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Consultancy projects

thelastingchange provides advisory services in the fields of regeneration, community engagement, governance, policy development and implementation, performance management, creative learning, organizational and personal development.
Recent projects in which thelastingchange Directors and Associate Consultants have been engaged include:

• Diagnostic work with a northern County and its District Local Strategic Partnerships to identify the changes needed to improve performance.


• Bespoke learning programme for a struggling rural Local Strategic Partnership aimed at developing common understanding and the development of an improvement action plan.


• Development of 24 Hour Away Day programmes for a major city's Local Strategic Partnership.


• Bespoke day conference for a Government Office to enable the region's Councils and Local Strategic Partnerships to learn from good practice elsewhere.

Neighbourhood Management

Development of the Improving Neighbourhoods Programme for Borough Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk.

Development of an action plan with the Neighbourhood Project Management Board, North East Lincolnshire. Design and roll-out of process for developing neighbourhood working in rural areas.

Developmental Reviews of Neighbourhood Element in Mansfield and Sheffield.

School Improvement and Development

Creative Partnerships - Working with a full range of schools in West Yorkshire to promote creative learning.

Keighley First Locality - Action planning with schools and their partners to support improvement and achievement.

Governors' Conferences for Hampshire and Northumberland focused on how schools can build partnerships with communities.

Councils and Local Strategic Partnerships

LAA workshop with Norfolk LSP to develop positive approaches to challenge and delivery in relation to Local Area Agreements.

Supporting the strategic planning for, and delivery of, the Working Neighbourhoods Fund with NE Lincolnshire Economic Well-Being Board.

Supporting the strategic planning for, and delivery of, the Working Neighbourhoods Fund with NE Lincolnshire Economic Well-Being Board.Supporting the development of a strategic vision for neighbourhood partnership working in Mansfield, with particular reference to leadership and management.

Workshop to support LSP development in South Norfolk.

In addition two of the company directors are Local Improvement Advisers for central government specialising in leadership, partnership and community engagement.

Communities and Community Engagement

Holmewood Community Association - creation of youth involvement strategy and action plan for the estate.

Ravenscliffe Community Association - Evaluation and development work for social enterprise.

Individual Coaching and Team Development

Camphill (Rudolf Steiner) - providing training and team building for new team of national social workers.

Bradford Kickstart action learning sets with business mentors supporting social entrepreneurs.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service Appreciative Inquiry training.

Customised training for NHS Airedale and Bradford Community Development Team.

What our clients say..........

About what we do

The evidence and skills with TLC brought to the role were invaluable in helping us to move the programme onto the next level of delivery.
As a Creative Agent for Creative Partnerships, Tim has been outstanding - solid (in a good way), thoughtful, knowledgeable able to help people move forward in their thinking - not doing it for them but challenging and supporting. Given that the main gateway to a good experience and good value for money in the Creative Partnership programme is the Creative Agent, Tim has enabled schools to move forward and do some great work, both in the short term and over a period of years.
Pam had fantastic ideas and resources for planning/workshops. It was essential that the team, with new members, built effective relationships with themselves and others, and the Pam was fantastic in providing well-tuned workshops to enable this. Fun too!
Elaine's presentation on Appreciative Enquiry was both enlightening and an inspiration - real enthusiasm for the approach, coupled with a wide knowledge that didn't overwhelm, but intrigued and interested the audience.
Elaine was able to get to diagnose the issues we were experiencing as a partnership very quickly and, using her valuable experience, to suggest practical ways in which we could try to overcome them.
Prompt and flexible response and excellent collaboration and generation of ideas to meet client needs.
Initiated new way of working at the Board level, developed a sense of team and team spirit and setting up a process for new neighbourhood partnerships response to a weakness in the programme.
About how we do it

