We’ve had a busy time here at Phronetix recently…
As well as ongoing work with the University of Wolverhampton, Sally has been involved in a wide range of strategic consultancy work with the Higher Education Consultancy company SUMS. This has included strategy, insight and data-related consultancy with Nottingham, Bangor, Leeds, Northampton, Royal College of Art, UCL, and the University of East London. It’s been a really interesting time, exploring and understanding how to make a sustainable difference across different contexts and organisational cultures within the HE sector.
For almost ten years, Sally has chaired HESPA’s Higher Education Data Insight Group, which has been a huge privilege and a fascinating exploration of uses of data, identifying and pursuing opportunities to improve understanding and communication. All good things must come to an end though, and feeling it was now time to pass the baton on, she has instead taken up the new challenge of supporting HESPA’s Development Committee with its programme of training and development.
Until April this year, Gavin had been undertaking a long-term commitment with Blackpool Council’s Public Health Team, working on Joint Strategic Needs Assessment activity. Since then he has been working with several local authorities (including a return to Blackpool Council) around youth justice and the Combating Drugs Partnership (CDP) agenda. There’s never a dull moment in local government, and its great to be involved in working with different partners and hearing diverse perspectives on how to best tackle challenging issues.
Gavin has also just completed work with Preston City Mela, developing an evaluation framework to support their work, and their reporting to Arts Council England (ACE). It was great to play a small part in this community venture, and to see how workshops and events made a real difference to people of all ages and ethnic groups.
The future remains exciting, with some changes afoot towards the end of the year and into 2024. Before then we also hope to share a few discussion pieces on some general thoughts and experiences related to our work.. watch this space.