In this Substance Misuse Breakfast Briefing, we are joined by David Best, Professor of Addiction Recovery, presents on the following topics:

– Maximizing LEROs in the community
– Engaging with LEROs
– Addressing stigma and effective engagement with individuals dealing with substance misuse
– Exploring the KFC Model (Kirkham Family Connectors), which focuses on continuity of care by harnessing the strengths and assets of families
– Insights into Recovery Cities

David Best is the world’s first Professor of Addiction Recovery. He has moved to Leeds Trinity University from Derby University, where he undertook research around addiction recovery and desistance from crime, to become the world’s 1st Professor of Addiction Recovery.

He leads research into work on desistance from offending, recovery capital, and pathways to addiction recovery. He is also interested in social identity theory and its implications for recovery, recovery and desistance, addiction treatment effectiveness, prison and community connections, and family experiences of addiction and recovery.

Watch the meetup below.

In the latest instalment of The Development & Regeneration Series, Panoramic Associates’ Practice Director Alex Miller was joined by Chris Shephard, Chief of Staff to the Chief Operating Officer for BCP Council.

Chris has been with the Council for 9 years working his way up to Director of Economic Development as recently as May 2023. He and the Council decided to create and appoint Chris as their Chief of Staff to provide day-to-day support for the current Chief Operations Officer, Jess Gibbons.

In the interview below, Chris covers the logic behind this appointment along with many other current talking points for the Council:

– Where BCP is on the map, and what does the area consist of?
– What the role of a chief of staff consists of in Local Government?
– What benefits of a chief of staff being within an organisation?
– What do you specifically like about the role?

And lots more.

It was an insightful session sharing our views on the topic; it was also an environment to discuss innovative ideas that can be implemented in their respected fields.

Watch the meetup below.

We, at Panoramic Associates, thoroughly enjoy getting insights into our specialist market sectors, other organisations and perspectives. We run these events to build our collective knowledge and provide opportunities to create a network of like-minded individuals.

If you would like to get in involved in future events, or if you have any suggestions on future topics, please contact Alex at [email protected]

In the latest instalment of The Development & Regeneration Series, Panoramic Associates’ Practice Director Alex Miller invited Roselyn Unegbu, an experienced Senior Leader within capital delivery, to address potential areas of focus and challenges in the current market.

In the video below, we covered the following:

– Why you work in the area that you do today?
– Why Local Government and not other sectors?
– Local Government pipeline debate – capacity vs capability
– Areas that restrict development – rising costs in building construction and changes in building regulations

And lots more.

I felt it was a very honest conversation not glossing over anything and really bringing the current circumstances to light. Thanks again Roselyn, I look forward to the next one!

It was insightful for all the attendees to share their views on the topic; it was also an environment to share innovative ideas that can be implemented in their respected councils/working practice.

Watch the meetup below.

We, at Panoramic Associates, thoroughly enjoy getting insights into our specialist market sectors, other organisations and perspectives. We run these events to build our collective knowledge and provide opportunities to create a network of like-minded individuals.

If you have any suggestions on future topics for our next event, or would be interested in attending, please contact Alex at [email protected].

In our latest virtual round table discussion, Panoramic Associates’ Lead Principal Consultant Alex Miller invited three guest speakers and attendees to discuss ‘The comparisons between Passive House and Retrofitting’.

Invited to the session was Emma Osmundsen (Managing Director of Exeter Living), Chris Brown (Assistant Director Housing Development and Regeneration at Somerset West and Taunton Council), and James Turner (Associate Director of Mikhail Richards).

We invited Emma Osmundsen (Managing Director of Exeter Living) to our round table discussion to talk about Exeter Living’s triple bottom line approach – people profit and the planet. Exeter Living have adopted Passive House (or Passivhaus) standards across all their buildings, which are now climate ready as a result of working with scientists from Exeter University. They have adopted these standards to eradicate poor property, and currently they have delivered 200 certified Passive House’ with a further 1000 homes for private sale, 50% will be Council stock, and 25% build to rent.

Emma made us aware that Passive House is much more than an energy standard, as it also provides comfort for users as well as being the most hygienic option. Despite the plethora of advantages, further discussion revealed the challenges of Passive House which include procurement, construction strategies, and overcoming stereotypical points of view.
Chris Brown (Assistant Director Housing Development and Regeneration – Somerset West and Taunton Council) then examined a slightly contrasting point of view by discussing Somerset West and Taunton Council’s progress on low carbon new build & retrofit. The key difference is around air tightness, and he went on to discuss how their pipeline has moved forward based on their model.