Very helpful and constructive.
They bring a different perspective and enthusiasm to our programme and work; have a great, positive 'can do' attitude that is quite infectious. Willing to work beyond the scope of the brief and provide added value to partnership working more generally.
As a colleague selecting and interviewing potential schools, Tim's insight, realism and humour has been greatly appreciated and his judgement has been very accurate. Elaine's presentation was a sharing of thinking with colleagues, rather than a textbook explanation of a technique - which was spot on for the audience.
Pam and Elaine gave a consistent amount of enthusiasm and energy to a team that could well have been flagging without their support.
Pam and Elaine are challenging and at the same time very supportive and intuitive, their enthusiasm, energy and immense knowledge fill you with confidence and courage.
Elaine was flexible and available at all times. From the outset Elaine established a really good working relationship with me and a great rapport with the Group on the day. I was personally delighted with how the session had gone and the feedback from the group. I would really like to involve Elaine again in our work as I think added huge value in the short time she spent with us.
Met agreed timescales for production of delegate materials which enabled the conferences to be well planned. There was great enthusiasm, energy and personal commitment to the success of the events.
About the difference we make

Able to give the programme a renewed impetus and brought a different angle to our work which has helped… often difficult to sustain people in programmes such as these, so the timing was good for us in the first place but you were able to help us take the opportunity that afforded.
Schools have appreciated being taken seriously by Tim in their aspirations and ideas and this has led to more thoughtful and successful programmes.
People felt energised and positive about issues that had seemed impenetrable. Elaine's style is particularly effective with a group of partners who may have differing perspectives and experiences. Her facilitation of the discussion opened new avenues for us. In a short space of time Elaine helped us to move forward considerably and left the group feeling energised and ready to take on the challenge of the LAA.
Delegates found the events rewarding to attend and evaluations were very positive.
The outcomes from Pam and Elaine's support are still being felt. They are ongoing and long-term.
They don't just come in and do a job but somehow leave you with the ability to carry on achieve more.

Learning Programmes

thelastingchange develops and delivers learning programmes for individuals, teams, communities and organisations. We tailor our programmes to our clients requirements and can devise programmes to address specific issues.

'Duty to Involve' - hit the ground running

What will the new statutory 'Duty to Involve' mean for your work?

For the first time there is a legal duty placed on local authorities to inform, consult with and involve local people in the decisions, design, delivery and assessment of services.

This one day interactive event is led by experienced practitioners who have developed methods of involvement across a diverse population.

The day enables you to explore how you can develop your own ' Duty to Involve' strategy and put it into operation.

Key activities

• Assessing what you are already doing well and building on it;
• Identifying the values that need to be in place for involvement to succeed;
• Exploring good practice and learning from each other;
• Discovering methods that would strengthen your current practice;
• Enabling elected members to understand and champion this way of working.
• The day will enable you to promote successful ways of involving people in meaningful decision making.

Understanding Participatory Budgeting

In early July 2007, Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears set-out a radical ambition, based on participatory budgeting, for every neighbourhood to have control of a 'community kitty' within five years. The kitty would be a sum of public money which residents in the neighbourhood would decide how to spend. In interviews she quoted work undertaken in Bradford.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6275698.stm

As the people responsible for pioneering that work in Bradford, and other whole district methods of engaging communities, we offer an introductory day course to help you understand the policy and see how it can be turned into action that benefits the people you serve.

It will also help local councils and partners to think about how participatory budget methods can support: the new duty in the Local Government Act to secure genuine participation; the new Comprehensive Area Assessments with the focus on how Local Strategic Partnerships and Local Area Agreements involve communities and secure genuine participation.

This introductory course can be followed up by a 'bespoke' package that enables staff to understand the policy direction, develop a pilot project and carry out a 'community kitty' event.

In addition, we are able to offer support, help and advice with other effective methods and forms of engagement that enable people in both geographical communities and communities of interest to participate.

Creativity in the workplace

Creative leadership, creative learning, creative problem-solving and promoting creative thinking; this course examines strategies that transform the workplace and helps people develop their tool kit for positive change and organisational development.

Getting the message…. right?

Communication is crucial to making an organisation succeed. We run a series of programmes which enable people individually - and organisations collectively - to develop their powers of communication and effect change.

Our programmes are individually tailored and can include: Getting difficult messages across to specific audiences; public speaking; presentation training; listening and influencing skills; body language; media interview skills; jargon-busting/plain language skills.

Our programmes will help you communicate, persuade and change.


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