Rocket Science

Rocket Science states that it is "a consultancy which supports organisations and communities in their drive to improve their own effectiveness and performance".

It is based in London and Edinburgh.

Staff

Chairman

• William Roe

Directors

• Andrew Carter,
• Bob Forsyth,
• John Griffiths,
• Alistair Grimes,
• Richard Scothorne

Principal Consultant

• Debbie Adams,
• Janice Renowden

Senior Consultants

• Susan Byrne

Consultants

• Ruth Evans,
• Annabel House,
• Sefton Laing,
• David McNeill,
• Natasha Wilson

Senior Associates

• Kyla Brand,
• Chris Hadley,
• David Pirnie,
• Martha Wilkinson

Business Manager

• Fiona Laver

Administration / Information Manager

• Julia McGhee

Clients

'We have 130 clients on our books, ranging from local authorities, voluntary organisations and partnerships to government departments and national agencies. At any one time we are working with 20-30 different bodies. Between them they have given us over 500 contracts in the past four years.

Much of our work is based in London, the North East and Scotland but we operate throughout the UK.' (Source: http://www.rocketsciencelab.co.uk/our_clients/)

• Apex Scotland
• Design and facilitation of Annual conferences (2004 and 2005) for members of Apex Scotland staff
• Evaluation of Transitions to Work initiative
• Argyll & Islands Enterprise
• Blackpool Council
• Design and facilitation of a strategy and planning event for multi-agency partners involved in Children and Young People's welfare
• Blantyre & North Hamilton SIP
• Review of youth services delivered in this Social Inclusion Partnership area and identifying a strategy for future development
• Borders Social Inclusion Partnership
• Formal evaluation of Borders Social Inclusion Partnership
• Bradford Fair Cities Faciltating and reporting on Bradford Fair Cities Board workshop, teasing out issues and priorities for the Board in accessing Black and Minority Ethnic groups into sustainable employment
• British Youth Council Facilitation of the Management Board strategic planning event
• BT Scotland Consultancy services on the potential benefits of making major investment in broadband in the regeneration of Glasgow's public housing stock
• Business Link for London Research and drafting of the first ever Social Enterprise Support Strategy for London
• Business Link for Norfolk Design: facilitation and strategy development work on strenghtening business advice and support services in Norfolk
• Business Link Solutions
• Milton Keynes Local Skills for Productivity Alliance - Rocket Science supported the development of the Local Skills for Productivity Alliance, one of six in the SEEDA region, on the preparation of the LSPA's Delivery Framework for 2004-06. This included interviewing each of the key partners, facilitating joint-agency workshops, defining collective priorities for employment and skills actions, and producing a Delivery Plan which guides collective actions of SEEDA, Business Link, LSC, Sector Skills Councils, local Chambers of Commerce and Economic Development Partnerships. The resultant Delivery Framework is quoted as the most focused and practical of the six produced within the SEEDA area.
• Business West Facilitation of SW Partnership meeting to consider way forward
• Capital City Partnership Design and facilitation of workshop to review the progress of the Joined up for Jobs strategy for Edinburgh with senior partnership representatives
• Careers Scotland
• Design and facilitation of Community Guidance conference
• Second year Stakeholder Survey
• Scotland-wide Stakeholder Survey involving 82 face to face interviews and use of reputation and impact scorecards. Presentation of recommendations to Senior Management Team and advising on priorities for action. Follow up Survey commissioned in 2004.
• Carnegie UK Trust Evaluation of the Carnegie Young People's Initiative, which aims to promote and develop young people's participation across the UK. Key findings included the need for the initiative to focus on a small number of activities likely to have maximum impact, such as the National Centre for Young People's Participation
• Castlemilk Partnership An audit of Children and Youth Services in the Castlemilk area
• Central Office of Information
• Design and facilitation of the annual management conference for 500 senior leaders and managers in the Child Support Agency
• Design and facilitation of major management conference for the Child Support Agency's work throughout the UK
• City Fringe Partnership
• Review of Expert Business Support Agency examining the effectiveness of sector specific business support in the City Fringe. The work involved using a Scorecard as a benchmarking tool to capture business client perceptions and highlight key performance improvement requirements.
• City of Edinburgh Council
• Design and facilitation of a major conference about the private rented housing strategy for Edinburgh. This event brought together over one hundred stakeholders including community organisations, City of Edinburgh Council services and private landlords to consider how to work together to ensure that private rented housing plays a role in ensuring Edinburgh's economic success
• Cockpit Arts
• Questionnaire based on Economic Impact Study for small cultural/arts business development agency in inner London
• Com Shows
• Design and facilitation of a day conference for all school governors employed in the Department for Education and Skills
• Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
• Design and facilitation of a senior management training event for Public service leaders in all the main public agencies in the Western Isles
• Communities Scotland
• Rocket Science carried out an audit of Community Learning and Development strategies and action plans including direct engagement with community learning and development managers in all local authorities in Scotland