By promoting a fabric-first approach to delivering CO2 reduction, Chris found that the customer engagement was positive, which ensures that the Council’s housing is affordable in line with the HRA business plan. Somerset West and Taunton Council are aiming to deliver 400 units of low carbon per year. The main challenges they have faced are in communicating the benefits to leaseholders. The Council measure success based on aligning their outcomes to their capital programme, maximising SHDF and grants and ensuring homes are insulated to prevent fuel poverty.

Our final guest James Turner (Associate Director of Mikhail Richards) helped to outline what is important to Mikhail Richards when it comes to building housing whilst giving his perspective from another point of view. James described the performance gap of the buildings, from certified Passive House standards to other types of housing development. Talking through what lessons they have learnt after designing and delivering zero carbon homes, which he shared towards the end of the talk.

James recommended to invest initially as it will save time and money in the long term, and making sure to get the master plan right (which ensures the process is carried out correctly and doesn’t cost the earth) to balance quality and upfront build cost for the construction materials.

It was helpful for all the attendees to share their views on Passive House and Retrofitting and how they are progressing their schemes. It was also an environment to share innovative ideas that can be implemented in their respected councils/ working practice.

Watch the meetup below.

We, at Panoramic Associates, thoroughly enjoy getting insights into our specialist market sectors, other organisations and perspectives. We run these events to build our collective knowledge and provide opportunities to create a network of like-minded individuals.

If you have any suggestions on future topics for our next event or would be interested in attending, please contact Alex at [email protected]

In our latest virtual round table discussion, Panoramic Associates’ Principal Consultant Alex Miller invited two guest speakers and attendees to discuss two topics within the sector: ‘Regeneration in Havering’ and ‘Be Bold in Birmingham’.

Invited to the session was Neil Stubbings, Director of Regeneration, and Simon Delahunty-Forrest, Assistant Director Planning & Development.

Neil explained how they haven’t been at the races in recent years when it comes to regeneration, but with low land values they have now turned this around. Neil further explored how they aim to deliver quality, modern homes that are affordable, to help increase their population by 40,000. In this way, they propose to deliver 30% of house building targets over 5 years by borrowing £4-6 million.

As previously referred to, they intend on providing affordable housing, but with the goal of ensuring commercial gain to avoid businesses suffering as a cause of regeneration. The session also brought to light the core criteria’s that Havering are adopting which is to be included as part of their regeneration programme and social value.

Later, Simon explored Birmingham’s services, it’s success of being a city of 1000 trades and their future city plan. Simon showcased Birmingham as a prosperous city, with people’s health and happiness a top priority. They want to connect the cultural neighbourhood and tell its story, in turn attracting external investors who are bought into how diverse and inclusive the area is. They are proud of their unique identity, and their diversity that embraces technology.

Towards the end of the session, Simon went on to discuss their work in joint partnerships, ensuring the council keeps their assets whilst maintaining their stature as the 20th biggest land owner in the country to develop residential, office city centre, mix use and commercial developments.

It was helpful for all the attendees to share best practices on how they are progressing their schemes. It was also an environment to share any innovative ideas that can be implemented in their respected councils/ working practice.

Watch the meetup below.

We, at Panoramic Associates, thoroughly enjoy getting insights into our specialist market sectors, other organisations and perspectives. We run these events to build our collective knowledge and provide opportunities to create a network of like-minded individuals.

If you have any suggestions on future topics for our next event or would be interested in attending, please contact Alex at [email protected]

Panoramic Associates are thrilled to bring you our second Change and Transformation Meetup!

We were joined by Stephen Taylor, who is the Corporate Director, Adult Social Care at London Borough of Islington, and Donna Vickers, Assistant Director of Strategy and Transformation at Herefordshire Council. The topic of the session was Culture Change Transformation.

You said, we did – following the suggestions from our last event, this session focused on culture change within councils. Expect to hear about stakeholder management, collaborative working and supporting cross-council departments to adopt a team approach to a wider council vision.

With winter fast approaching, we’ll also discussed best practice for ensuring councils are supporting their residents with their winter resilience programmes. Have your questions ready!

About our speakers:

Stephen is a highly experienced health and social care leader, who specialises in leading change across complex systems and organisations. He is currently Director of Transformation in the London Borough of Islington, leading a programme of change across health and social care. Prior to this he was Executive Director of Health and Care in Kingston, where he led the successful transformation of Adult Social Care.

