What
We
Do
What We Do
What
By bringing big-picture thinking, imagination and hard graft we help public, and third sector leaders not just think differently, but do differently. We get them moving on the projects that really matter: the ones that make the most impact on the lives of everyday people.
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to what we do. So, whatever you need … we can get you to where you need to be. The work we do covers all sorts of themes, but if we had to give our top-ten we’d probably say, supporting our clients in…
Balancing the Books
Pushing for top-notch service delivery
Growing great leaders
Making a bigger social impact
Boosting reputation and profile
Listening to everyday people and partners
Keeping people happy and engaged
Getting governance and structure right
Moving on with IT and digital
Get the right people in and organisational culture cracked
By bringing big-picture thinking, imagination and hard graft we help public, and third sector leaders not just think differently, but do differently. We get them moving on the projects that really matter: the ones that make the most impact on the lives of everyday people.
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to what we do. So, whatever you need … we can get you to where you need to be. The work we do covers all sorts of themes, but if we had to give our top-ten we’d probably say, supporting our clients in…
Balancing the Books
Pushing for top-notch service delivery
Growing great leaders
Making a bigger social impact
Boosting reputation and profile
Listening to everyday people and partners
Keeping people happy and engaged
Getting governance and structure right
Moving on with IT and digital
Gett the right people in and organisational culture cracked
Creating longer term change
A lot of the work we do is really challenging, we’re trying to create change with two very different sectors and sometimes, the people we work with will admittedly say ‘you know what, I don’t know how I ended up in this career – does anyone actually go out to work in this job?’. It’s true many of us end up doing things we’d never expected, and a lot of the time that’s because we’ve no idea what jobs even exist. In addition, they’re changing all the time, and we know digital means that job roles our kids and grandkids will be doing haven’t even been invented yet.
So we really need to get the public and third sector ahead of the game, and we developed our EMERGE programme to do just that.
EMERGE is a university and college level enterprise and placement-based programme that supports three key outcomes:
- Universities are given another string to their bow as they guide their students towards possible careers (as judged by the annual Graduate Outcomes Survey)
- The public and third sector the opportunity to sell what they do to young people entering the world of work, whilst having an extra set of hands/brains on their projects.
- Students themselves get to ‘try before they buy’ with a career they might not have even thought of, they also get the chance to network and maybe find a post-graduation vacancy.
Our superpowers
Our bread and butter…
We’re great at what we do – we don’t pretend to know it all, but we graft, and we have the right connections. Through the help of Capacity, we can make an easier journey for ambitious leaders and organisations with those great ideas and those ‘lightbulb’ moments to become a reality.
We help build more sustainable organisations, create engaged communities and help overcome those pesky barriers that can stop positive change.
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to what we do. So, if it’s business mentoring and leadership coaching, we can provide practical support for wherever you may need it! From comms, to service design to organisational development… we can get you to where you need to be!
If we haven’t said so already, we have a great team at Capacity, with a great track-record of doing what we do best ‘making public services, people services’. We have a deep understanding of what problems there are in public and social sectors, so we use this to our advantage to help local leaders place themselves at the heart of the solution.
We’re not just a talking shop, we get stuff done
We’re not a think-tank, we’re more like a, err… do-tank. What does that mean? Well, we actually do the stuff we’ve thought about. That means we’re on the journey with the organisations we support; you won’t find us producing a shiny report and leaving you to it. We’ll also get on with the job at hand (if you want us to), focussing less on the policies and procedures, and more on the people and real lives at the end of them. Our Northern roots stand is in good stead here; we’re fiercely proud of our ability to understand our local people and places, keeping them with us along the way.
We’re realists not idealists
Sometimes these creatives are all ideas, and all about change – if only they had your day job hey? At Capacity we know there is a real world as well as an ideal one. We’re here to help you work towards the latter by getting through the former.
We’re not experts in a lot of the areas we work in
Did we just say that? Yep, we did, and it’s something we’re happy to tell you – in fact, it’s a big plus for us. It means we’re not limited by preconceptions, ‘in my day’ conversations or ‘but we’ve always done it like that’. We bring to the table challenge, creativity and can-do and our skills in managing resistance to change come in handy as well – helping everyone see the vision and encouraging them to be part of it.