• Community Learning Strategies Analysis for Learning Connections
• Evaluation of the outcomes of the Small Grants Initiative of the Voluntary Sector Community Learning Support Programme
• Design and web-enabling of a Readiness Scorecard for Community Planning Partnerships
• Evaluation of toolkits available to enhance partnership performance. Design of partnership toolkit website to help Community Planning and associated partnerships to find and use the best support tools for their development process. Design of three web-enabled tools for use by Community Planning Partnerships
• Research and recommendations on how best to rationalise local partnerships
• Detailed assessment of partnership toolkits and production of navigation framework and public website
• Community Enterprise in Strathclyde
• Evaluation of CEiS carried out in consultation with staff and stakeholders
• Community Learning Scotland
• Facilitating partnership training events as part of the national training programme
• Review and creation of a strategy for developing services to young people in Edinburgh
• Facilitation of national partners to focus on strategic approaches to youth issues in Scotland
• Connexions Buckinghamshire
• Facilitation of a partnership review day for 20 stakeholders in the Connexions Buckinghamshire Partnership
• Connexions Service National Unit
• Facilitated the first National Forum of the Connexions Service Partnerships. The Forum brought together the Chairs and Chief Executives of all existing and planned partnerships to discuss key government objectives for the Service and develop protocols for sharing best practice and comparing performance. Our work involved the design and facilitation of the first national 47/47 conference between the 47 Executive Directors of the Local LSCs and their equivalents in the Connexions Partnerships
• Connexions South London
• Design and facilitation of review day for Connexions South London
• Connexions Tees Valley Partnership Ltd
• Design and delivery of Summer Schools in 2002 and 2003 for the different information advice and guidance organisations coming together to form the new Connexions Service for Tees Valley. The school featured a modular curriculum including participative sessions on the policy context, partnership development, consultation and engagement with young people etc. With over 240 people involved, the week also featured fun sessions to enable team/partnership building
• Consultancy work with Mentoring Service to help secure New Deal funding
• Facilitating a conference with 60 voluntary sector partner agencies for Connexions Tees Valley
• Design and facilitation of annual staff conference
• Department for Education & Skills
• Rocket Science provided facilitation input and conference technology support to DfES to deliver this national conference identifying lessons from Behaviour Improvement pilot initiatives in schools across England
• Facilitation of the DfES New Relationship Conferenceâ₠bringing together pathfinder schools from across England, which participated in the early phase of the New Relationship between DfES and schools
• Design and facilitation of a series of conferences to promote the use of Investors in People in schools in England. The events involved identifying and sharing good practice from individual schools and local education authorities. The conferences were designed to increase the take-up of Investors in People to encompass the entire school community.
• Design and facilitation of a programme of communications and events to promote the DfES renewed commitment to teachers' professional development. The events were addressed by the Secretary of State and Ministers and included interviews conducted by Rocket Science with head-teachers and teachers from across the country.
• Consultancy services for the Strategy and Communications Directorate of DfES around the themes of customer service, integration, change management and culture change. The work included the design and facilitation of a series of residential conferences for all staff in the Directorate.
• Consultancy services for the Excellence in Cities programme to support the co-ordinators in each city to share good practice, learn from each others' experience and shape priorities for the future
• Design and facilitation for the 3rd year in succession of the annual conference of the Excellence in Cities partnerships that are helping to transform school performance in many cities in England
• Department for Food and Rural Affairs
• Continuing work alongside DEFRA to embed in it excellent customer service strategies and approaches and to motivate and support a large number of people who had experience of working with and through the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic of 2001.
• Department for Work & Pensions
• Facilitation of meeting of senior staff to consider forward strategy
• Within the context of a 3 year framework contract, Rocket Science provides consultancy and support services for the Board of Jobcentre Plus about strategic options for its future. We undertake regular assignments for the Chief Operating Officer and the 10 regional field directors to support them in managing a very large change programme. One particular element involves major change in the relationships between the different levels in the agency - head office, regional level and district level
• Design and facilitation of team building events for the staff of the Children and Families Group of the Department for Work and Pensions
• Design and facilitation of a major conference for the Department of Work and Pensions on its new Human Resources strategy
• Facilitation of a conference involving DWP Treasury, JCP and independent specialists to consider the direction of Welfare to Work policy
• Design and facilitation for the National Employment Panel of a conference with the Emergency Services and Jobcentre Plus to engage this group of public sector employers in recruiting some of their future workforce through Jobcentres