Stephen was also Director of Integrated Mental Health and Learning Disability Services across Hampshire County Council and Southern Health, integrating the learning disability service, and developing a range of community based services to replace traditional services. He was also Principal Advisor to the Winterbourne View Joint Improvement Programme and chaired the London Transforming Care programme.

Donna has over 25 years experience working in public and private sector transformation and change environments. She has successfully transformed adult social care services to implement a strengths based approach and build community resilience. She has set up a PMO to deliver and assure a £200m capital programme and led service transformation across many areas of the council.

Prior to working with Herefordshire Council, Donna worked as a change consultant for a global IT company and more recently she has led on pandemic management and a £6m economic and community wellbeing recovery programme.

Watch the meetup below.

We, at Panoramic Associates, thoroughly enjoy getting insights into our specialist market sectors, other organisations and perspectives. We run these events to build our collective knowledge and provide opportunities to create a network of like-minded individuals.

If you have any suggestions on future topics for our next event or would be interested in attending, please contact Jasmine at [email protected]

In our latest virtual round table discussion, Panoramic Associates’ Principal Consultant Alex Miller invited two guest speakers and attendees to discuss a variety of topics within the sector.

Chris Shephard – Director of Economic Development at BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council) gave a presentation on “Regeneration – Setting the Scene”. Also, Tom Dobrashian – the Group Head of Place Shaping for Watford Borough Council gave a presentation on “Getting to know Watford”.

Chris explored Bournemouth’s vision for the future as they class themselves as UK newest city region. Their long-term goal is to be one of the best coastal places in the world. To achieve this, they are targeting a variety of areas such as providing a vibrant community, improving residents’ quality of life, and nurturing skilled people. To fund this, BCP has created their own futures fund by creative accounting from the Council leaders.

Tom presented his ideas on Watford’s views and plans for growth to transform travel in Watford via their local plan and transport and economic strategy. He also discussed their vision to extend Watford town centre to create a new highly sustainable mix-use urban quarter around the junction station. Watford as a whole is looking to write their story better.

It was helpful for all the attendees to share best practices on how they are progressing their schemes. It was also an environment to share any innovative ideas that can be implemented in their respected councils/ working practice.

Watch the meetup below.

We, at Panoramic Associates, thoroughly enjoy getting insights into our specialist market sectors, other organisations and perspectives. We run these events to build our collective knowledge and provide opportunities to create a network of like-minded individuals.

If you have any suggestions on future topics for our next event or would be interested in attending, please contact Alex at [email protected]

Panoramic Associates are thrilled to bring you our first Change and Transformation Meetup!

For this event, we were joined by three brilliant guest speakers: Nathan Pierce, Head of Smart London Team & Programme Director of Sharing Cities with the Greater London Authority, Karen Thorpe-Reid, Master Change Practitioner and Teresa Itabor, Transformation and Change Professional.

We explored best practice, challenges and trends within local authorities in change and transformation.

Currently working as a Programme Director with the Greater London Authority, Nathan also shared his overview of the Sharing Cities Programme, thoughts on post-pandemic agile working and business as usual, and big digital innovations for local authorities.
From all of our speakers, we heard their exciting opportunities for local authorities to collaborate and innovate creative ideas to elevate their change and transformation programmes!

About Nathan:

Nathan Pierce is the Head of the Smart London Team based in the Greater London Authority in the UK. He is also the Programme Director for Sharing Cities, a pan-European programme that tests out innovative smart city solutions across a number of major European cities, replicating and scaling what works through new business and investment models.
Nathan has 15 years’ experience across a range of public sector bodies having led on major service design and commissioning projects within London and at a European level. Nathan is determined to improve the lives of regular people by finding innovative ways to make government more sustainable, efficient and citizen focused.

About Teresa:

Teresa Itabor is an experienced Transformation and Change professional, with a track record of delivering major service improvements in Local Government and Housing Associations.
Teresa has spent the last 20 years as a transformation and change leader, working with directly CEOs and Senior Leadership teams in Local Authorities, designing, automating and streamlining business processes through the use of technology and implementing effective Target Operating Models.

About Karen:

Prior to founding Premier Change Consulting, Karen held leadership roles with public and private organizations including Shell Oil, TFL, Network Rail, Carphone Dixon & TalkTalk. At age 26 Karen joined Shell as Head of Customer Service before becoming the Director of Customer Service within 18 months where she presided over 19 islands. As a senior global executive, she has been responsible for leading large teams (3000 plus members).

