Are there times when the impact of your ways of working to boost town centre and business performance seem to go unnoticed? Do you sometimes feel ‘distracted from doing’ by the uninformed interference of others?
At the People and Places Partnership we know, from nearly a decade measuring and promoting changes in town centre performance, the importance of data to demonstrate impacts. Now, in a new service, we are combining this understanding of town trends with our experience of creating talented town teams to get everyone ‘rowing in the same direction’ through open governance, stakeholder engagement and clear communications.
We invite you to take an annual ‘ways of working’ review with us. Those of you who are experienced at this game will understand that it’s essential to review both the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of what you do. Sometimes, we believe, there can be value in bringing in an outside opinion to reflect with and help demonstrate effectiveness to others.
Here is a flavour of the issues we believe that such a ‘ways of working’ review should involve:
Monitoring & Impact
- What baseline data do you hold to inform priorities and monitor progress?
Governance & Leadership
- Are their clear divisions of responsibility between management, governance and delivery?
- Do you have an up-to-date skills audit for your Board?
Communication & Engagement
- Do you have a plan in place for internal and external communications?
- How do you nurture and properly involve other stakeholder groups?
Planning & Delivery
- Do you publish an action plan and regularly review progress with partners?
- Are there tangible and transparent links between priorities, projects and performance?
Finances & Income
- Are you looking beyond existing funding to lever in extra cash to expand your impact?
- Are you creating assets or services to sustain activity in future?
Strategy and Influence
- Do you have an eye on the bigger picture and effective links to strategic partners like councils?
- Do you have annual agreements with partners so expectations are clear on both sides?
Our menu of choices
You can work with us from a ‘menu’ of choices to undertake a ‘ways of working’ review:
Level 1 –fixed price involving 2 in-depth interviews; overview analysis; insights in to two selected issues; summary report. Cost based on 1 day rate plus VAT.
Level 2 –a la carte involving up to 4 in-depth interviews in person; analysis and insights for all key issues; summary report and preparation of presentation for stakeholders. Cost based on 3 day rate plus VAT and travel.
Level 3 –bespoke approach to developing solutions for selected issues and involving facilitated engagement with stakeholders. Cost by agreement.
Our involvement would be led by our Director, Chris Wade who was recently made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts for his national contribution to town centre regeneration. To discuss our possible involvement in a ‘ways of working review’ with you, email Chris on chris.wade@people-places.net or give him a call on 07788 278126.
Helpful reading
Read our perspective on the challenges of leading a local revival including our recent work to support two very different initiatives in Maindee and Abergele.
Get an insight to the added value from BIDs evidenced by the 2016 Nationwide Survey and the value of 4 years of impact monitoring to Our Bury St Edmunds BID .
Find out more about our approach to ‘planning for people’ captured in these top tips on creating a vision and masterplanning prepared by our delivery partners, Chris Jones Regeneration .
