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Rachel Flood / Director

Part-time runner, full-time foodie, Rachel loves nothing more than literally
“running for her breakfast”. She loves her family, friends and dogs, and hates inequality, discrimination and ‘celery’

Betsie / Head of Catering

Betsie our Ruby Cavalier (AKA the Ginger Bear) may have the face of a Disney character, but her eating habits can at best be described as ‘dubious’.  She snores like a tractor, is totally laid back, hungry all the time, and will do anything for Marks and Spencer’s Chicken Liver Pate, but she also has the sweetest nature and knows those big brown eyes will get her whatever she wants.

Dolly / Head of Security

Unlike her laidback sister, Dolly (our adopted Chihuahua) has “issues”. She is frightened of everything and everyone and wants nothing more than to be near us – which means she has absolutely no sense of personal space which has made sunbathing and lockdown Zoom meetings “interesting” to say the least!

An Interview With Rachel

Describe yourself in five words
passionate, funny, loyal, creative (mentally not artistically) and resilient.

What is the best bit of your job?
The variety – we can go from designing bespoke safeguarding training for a company one day, to undertaking an evaluation of a government funded programme the next.

What books are currently on your bookshelf?
Currently, Barack Obama’s autobiography, Doughnut Economics, To Kill a Mockingbird, What Happened To You, by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce Perry, as well as two Johan Hari books, Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections.
Favourite books include a Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, and the Wind in the Willows, which was my favourite book as a child, and my oldest friend, the very talented David Roberts – check him out @drillustration. He illustrated a version and gave me a copy.

What are the secrets behind getting to where you have got to?
Not sure it’s a secret, but just being down to earth, honest and a decent person I work hard, maintaining and nurturing my working relationships, and always trying to be the best I can be. I spent a lot of my early career feeling intimidated by people who I thought were more insightful or eloquent than me, but over time I realised that what client’s really want is someone they can relate to, get along with, who can get things done, and hopefully who they can form a great working relationship with.

What quotes define you/your approach?
Well, given what I’ve just said, you won’t be surprised to know that it’s the acronym KISS, which stands for “keep it simple, stupid”, and Occam’s razor, which is the problem-solving principle that says that the simplest solution is often the best one.

Who inspires you?
My dad. He sadly died a few years ago, but he was my number one go to guy for all career advice – always over a pint in his local of course. He didn’t have a formal education but became a very successful construction engineer. The feather in my logo is my nod to him and all he did for me. However, I also need to say a massive thank you to my mum, who is the strongest, most fierce woman I know, and the driving force behind my dad’s (and my) success.

Is there a quote that sums you up/motivates you?
Well, this comes back to my mum again, and it’s “Pull yourself together you’re a Flood” – she’s been saying that to me and my brother since we were kids and there really is something in it. When I feel down, or a little sorry for myself, I hear these words, have a word with myself and just get on with things. It certainly helps you to put things into perspective.

What did you study?
A joint degree in Business and Economics, and then a Master’s in Public Administration (many years later), for which I won a Student of the Year award, which made up for all the times I failed to win anything at prize giving in school.

What has your career path been?
Long, haphazard, rewarding, and more good luck than good judgement. However, it has also been defined by working with some of the smartest women I know. I definitely learnt from some of the best people out there, who challenged me and pushed me. They hopefully all know who they are, and I do tell them how much their support has meant to me as we all still meet up.

What is the best career decision you ever made?
Setting up my own business, even if I was a ‘reluctant’ consultant, so I guess this is the best decision I never thought I wanted. I had worked in local government for many years and never saw that changing, but austerity meant massive changes to the area I was working in, and so I pulled myself together, because I’m a Flood, and made the leap!

What are your superpowers?
Seeing the bigger picture. I absolutely thrive on working in an environment where we need to bring a number of disparate strands of work or ideas together and making this into a coherent plan of each action. I love doing the research, thinking creatively and starting to see how things could work. I definitely work visually and can always be found scribbling a diagram or flowchart to convey key messages.

What has been your career highpoint to date?
Securing the contract to undertake the community engagement work on the Anfield Project, a £260m regeneration scheme, to regenerate an area that had seen promised investments come and go over the previous decades. I’m also a massive LFC fan (hope this doesn’t alientate too many potential clients!) and I knew how proud my mum and dad were of me getting this contract so early on in my consultancy career. I absolutely loved everything about it.

What has been your worst times and how did you push through?
My dad dying, which was very sudden. It took me a while to work through that, although I don’t think you ever get over it. Being kind to myself and listening to when I needed to take time out was really important, but so was not letting down any colleagues or clients, as in the back of my mind I knew my dad would want me to keep going, and so I did.

If you weren’t director of Rachel Flood Associates, what career would you liked to have explored?
I am a massive fan of the West Wing, well any political drama/comedy really, and in primary school my teacher said that I would definitely do “something with words”, as I wrote the most elaborate (and lengthy) stories that would take my parents hours to read at parents evening. So, my dream job would be a speech writer in the West Wing.

What is the best bit of advice you were ever given?
“Pull yourself together you’re a Flood!” obviously!

Outside of work, what do you do?
I’m all about family, my partner, our two dogs and spending time with my mum, brother, and nephew. I genuinely love hanging out with them, and when we get the chance, going to Cocoa Beach together, our special place and where my dad’s ashes are. My family mean absolutely everything to me and, without them I’m not sure where I’d be or what I’d be doing, I owe everything to them!