As a Transformation consultant Karen applies her years of experience in business leadership to challenge culture and convention. Driven and open-minded, Karen enjoys changing the way that things are done to generate benefits that will last a lifetime. Karen is also the founder of The Flexie Bench, a virtual platform that unites small companies, start-ups, and individuals in order to foster creativity and accelerate success.

Watch the meetup below.

We, at Panoramic Associates, thoroughly enjoy getting insights into our specialist market sectors, other organisations and perspectives. We run these events to build our collective knowledge and to provide opportunities to create a network of like-minded individuals.
Please in touch at [email protected] with any questions or suggestions on future virtual meetups.

In addition, if there’s anything we can help you with in regards to sourcing candidates or finding a new role please do also get in touch

A Morning with Be First London – Accelerating Growth in Barking and Dagenham.

Earlier this month, Panoramic Associates’ Lead Senior Consultant Alex Miller held the next instalment of The Development & Regeneration Series!

Alex was joined by Be First’s Pat Hayes, Managing Director, and Caroline Harper, Chief Planning Director, who covered a wide range of topics to give us an insight as to how they run their respected services.

Pat gave an overview of Be First’s objectives and goals as to why they were initially set up. The Council took a view to intervene in the housing market and seized an opportunity to build out a housing programme.

A regeneration department was formed as an arm’s length company to address the housing demand in the Borough. This started as a build small scale build operation and now has expanded with the view of producing 5,000 units over the next 5-10 years. Be First currently have 1,500 units on-site and have produced 3,000 units in their first five years of operation.

Caroline then went on to explain her experiences joining Be First from a solely private sector background and her initial challenges when joining a Public Sector organisation.

Caroline oversees what she calls a “Planning Super Service”, which consists of a variety of services and a growing planning consultancy team. The team Caroline inherited wasn’t fit for purpose, which meant she had to drive a huge cultural shift to ensure planning is used as a mechanism to say no to poor development. Caroline’s goal in the coming years is to grow the consultancy team, to not just oversee Council owned schemes, but to explore working for third parties.

After this, there was a chance for the attendees to ask any questions relating to the speaker’s insights.

This was a brilliant session for all attendees as it enabled them to take a glimpse into one of the leading wholly-owned companies in the country.

Watch the meetup below.

We, at Panoramic Associates, thoroughly enjoy getting insights into our specialist market sectors, other organisations and perspectives. We run these events to build our collective knowledge and provide opportunities to create a network of like-minded individuals.

If you have any suggestions on future topics for our next event or would be interested in attending, please contact Alex at [email protected]

Earlier this month, Panoramic Associates’ Lead Senior Consultant Alex Miller spoke with Pat Hayes, Managing Director of Be First, LB Barking & Dagenham’s development and regeneration company, as part of The Development & Regeneration Series.

We are looking to bring together individuals from the public sector space across the development and regeneration services to share ideas and best practices.

During our discussion, we covered the following topics:

– Pat’s working background and how he entered the sector
– What the longer-term vision will be for Be First
– Be First’s vision and key objectives
– Their process once recruiting

Pat talked through his journey into the sector as he entered the field outside of the traditional routes as he originally studied politics. Pat started in the Councils policy team, then eventually drifted into urban regeneration.

The future of Council Development Companies is still unclear as to whether they will remain Council owned or split off entirely as a separate entity. They do have the freedom that most Council services don’t have, and financially Be-First could run indefinitely. Be First want to encourage Housing Associations and Developers to work in the borough to create job opportunities.

Pat then went on to discuss how they want to build on the 5000 home pipeline and progress their estate regeneration projects to increase the employment within the area and improve their economic offer. Be First are have an enormous opportunity to grow with land available to build on.

The core workforce was from the council initially as they transferred over when Be First was created. There is an intention to promote within and also offer scholarship and apprentice programmes to attract local people to start their Careers at Be First. They want to employ external professionals to also not miss out on the best talent on the market. Their goal is to attract not just the best skill sets on the market but also attract people who will work well with others and buy into the culture.

Watch the meetup below.

We, at Panoramic Associates, thoroughly enjoy getting insights into our specialist market sectors, other organisations and perspectives. We run these events to build our collective knowledge and provide opportunities to create a network of like-minded individuals.

If you have any suggestions on future topics for our next event or would be interested in attending, please contact Alex at [email protected]