• Design and facilitation of a conference to launch the new Inverness and Highland Employer Coalition to connect more employers to the Jobcentre Plus system
• Development Services Department South Tyneside MBC
• Development of a strategy for engagement with minority ethnic groups
• Dumfries and Galloway Council
• Dumfries and Galloway Better Neighbourhood Services Fund is a Scottish Executive-funded initiative to create enhanced co-ordination of initiatives‚ which aim to support young people's participation across the area. Rocket Science carried out a full-scale evaluation of the programme which has been submitted to the Scottish Executive
• East Dunbartonshire Council
• Facilitation of group of parents of children with additional support needs to determine their future direction
• Development of a Neighbourhood Compact for submission to the Scottish Executive as part of their Anti-Social Behaviour Initiatives. This included liaison with services‚ design of consultation events with community groups and completion of final compact
• Development of a Youth Justice Strategy, Annual Report and Communications Strategy
• East Lothian Council
• Review of drug and alcohol services in East Lothian
• East Midlands Centre of Procurement Excellence
• Rocket Science have designed a Bid Assessment Tool for the Centre of Procurement Excellence in the East Midlands. The tool will be used to allocate £2m of funding to support local government efficiency projects
• East of England Energy Group
• Facilitation of Stakeholder Engagement Session for Shell's supply chain on the announcement of the Shell closure at Lowestoft
• Design and facilitation of a conference in the East of England to explore economic opportunities arising from changes in the oil and gas production industry and in nuclear decommissionin
• Edinburgh Cyrenians
• Design and facilitation of policy context workshop for Management Team and Trustees
• Consultancy and development support to the staff team involved in delivering a range of welfare to work initiatives in Edinburgh
• Employment Connections
• Evaluation of Employment Connections, a labour market intermediary serving 5 areas of multiple deprivation in and around Stirling, with recommendations about the organisation's future
• Falkirk Council
• Review of pilot programme to provide alternative experience and support for pupils at risk of exclusion
• Advised on the development of a monitoring system for Community Planning and contributed to a workshop for senior officers on monitoring and evaluation needs in Community Planning
• Fife Council
• Working with local community groups to find out how to produce and present information that is of practical value to communities
• Review of South Fife Partnership Agenda for Action
• Forestry Commission
• Design and facilitation of an international conference for the Forestry Commission and its partners on 'forests and well-being'
• Forward Scotland
• Client and stakeholder survey for Forward Scotland, Scotland's leading third sector organisation for sustainability
• Gateshead Council
• Facilitation of New Deal partnership meeting in Gateshead
• Glasgow Alliance
• Rocket Science was commissioned in September 2001 to conduct an independent review of a strategic partnership in Glasgow - the Glasgow Alliance - that had existed since 1998. A programme of individual interviews, focus groups, assessment scorecards and workshops was designed to enable the review team to gain a thorough understanding of the effectiveness, value and impact of the Alliance in the city
• Glasgow City Centre Partnership
• Design and facilitation of a partnership review process for the Glasgow City Centre Partnership
• Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector
• Reviewing the role, structure and performance of the Executive Committee of a major voluntary sector support agency
• Gloucestershire Criminal Justice Board
• Design and management of e-survey of the Gloucestershire Criminal Justice Board and other stakeholders with an interest in improving the performance of the criminal justice system.
• Gorbals Initiative
• Working with staff, partners and management team to review strategy
• Government Office for East Midlands
• Design and facilitation of a workshop to pull together the work of several public agencies on labour market, skill development and regional economic development issues and opportunities in the East Midlands
• Government Office for the North East
• Staff working on children, young people and families agenda at Government Office North East took part in a planning session designed and facilitated by Rocket Science.
• Government Office for West Midlands
• Design and facilitation of major conference to encourage more joined up work around health
• Greater Glasgow Health Board
• Facilitating a strategy day to consider how to develop health-promoting youth work in Glasgow
• Hackney Community College
• Facilitating of partnership working to identify a vision for working together on youth issues in Shoreditch
• Health & Safety Executive
• Design and facilitation of a large national conference on the business case for investment in health and safety for the Health and Safety Commission
• Health Education Board Scotland
• Designing and facilitating a process with health promotion and youth work practitioners to develop guidelines for promoting youth work
• Highlands & Islands Enterprise
• Design and facilitation of conference to align Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Careers Scotland
• Study of impact of information and communications technology in the region.
• Facilitation of workshops leading to production of a new skills strategy
• Working with learning centres in two areas to produce sustainable business plans and development strategy
• Briefing on partnership toolkits and how to use them
