What our clients have to say...
Case Study: Locality Working
Client: Liverpool City Council
What we did: supporting the Director of the Community Services to implement an approach to developing the strategy to underpin their approach to locality working. This was a twelve-month commission, which involved supporting the department’s staff to re-shape their vision for creating a new relationship with their communities and citizens to better understand:
- The people who live in an area and their specific needs, in particular, the demands they make on services; the early warning signals of vulnerability; and shifting resources to a focus on early prevention and intervention, building on existing early help approaches within Children Services and extending this to an ‘all age assessment / conversation’ and developing the concept of levels of need alongside this (supported through utilising existing data and intelligence and commissioning behaviour change research)
- The place as somewhere to live (it’s development and its management) i.e., the more traditional cleaner safer, greener neighbourhood management approaches which affect how people feel about where they live and in turn their attitudes, motivations and aspirations for the future (supported through the development of a locality model of working, building on community navigators and neighbourhood management approaches)
- The community and the assets they have; their characteristics / norms; its outlook, levels of social capital and wider community resilience, and developing behaviour change that builds wellbeing and resilience. This was about recognising that strong neighbourhoods do not depend solely on the council. They are built on what people can do for themselves and for each other (supported through asset mapping and the ‘Big Conversation’ engagement approach to understand what would support communities to get more involved)
- The workforce to create a committed, flexible workforce prepared to have a different conversation – focusing on what’s strong not what’s wrong – and providing an integrated response to issues that tackles root causes and not just the presenting need (supported through the development of a comprehensive workforce development strategy)
What our client said:
“I have known Rachel and had the pleasure of working with her for many years and would not hesitate to recommend her to anyone who needs support in thinking through their vision and strategy for developing approaches around people, places and partnerships. Her in-depth knowledge, creativity and ability to break complex problems down into their components parts is one of the many things she excels at. She is able to communicate effectively and bring people with her, and as an added bonus, is great fun to be around.
As a result of her involvement, we were able to develop a clear plan and vision for re-establishing locality working across the city, a neighbourhood management ‘plus’ model, which will ensure that as a city, and with our citizens, we will be able to have a different conversation and deliver services which are not only valued but deliver value for money and support for those who need it when they need it.”
Kathy Allen, Divisional Manager, Localities, Co-ordination and Engagement
Case Study: Designing and delivering bespoke safeguarding training
Client: Regenda Group
What we did: Regenda owns or manages 13,000 properties across the northwest, including social rented housing, housing for older people, supported housing, private rented property, shared ownership and housing for sale. As part of this commission, we worked with the Health & Safety Team who have lead responsibility for safeguarding, to design and deliver a bespoke safeguarding programme from “the board to the floor”. It was important that we understood specific challenges and issues around safeguarding within the organisation so that we could support the team to develop a processes and an approach to the training that would secure maximum impact and outcomes. We designed a tiered approach, and allocated all staff within the organisation to a training programme depending on their job role. Training programmes ranged from toolbox talks to maintenance and repair operatives, through to frontline staff and senior managers.
We also developed a specific approach to support the call centre staff when dealing with suicidal callers and established a protocol for this. Regenda were clear in their brief that they wanted an approach that would deliver a culture of safeguarding across the organisation, irrespective of job role, department, or level of contact with customers.
What our client said:
“Rachel has been a tremendous asset to Regenda, not only in designing bespoke training sessions for our various and varied sectors, but also in delivering the training using a friendly and professional approach, which allowed our colleagues to be well informed of their Safeguarding responsibilities so they can make referrals with confidence and understanding. We commissioned Rachel in 2019 and since then we have seen a noted increased in referrals”
Angela Grimes, Health & Safety Manager, Regenda
Case Study: Designing and Facilitating an Open Space/UnConference event to establish where next for social prescribing in Liverpool.
Client: Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)
What we did: In 2019, we worked with Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group to develop an approach to explore how to progress social prescribing across the city. We worked with the CCG to design an UnConference, an approach that ensures that every issue that anybody cares enough about is on the agenda, and that all issues receive as much discission as people care to give them – in effect, it is a conference where the agenda is co-produced on the day. We ran two events called “Community is the Best Medicine”, bringing together over 150 people to explore how to develop an accessible and sustainable approach to social prescribing. All discussions were captured using PinPoint Facilitation Boards and conference reports shared with every in attendance, including key actions and responsibilities for progressing next steps.
What our client said:
“Rachel is a truly exceptional facilitator: creative and professional in the way she responds to the brief, attention to detail second to none. You know she’s in charge on the day, but also warm, engaging and flexible. It’s a very effective combination.”
