We work with Mayoral Combined Authorities, investment zones, freeports and others to transform economies and communities…
Devolution of substantial powers and funding to place-based bodies is now an established, central, feature of UK public administration. Empowered leaders up and down the country are taking material policy and spending decisions that will shape the future of the economies and communities they serve.
Our team includes colleagues with senior-level, first-hand, experience securing and leveraging devolved powers and funding to have a real impact - integrating policy, commissioning and service delivery in ways, and to degrees, that are possible only when local leaders are empowered to shape local services.
Our work with place-based bodies is typically about translating devolved powers into outcomes…
Most of our work on ‘place’ leverages our expertise in policymaking, service design and delivery - coupled with our understanding of relevant policy areas and supplier bases - to help colleagues develop and implement programmes that work.
Our work on place includes, for example:
Policymaking: leveraging our understanding of devolution policy and practice, and of the employment, skills and health sectors in particular, to help colleagues shape local policies which leverage all of the powers and funding devolved to them to impact their economies, communities and individual citizens.
Service design: working with colleagues to translate their policies into programme specifications, following best practice methods for public service design including e.g. consultation with users and prospective suppliers, and balancing specification of inputs vs outputs and outcomes.
Commissioning: building on a great service design process, conducting market engagement exercises, preparing detailed statements of requirements, determining procurement mechanisms, and supporting the whole process.
Service delivery: working on an embedded basis to mobilise and deliver services and programmes - or to oversee delivery on behalf of place-based bodies to ensure that policy intent is fulfilled, and funding used appropriately to deliver outcomes.
Assurance: providing expert, external and objective advice on the performance, issues, risks and opportunities associated with a given live service or programme - and supporting whatever improvement actions are agreed as a result of our appraisal.
We also do a great deal of work to help commercial suppliers understand and respond to the implications of devolution for them…
It is clear to us that devolution is, rightly, here to stay. Commercial suppliers must carefully consider what devolution means for your strategy, market positioning, resourcing and operating models. If you engage with place-based bodies as an inconvenience, you should expect to fail. If you embrace the opportunity devolution presents for you to collaborate with passionate, place and citizen-focussed clients to integrate and innovate, devolution has the potential to power your pipeline.
Our work with commercial suppliers on place often therefore includes:
Strategy and pipeline: helping colleagues map the pipeline of opportunities likely associated with devolution policy overall, and individual devolution deals - including concrete contracts and thematic areas of interest. Having done this, we can help you think about where and how you should play in the market - making coherent choices about the combination of service verticals you engage with.
Capability and operations: often having supported colleagues to define their strategy for place, we help clients assess what combination of capabilities you need to build to succeed in your work with place-based bodies - including where and how you should look for innovation. We also help clients develop and implement operating models which reflect the requirements and realities of a devolutionary operating environment.
Capture planning and bidding: as we do with commercial clients with respect to large national opportunities, we help commercial suppliers to work strategically to shape and capture contract opportunities - leveraging our expertise in strategic sales, solutioning, bidding and mobilisation.
Programme delivery: our focus on outcomes, and wider programme and operational leadership capability, means that we can also help you transition, mobilise and deliver services, including by taking ownership of implementation work packages on a managed service basis.
