CKC Clarke Kler Consultancy - realising potential, providing direction, delivering solutions

Clients

Some of CKC's clients are:

Home Group
Home Group is a national organisation with its head office located in Newcastle. Home Group is one of the leading affordable housing and social care providers in the UK, established in 1935 and providing rented homes to over 50,000 households and support and care services to more than 14,000 people each year.

CKC have worked with Home Group on two distinct areas;

• CKC have designed and developed a continuous improvement self-assessment methodology and tool-kit that incorporates the benchmarks in the Audit Commission Key Lines of Enquiry for housing providers.
• CKC have advised Home Group regarding its duties under both the Disability Equality and Gender Equality Schemes. The first of these schemes comes in to effect later this year. In particular CKC set out for Home Group what the two new duties are and what is expected and advised on what needs to be considered as next steps. CKC have provided Home Group with a methodology and tool-kit to carry out a self-assessment that will assist in producing an action plan and prioritising.

In designing and developing both methodologies and tool-kits CKC have been mindful of the diversity of Home Group's business and the associated complexities.

Government Office North East (GONE)
This is one of eight Government Offices nationally and is based in Newcastle representing ten central government departments across the entire region. It works to deliver, influence and develop government programmes and initiatives at a local level, by working in partnership with relevant organisations to meet local needs.

The Government Office already had an established good working relationship with a partner of CKC and, wishing to harness that relationship, both GONE and CKC have been working together exploring the meaning and the role of 'strategic housing' nationally, regionally and locally. This is ongoing area of work, and to date CKC have delivered two key objectives:

• CKC have designed and led on a regional debate with circa 20 local authority senior managers about the meaning and the future role of 'strategic housing'. What does this mean nationally, regionally and at a local level? Who are the future leaders for housing and who are the associated partners? What are the key objectives for the future and what skills set and experience will be required of those delivering housing strategy?
• CKC have provided guidance and support in setting up the regional Housing Strategy Forum. The Forum will build upon initial discussions of the debate and look to address some of the key issues.

In working with the GONE and local authorities CKC have been mindful of the national debate over strategic housing, and the work being undertaken by the CLG to consider improvements in the area and to provide best practice guidance.

Derwentside District Council
Derwentside is a district council located in the ex coalfields of North Durham. They have recently transferred their stock to Derwentside Homes a newly created Registered Social landlord. As a consequence there has been a restructuring and enlargement of the retained housing function.

CKC have worked with Derwentside Housing Services Department to plan and deliver a programme to meet the following objectives:

The delivery of a fun and relaxed environment that:

• ensures new members of the team and those who do not work together closely become familiar with each other
• teases out the dynamics of the team and assists the team in understanding how they work together
• arrives at an understanding of what effective team work is
• challenges some of the assumptions team members may have about future team performance and the need to improve
• identifies improvements that need to be made
• sets a series of actions/tasks for each member to actively engage with after the event and feedback at the future planning session

The delivery of a future planning event that:

• establishes an understanding of the current the context in which they work acknowledging and developing the role of effective partnership working
• identifies key priorities
• develops action plans for addressing the priorities identified with responsibilities and timescales allocated
• assesses training needs in the light of these discussions
• sets a series of actions individuals need to complete

In working with the Derwentside District Council CKC have been mindful of the national debate around strategic housing and its application to the context in which Derwentside Housing Department operates.

North Tyneside Council
North Tyneside Borough Council is a unitary local authority in the North East of England. The Council has the Elected Mayor serving a population of circa 192,000. Social rented housing makes up 23% of the Council’s housing stock.

CKC have worked with the Council in designing and leading a debate on the future of their Housing Strategy a ‘Post 2010 Housing Strategy Visioning Event’ was held with, the Elected Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, the Cabinet Member for Housing, Strategic Directors and key officers within the housing service. CKC explored with participants:

• The regional and national policy drivers
• The challenges for the future
• The socio-economic factors, challenges and tensions
• The implications for workforce development and planning
• The role of the community

In designing and developing the visioning day CKC have been mindful of the Council’s vision set out in the Sustainable Communities Strategy, its excellent relationships with key partners, the Council’s Housing Strategy, key regional policies and strategies as well as the just published Housing Green Paper- Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable


Community Foundation, Regeneration Exchange and One North East – asked CKC to design and deliver a workshop at their conference -‘Social cohesion and community wellbeing: is social capital the secret ingredient?’

CKC designed and delivered an interactive workshop ‘Is Social Capital an outcome of the regeneration process?’. The workshop looked at Social Capital in the context of regeneration using real life examples that explored the three main types, bonding, bridging and linking. In doing so they also enabled workshop participants to consider and debate the associated terminology that is used by various service providers in the context of regeneration – are we all saying the same thing, are we all seeking the same outcomes? The workshop explored if social capital is really different to what went before – tenant participation, resident involvement and community engagement. Participants were challenged to think about and debate whether or not social capital is always a positive outcome, and what value can be attached to it?

HouseMark is a joint venture between the Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing Federation dedicated to improving housing standards. They seek to promote performance improvement through:

• The provision of meaningful performance comparison
• The provision of consultancy support
• The sharing of knowledge and good practice

As part of this process CKC were asked to research and write up, for their good practice web site, a series of case studies demonstrating good practice in tackling Anti Social Behaviour. The case studies covered good practice in mediation, acceptable behaviour agreements, family intervention projects and measuring service user satisfaction. Each case study examined why different initiatives had been developed, what objectives had been set, how these were measured and monitored and the outcomes that had been achieved.

P3 Coaching sponsored by the Northern Rock Foundation are delivering a programme of leadership master classes to senior officers, directors and chief executives in the third and voluntary sector across the North West and the North East of England. CKC was asked by P3 to design and deliver a session for the programme that looked at strategic thinking for leaders.

CKC designed and delivered two interactive sessions one in each region ‘strategic thinking demystified’. The session covered why strategic thinking is an essential part of every leader’s role and considered the tools and techniques available that can assist leaders in this vital task. The master class focused on how to set the direction of travel for the organisation, the links between strategy and strategic planning, the internal and external environment, the influence of key stakeholders and partners, the culture and context of organisations and why performance management and evaluation matters.