• Survey of internal staff and comparison of views with external stakeholders
• Facilitation of Senior Management Strategic Planning Process.
• Design and development of Orkney Opportunities Centre.
• Design of Qualitative Performance Measurement System.
• Design and facilitation of workshop to review and enhance the performance of Training for Work.
• Design and web-enabling of a self-assessment scorecard for Training Providers and feedback scorecards for their trainees and employers
• Design and web-enabling of a self-assessment scorecard for Learning Centres
• Home Office Race Equality Unit
• Design and facilitation of a major conference on crimes with a racial dimension for the Criminal Justice Board in West Yorkshire
• Intensive Community Support Unit
• Facilitation of planning and development sessions for social work teams working with young people at risk in Glasgow
• Inverclyde Alliance
• Development and implementation of scorecard to help the Alliance pinpoint development needs and assess its progress over time
• Jobcentre Plus
• Within the context of a 3 year framework contract, Rocket Science is providing consultancy and support services for the Board of Jobcentre Plus about strategic options for its future. We undertake regular assignments for the Chief Operating Officer and 10 regional field directors to support them in managing an extensive change programme, including major changes in the relationships between the different levels in the agency - head office, regional level and district level
• Design and facilitation of national conference launching New Deal for Lone Parents
• Jobcentre Plus Employers Services Directorate
• Facilitation for national conference for HR function within Jobcentre Plus
• Facilitation of consultation conference on design and local implementation of Ambition IT
• Jobcentre Plus HQ
• Design and management of a series of leadership for change programmes for senior managers in Jobcentre Plus, as part of an extensive programme to support change within the agency and with its partners
• Design and facilitation of 2 day workshop to produce recommendations on new performance management framework
• Learning & Skills Council Coventry
• Design and facilitation of 2 day residential workshop for the management team of the Operations Directorate of LSC National Office focusing on team development, identification of development priorities and communications strategy
• Learning & Skills Council Essex
• Organisational development and performance/reputation management for LSC Essex, including embedding a process of matrix working within the organisation
• Learning & Skills Council London Central
• Assisting LSC London Central to edit and format their Strategic Area Review Options and Key Findings paper to ensure they are accessible to as broad an audience as possible
• Design and implementation of an ICT-based Bid Assessment Tool to assist 2 of the London LSCs in scoring 250 bids for funding under the 2005-07 ESF Cofinancing round.
• Support in the preparation of, and consultation on, London Central LSC's local development Funding Prospectus for 2003-4. the work involved the design and development (including training and support materials) of a scorecard based bid assessment tool for the LSC.
• Learning & Skills Council London West
• Facilitation and support for a day workshop in London on the Learning and Skills Council's Strategic Area Review of Further Education services in the capital
• Learning & Skills Council National Office
• Design and facilitation of a major conference to bring together Chairs and other key non-executive decision makers from 47 Learning and Skills Councils across England
• Consultancy support to the Bureaucracy Task Force‚ working with both the Officers Support Group and the Task Force from inception through to production of the Final Report. This involved advice, facilitation of Task Force meetings, design and facilitation of residential workshops for the Task Force, design and facilitation of two rounds of regional conferences across the UK, and contributions to Final Report, including a relationship matrix toolkit for developing a new working relationship between the LSC and the FE sector
• Learning & Skills Council Tyne & Wear
• Review of local labour market intermediaries and recommendations on ways of working more closely together as part of a strategic regional approach
• Learning & Skills Council West of England
• Design and facilitation of away day for all staff
• Facilitation of workshop for the Directorate of LSC West of England
• Facilitation of workshops to clarify and take forward the Bristol Campus concept
• Design and facilitation of conference for all staff to clarify practical implications of move to matrix management
• Learning and Skills Council South Yorkshire
• Design and facilitation of a participative seminar for members of the Learning and Skills Council for South Yorkshire to identify local priorities in the national context and to identify individual roles and contributions
• Liverpool City Council
• Liverpool Flexible Employment Support Programme - Rocket Science was commissioned by the Liverpool Strategic Employment Partnership to design and facilitate a partnership-wide learning and development programme running in parallel to the delivery of a £1.5m NRF funded multi-agency Employment Support Programme in the city. The learning and development programme was developed following a two-day residential workshop and a series of interactive training seminars. The programme offered those involved the chance to get to know one their partner agencies much better, hone their knowledge and skills and work more closely for both their mutual benefit as well as the benefit of target clients of the Employment Support Programme.
