Resilient River Valleys
Evaluation
Client: Groundwork Greater Manchester
Groundwork Greater Manchester, in partnership with City of Trees and Mersey Rivers Trust, secured £1.3m from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund to improve woodlands and green open spaces across the area, helping local people engage with the natural environment. They commissioned us to evaluate the project, over 16 months. We developed an evaluation plan setting out a methodology involving desk research, interviews, workshops and site visits, in planned phases, providing the client with formative lessons and progress reports, along with the final report setting out a summative evaluation of the whole project.
Torus Group Strategy Project
Client: Torus Group
We worked with the Torus Corporate team to review their family of strategies and operational plans, to help them enhance their capacity to deliver their new Corporate Plan. We provided an updated strategy framework and a user-friendly guide to producing updated strategies.
St Helens Borough Heritage Strategy
Client: St Helens Borough Council
St Helens Council is keen to help its communities to celebrate their heritage, and to boost the visitor economy, The land that makes up the modern Borough developed from villages and townships into an industrial powerhouse, thanks to the abundance of coal and men and women with the ingenuity to exploit it. A number of internationally important 'firsts' took place there, including: the creation of the Sankey Canal (England's first industrial canal) from the 1750s; the Rainhill Locomotive Trials in 1829, before the opening of the world’s first inter-city railway line in 1830; and the invention of the 'float glass' technique by Sir Alistair Pilkington in 1959.
The Council commissioned us to develop a new heritage strategy and delivery plan, based on thorough research and public consultation. The project was completed in June 2019.
The Great Pilgrimage 90
Client: The Royal British Legion, through Leger Holidays
November 2018 marked 100 years since the Armistice that ended the fighting in the First World War. Ste was commissioned to act as a Battlefield Guide on a four day trip to Ypres / Ieper in Belgium. This involved researching and delivering a series of talks about events there, and acting as specialist guide and historian to a coach party of 40 the people.
Evaluation of Walton Hall Conservatory Range Project
Client: Warrington Borough Council
The Walton Hall Conservatory Range project involved the restoration of historic buildings and the development of socially conscious end uses, through a partnership between Warrington Borough Council, Myerscough College and the Walton Lea Partnership, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The evaluation project involved delivering research, analysis and reports to an established methodology, consistent with evaluation guidance. The methodology included desk research, interviews and surveys, with both qualitative and quantitative aspects. The evaluation was completed successfully in late 2022.
Mental Health
in the workplace
Client: Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram is committed to raising the profile of workplace mental health, as a social and economic issue. We were commissioned to work with business and health partners to gather open access sources of mental health support and to promote them to businesses and individual workers through a communications campaign. This culminated in a special online event held in November 2021, with almost 100 attendees and thousands of subsequent views.
Golf Club Survey
Client: Ashton-in-Makerfield Golf Club
Ashton is a thriving golf club with 800 Members. Its Board is keen to base its decisions for the future on solid evidence. We conducted a thorough survey of the Members, examining every aspect of the club's activities. It attracted more than 300 participants, and generated a wealth of valuable data. We provided interim and final reports to the Board, including detailed analysis. The survey is ran again in 2019.
The Good Business Festival
Client: Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
The Good Business Festival was staged in the Liverpool City Region from 22-24 March 2022, following supporting events over the previous 18 months. It brought together business leaders and experts to explore how ethical business can be a force for good, in more than 50 sessions across eight venues. We were commissioned by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to manage the contract with its delivery partners, Culture Liverpool and Hemingway Design, and to deliver an evaluation project. The event was delivered successfully and within budget despite the many challenges posed by the pandemic.
Video of lots of the content is available here.
LCR Cares
Client: Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
LCR Cares was Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram's charitable emergency Covid response fund, that raised and distributed more than £2m to essential community causes from April-December 2020. We were retained to provide project management and communications support, working with the Community Foundation for Merseyside and Lancashire, and Combined Authority staff.