2021 RACHEL FLOOD ASSOCIATES | COMPANY NUMBER : 0809602 | REGISTERED ADDRESS: 555 SMITHDOWN ROAD, LIVERPOOL | RETURN TO TOP | DESIGNED BY MISSCHIEFCREATIVE

2021 RACHEL FLOOD ASSOCIATES
COMPANY NUMBER : 0809602
REGISTERED ADDRESS: 555 SMITHDOWN ROAD, LIVERPOOL
RETURN TO TOP
DESIGNED BY MISSCHIEFCREATIVE

EVENT FACILITATION

We have experience of facilitating a range of events, particularly when it comes to developing strategic actions plans or securing buy-in for a new way of working from a range of partner agencies. We have successfully worked with several clients within large local authorities to engage staff in approaches around working with families with multiple and complex needs, or developing an action plan to agree the vision, aims and objectives to implement funding to transform service delivery.

We also have experience of facilitating a range of events, away days, board development sessions and team sessions (see below). We are experts in facilitation, utilising a range of innovative and engaging resources, including attendee led Unconferences and PinPoint facilitation

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EARLY HELP AND SAFEGUARDING

We have experience of developing bespoke early help and safeguarding training programmes for organisations ranging from local authorities, the police, the Fire Service, and charities. We have also worked with a number of large regional housing associations to design and deliver safeguarding training to the whole organisation, developing one-hour toolbox talks, half and full day sessions, and designing sessions with a specific focus on children and/or adults.

We use a range of innovative and interactive methods to ensure staff get the most from the sessions and use our experience in facilitation to ensure that we are all learning from each other, recognising that your staff are the experts, and through sharing their experiences and ways of working, we can encourage the development of a safeguarding culture throughout your organisation.

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TEAM DEVELOPMENT DAYS

We have a lot of experience of working with individual teams to look at ways of developing common purpose, establishing what makes an effective team, and how to improve working relationships.

We can work with you to understand the issues and develop a session that meets your needs, which fully engages your staff in identifying where improvements can be made, and developing team plans that everyone can sign up to. We have experience of running sessions for multi-agency partnerships looking to transform service delivery, through to working with local authority teams who are starting a journey towards integrating services.

Whatever your needs, we would welcome an opportunity to meet with you to discuss how we can support you.

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WORKSHOP FACILITATION

We can work with you to design and deliver a range of workshops (whatever the topic or team) to secure the outcomes you need to achieve. We are experts in facilitation, utilising a range of innovative and engaging resources, including attendee led Unconferences and PinPoint facilitation

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WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

We have developed a number of comprehensive workforce engagement strategies for a variety of stakeholders including local authorities and a National Lottery Funded project seeking to improve its support to adults with multiple and complex needs.

We have developed an approach that not only engages with what is already there, and reviews its effectiveness, but which also engages staff, through a variety of mechanisms, to better understand what they need going forward.

The result, a comprehensive understanding – based on evidence and feedback – of the key skills, attributes and knowledge required for a successful and motivated workforce

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IMPACT REPORTING

“What gets measured, gets done”, or so the saying the goes, but what gets measured tends to be the things we can easily count (the outputs) and less about the impact (outcomes) and difference we are making, and often we don’t design these into our services or programmes at the outset.

We have worked with a number of large housing associations in the North West to better understand their impact, economically, environmentally and socially.

We have developed an approach that engages the whole organisation in the production of a detailed impact report which results in a bespoke impact framework for the organisation, and which leaves, as a legacy, the tools and approach to produce these reports themselves going forward, ensuring that sustainability is built in from the outset. 

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POLICY AND STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT

By helping you to develop and consolidate your thinking and planning around new programmes and/or ways of working. For example, we have supported local authorities to implement new government initiatives, such as the Troubled Families Programme, or helped them to scope out what a new way of working might look like, such as locality/neighbourhood management.

We have a keen interest in supporting organisations to improve outcomes for children, young people, families, and communities, by exploring opportunities to “join things up locally” and improve collaboration and partnership working. 

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PROGRAMME / PROJECT EVALUATIONS

Working with you to scope out your specific requirements, we have supported a range of organisations (from charities and within the public sector) to review the effectiveness of their policies, projects, and programmes. We have experience of designing and implementing evaluation methodologies. Utilising a logic model approach, which we will develop with you, we will then use a range of quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis to identify headline messages and improvements.

Key to our success is maintaining regular contact with you, sharing updates and interim reports on key findings, which are all presented in innovative, engaging, and user-friendly ways which can be easily shared with your wider stakeholders.

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Whether it’s engaging communities to reinvigorate local democracy, secure planning permission, or outline a new project you want to deliver, all require an understanding of your stakeholders. This means understanding who they are, where they are, and what their ‘asks’ and potentially ‘offers’ are for being involved and providing their views and time to you and your project or initiative.

With this intelligence to hand, we can support you to develop a coherent engagement strategy that can guide your work, decision making, or service design, and ensure that communities (whoever they are) feel listened to, respected, and involved as much or as little as they would like.

We have worked with large private and public sector organisations, utilising blogs, videos, drop-in centres, and walkabouts and will utilise a range of tools to ensure the widest engagement to meet your needs.

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