Clare Mahoney, Programme Lead, Social Model of Health
Case Study: Anfield Regeneration Framework: Community consultation- strategy and engagement
Client: Liverpool Football Club, Liverpool City Council and Your Housing Group
What we did: In 2013, we secured the contract to design an engagement strategy to ensure the effective engagement of residents and businesses in the Anfield Village and Rockfield areas as part of the £260m Anfield Project. Covering an area of 861 properties, and with 299 of these to be demolished to spearhead the desire to increase the potential economic activity of the area, we were faced with often disillusioned, ‘consultation weary’ residents.
However, our appreciation of these very real local issues and tensions, and a recognition of the extent of the work and ‘diplomacy’ that was required, allowed us to deliver a framework that was underpinned by strong community engagement and involvement, and ensured the successful delivery of the planning requirements underpinning the brief. As a result, we were able to deliver the aspirations of the people of Anfield and in turn meet a key Mayoral priority to refurbish empty properties and deliver the two most important housing regeneration projects in the city at that time.
What our client said:
“Rachel worked alongside the Anfield Project delivery team providing a first-class approach to engagement and consultation in support of the vision for Anfield and the Spatial Regeneration Framework. Key to progress was establishing a local community mandate and the approach from Rachel and the team helped to build trust with the community and local business owners by engaging in a variety of ways in a manner that was inclusive and engaging, providing meaningful consultation therefore producing detailed insights. The £260 million Anfield regeneration project has to date been an overwhelming success, transforming an area which had previously lacked hope, to become a neighbourhood looking to the future with aspiration. Thank you.”
Mark Kitts, Assistant Director, Liverpool City Council
Case Study: Early Help
Client: Liverpool City Council
What we did: In 2014, we started to work with the children’s workforce development lead in Liverpool City council to design a training programme for the city’s childrens and family’s workforce. Moving from a common assessment framework to more of a whole family approach was a significant shift, and there were challenges to securing commitment and buy-in to this new approach across the multi-agency workforce. We trained over 4,000 staff, developed a train-the-trainer model to support sustainability, and continued to work with the city on their early help journey, working with them to amend their Early Help Assessment Tool (EHAT) and redesign the training programme to underpin this.
What our client said:
“We wanted something innovative for a new approach we were developing for supporting children and families via early help. Rachel was recommended to me, and I have now worked with her on numerous projects. She has never disappointed, always able to see the bigger picture and develop workforce development programmes that are exactly what is needed. She has a unique way and style to her delivery that really brings people with her. Her design skills, in terms of presenting the information using videos, infographics and a range of diagrams, communicates a lot of information in interesting and useful ways. Our feedback on her sessions has been fantastic and we wouldn’t hesitate in recommending her!”
Wendy Moss, Children’s Workforce Development Lead, Liverpool City Council
Case Study: Supporting the development of locality working
Client: First Choice Homes Oldham
What our client said:
“I first worked with Rachel in Liverpool City Council when I was the Executive Director for Communities, in fact I recruited her to the post of Neighbourhood Strategy Manager for the city, so I definitely saw her potential from the get-go! I was always impressed with her personable approach, sense of humour, knowledge and her determination to get things done and make a difference. She was creative, hardworking, and always came armed with solutions rather than problems which is always a blessing when working within large, bureaucratic organisations. When I became Chief Executive of First Choice Homes (FCHO) Oldham I knew I could count on Rachel when we were looking to link in with the wider Greater Manchester Combined Authority Agenda (GMCA) on locality working. She supported our staff with her knowledge and experience and helped us to shape our thinking around how we might deliver a more joined-up neighbourhood approach to support families and individuals with complex problems. She was a breath of fresh air, and helped us to really think about how we wanted, as an organisation, to contribute to this important agenda.”
Cath Green, Chief Executive, FCHO
Case Study: Impact Reporting
Client: Liverpool Mutual Homes (now Torus)
What our client said:
“We have worked with Rachel on a number of commissions, and she has been a fantastic asset to the organisation, bringing in fresh ideas and insight. She supported the executive team to think about impact reporting and how we could capture our efforts, as a new housing association, in ways that would appeal to our stakeholders, tenants and board members. This was a gargantuan task as she researched best practice nationally and internationally and pulled together information from a variety of sources across the organisation. She designed and delivered workshops with every team within Liverpool Mutual homes (LMH) to better understand their role, work, outcomes and outputs and gained a detailed understanding of the organisation and how it worked. The end result was a document to celebrate our first five years as a housing association which captured everything we had done for our tenants, communities, and our city. It was perfect and Rachel was so flexible in how she worked and approached the task, taking constructive and challenging criticism on the chin and finding other avenues to deliver what we as an executive team expected. We challenged her and she didn’t let us down. Rachel brought a fresh perspective, a sense of humour and a dedication to the task that was second none – she would be an asset to any organisation she works with.”
Angela Forshaw Executive Director of Operations, Liverpool Mutual Homes (now Torus)
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