Armistice 100
Client: Leger Holidays
November 2018 marked 100 years since the Armistice that ended the fighting in the First World War. Ste was commissioned to act as a Battlefield Guide on a four day trip to Ypres / Ieper in Belgium. This involved researching and delivering a series of talks about events there, and acting as specialist guide and historian to a coach party of 40 the people.
Client: The Sankey Canal Partnership
Sankey Canal Corridor Project - Research & Consultation
The Sankey Canal Partnership is made of Halton, St. Helens and Warrington Councils, the Canal & River Trust and the Sankey Canal Restoration Society. It aims to develop the historic canal corridor as a visitor and leisure destination, and is developing a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund to part-fund the work. We conducted research and consultation to inform the bid, involving the following elements: an online survey and promotional campaign that attracted more than 400 participants; interviews with stakeholders about; desk research about other relevant heritage landscape projects; and a site visit to the Greenfield Valley in North Wales. We provided a report giving the results of the consultation work and conclusions from the other research, with clear recommendations about the shape and scope of the bid, and priorities for audience development.
Client: Liverpool Vision Ltd.
International relations data management project
The client manages relations with businesses and trade promotion agencies around the world. The project involved reviewing the client’s data needs and advising on the most appropriate data collection and management methods – a form of client relationship management (CRM) tool – and reporting formats.
Client: Liverpool Vision Ltd.
2018 International Business Festival
The International Business Festival 2018 was one of the biggest business events of the year. It was staged in Liverpool over nine days that June and attracted more than 8,000 delegates from around the world. We were commissioned to manage the content on the two main Festival stages, involving researching, booking and liaising with more than 150 speakers. These included Gina Millar, Simon Segars, Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, and Cherie Booth CBE QC.
Client: Liverpool City Council, on behalf of the City Region local authorities
Evaluation - LCR Intensive Support Service (CRISS)
The Liverpool City Region Intensive Support Service (LCRISS) was intended to help homeless people with complex needs. It was funded by the Government’s Single Homeless Fund. The project involved developing and delivering an evaluation methodology consistent with the Fund’s guidelines, featuring stakeholder and client interviews, desk research, and several types of analysis. This gathered quantitative and qualitative evidence to provide a rounded picture of the service’s performance against its objectives. The project ran from September 2016 to September 2017.
West Cheshire Waterways Ring
Client: Cheshire West & Chester Council
The client and the Canal & River Trust intended to improve access arrangements and general ease of use of sections of the Shropshire Union Canal, Trent & Mersey Canal, the Weaver Navigation and the Manchester Ship Canal, and to market it as a new cruising ring: the “West Cheshire Ring”. We worked with different parts of the Council and the Trust (including the National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port) to identify the barriers to user-friendly navigation and how they could be overcome. We mapped the visitor attractions and facilities along the route and interviewed many of the operators, making recommendations as to how they could more effectively relate to the canal corridor to make it a more attractive visitor destination. We also examined how the new Ring could be marketed, learning from other examples across the country. We presented the results in a report and action plan, and facilitated a workshop about some of the waterspace management issues.
2016 International Business Festival - Evaluation
Client: Liverpool Vision Ltd.
The International Business Festival 2016 was staged in Liverpool, ran for three weeks, and attracted more than 10,000 delegates from around the world. We delivered the evaluation in two stages: interim (May-November 2016) and ‘one year on’ (May-September 2017). It involved online and telephone surveys, supported by desk research. This allowed for a comprehensive analysis of the Festival’s performance against its grant objectives. The project was completed on time and within budget.
Linking the Locks project
Client: Warrington Borough Council, on behalf of the Sankey Canal Coastal Communities Team
The Sankey Canal Coastal Communities Team was delivering a business support and development project along the Sankey Canal Corridor, from Warrington to Widnes, supported by the Coastal Communities Fund. We conducted consultation with the public through face-to-face interviews on-site at Fiddlers Ferry and Spike island, interviewed more than 20 stakeholders with a special interest in the project area, and conducted related desk research. We presented the results in a report, summarising the current audience in each area and giving clear recommendations about audience development in the future.