We tie things together
We also believe we’re better off together – not in the traditional sense, but in the cross-sector working sense. We want everyone involved and everyone represented; we aren’t going to change public services for the better on our own, and neither is anyone else. Getting people together and encouraging them to talk to one another is one of the things we’re best at.
Extend your leadership team
Having a leadership role around public services is hard work, and sometimes it can feel like wading through mud, hugely overwhelming or like it’s just you (and maybe your team) who’s left to solve some of society’s toughest challenges.
At Capacity we’re here to give you the hands-on time, fresh heads and recharge of confidence that is so vital to get moving on the projects that matter.
Wherever you sit (provider, commissioner or somewhere in between) we want you to finish your working week feeling you’re making ground on those big issues. We believe every public and third sector leader can achieve this, with a little added Capacity.
We want leaders to take the time to stop and come up for air. We’re here to give you moral support and a bit of belief at those times when things inevitably get a bit tough. We’re here whatever you need – to listen, to lean on or to let off steam with. We also want to act as your critical friend – helping you anticipate what might come next for you and your teams. See us as your extended ‘Leadership Team’: people to bounce ideas off and solve some of your professional headaches.
We don’t want to state the obvious (but we will) the leaders we work with are busy people, whether you’re a third or public sector leader the day-to-day challenges you face often means leaving those things you’d usually do (the things that are about developing yourself, your networks and thinking for the longer term) off the ‘must-do’ list. Therefore, we’ve made a commitment to help the North West’s sector’s leaders to find time out for that bigger picture thinking, and for that reason we created REGROUP.
This programme started in 2020 during the COVID pandemic and the feedback we had told us that hearing from some of the top voices in business, charity and public services was just what the doctor ordered – that it gave a touch of inspiration and advice when leaders needed it. So, we decided – we’re not going to stop at speaker events, these days REGROUP offers an interactive range of events and tools that are free to anyone working in public and/or community services in the North West.
REGROUP is made up of four elements, each of which you can access at any time, via our website or LinkedIn.
Keynotes
These sessions run for up to one hour and feature speakers who share our values and visions for public services . They generally talk about their experiences in their particular sector and at the end take part in a Q&A with their audience. For now these will be online, but we hope to do some real events with real people and real refreshments in the not too distant future.
Socials
These events are designed to bring sector leaders and decision makers across Las together in a more relaxed environment. The aim is to create connectivity across organisations and leaders, and to unpick those barriers/blockers together.
Huddles
These events are designed to bring sector leaders and decision makers across Las together in a more relaxed environment. The aim is to create connectivity across organisations and leaders, and to unpick those barriers/blockers together.
Stories
As leaders it's so easy to get lost in the day job, so each Friday afternoon we love to put things into perspective. Each week we share a story to remind you of the impact you and your teams are having on real people. So as you close that laptop for the weekend you can remind yourself that all your hard work is worth it.
Why we’re proud
Considering we were only setup in 2016, we’re really proud of what we’ve achieved so far.
Let’s give you a taste, to date we’ve….
Secured over £40m of funding for charities and social enterprise.
Piloted a new social enterprise delivery model for Primary Care, called Community Care Collaborative. Through this we’ve helped deliver General Practice services to over 20,000 patients in North Wales. True to our purpose, this has been done in new and creative ways, led of course by local people.
Partnered with Local Authorities to design and develop new services, such as Early Help and Prevention services for children and families in Wirral.
Supported dozens of charities and social enterprises (small, large and in-between) to develop business models that last. We’ve helped transform Warrington’s Catalyst Choices into a high impact, financially sound, staff-owned social care business.
Worked with Eric Wright Health and Care and Catalyst Choices to take a 62-bed acute care Step-down Facility from an idea into a real service. Playing a key role in Halton Borough Council’s response to Covid-19.
Setup a top team made up of people from all sorts of backgrounds and with all sorts of expertise. That means we can apply a range of skills and viewpoints to the challenges we face and fill gaps our client’s teams have.
We’re always on the look out for great like-minded people to come and join the Capacity team. Whether you’re an in-house member of staff, or one of our trusted associates – we have some great projects to get your teeth stuck into across the public sector.
So, if you’re passionate about making public services, people services like we are, then get in touch.
joinus@thisiscapacity.co.uk
Latest opportunities
