges
We identify the critical business challenges the organisation faces, both now and in the future
Strategic goals
We help boards and leadership teams to align on a set of practical strategic and systemic business objectives
Implementation support
We clarify and agree the action steps that need to be taken to execute the strategy, and how they will be implemented
Systemic performance
We identify measurable, tangible metrics and milestones for the organisation to achieve within the context of a wider social or health related system