• Rocket Science was asked to design and facilitate a 1.5 day residential workshop for partners in the Liverpool Employment Strategic Partnership. The event was preceded with a survey of the partners to create some baseline data on the perceived effectiveness of the partnership and was used to structure the workshop. The event generated a succinct but focused plan of action to take partnership working to an advanced level.
• Lochaber Enterprise
• Design and facilitation of annual awayday for all the staff of Lochaber Enterprise
• London Borough of Greenwich
• Development of a forward strategy for a Single Regeneration Budget-funded manufacturing business support scheme covering the south London boroughs of Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham - identifying and building upon best practice in project delivery, what works in terms of responsiveness to business need and joining up agency services to optimise permeation of support throughout the business community
• London Borough of Hackney
• Facilitation and consultancy support to enable a resident-led Steering Group to deliver a vision for Clapton. This included the challenge of relating work in Clapton to the wider objectives and activities of the Hackney Strategic Partnership, as well as the multitude of agencies delivering mainstream services across the area. Outputs included 3 team days leading to the production of the Clapton NRF Strategy for 2003-2005
• London Borough of Lewisham
• Consultancy support relating to the delivery of the Lewisham Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy. Analysis of gaps in provision. Identifying reasons why key strategic objectives are not being addressed. Examining the relevance of NRF-funded activities within the context of current national and local policy and their potential for mainstreaming. Assessing why specific activities have not translated from aspiration to action. Exploring the opportunity to lever increased partner agencies' support to deliver the LSP's objectives. Paul Hadfield, London Borough of Lewisham, said that Rocket Science was "Easy to work with, pragmatic, good experience in partnership working and strong on economic development".
• London Borough of Waltham Forest
• Facilitation of a detailed consultation process with London's voluntary sector via the 3rd Sector Alliance and Minority Network (MINET) on the draft Economic Development Strategy for London - 'Sustaining Success'
• London Development Agency
• Rocket Science was asked by the LDA to design, facilitate and report on an Olympic Peer Review workshop, as well as liaise with the other eight Regional Development Agencies in order to prepare a comprehensive report on the "Live Work and Visit" benefits of London's hosting the Games. Our value to the Olympics project was in providing the capacity and flexibility to pull together a wide variety of different work strands and research projects that were all working separately, but in parallel in the run up to the bid's submission. The Live, Work and Visit chapters offered an evidence-based story of the benefits of hosting Games drawing on the work of the 2012 Bid Team Legacy theme groups and the work of the 5 Olympic Boroughs. Rocket Science also designed and facilitated a key meeting between the LDA and the 5 Olympic Boroughs as part of forging the all-important support for the legacy vision.
• Rocket Science developed a web-enabled toolkit to assist grant funded projects to plan for their exit or succession strategies beyond the lifetime of their ESF and/or SRB funding. The work was jointly commissioned by the Government Office for London (European Unit) and the London Development Agency and the Readiness Assessment Tool (with a companion How to Guide) is available from the GOL website - http://www.gos.gov.uk/gol/European_funding/?a=42496
• Development of a scorecard Bid Assessment Tool to support the LDA's assessment of 2005-7 ESF Co-financing project applications
• On behalf of the London Framework for Regional Employment and Skills Action (FRESA) Higher Level Skills Action Group, Rocket Science produced an evidence base for activity to address a critical shortfall in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths skills within London
• Research and consultation on the possible options and ideas for creating a Centre of Regeneration Excellence for the capital. This includes a detailed assessment of the current provision of skills training and learning opportunities in regeneration and renewal and the design of the most cost-effective and attractive way of making these and other services available to a wider cross-section of the regeneration community in London, from professionals to volunteers
• Design and facilitation of 6 Information and Networking Events for projects funded by the LDA2 programme - covering financial management and monitoring, partnership working and best practice examples in enterprise and skills development.
• Facilitation of a seminar on the London Development Agency and Greater London Authority's activities for addressing social inclusion priorities in London
• Review of funding for BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) voluntary sector development in London - including recommendations to the Diversity and Ethnic Minorities Business Directorate of the LDA
• London Skills Commission
• Research and feasibility study into the shortage of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths skills in the London economy including project-based recommendations as to the measures a subgroup of the London Skills Commission can take to redress this.
• London Voluntary Service Council
• Design of a skills self-assessment scorecard for London's Voluntary Sector Second Tier Advisors, to measure their perception of their knowledge, skills and behaviours against excellence. A benchmark survey was taken using this tool, the results of which will be used to shape a workforce development plan for the sector
• Design and undertaking of London-wide consultation with the voluntary sector on Home Office proposals for sector infrastructure support
• Design and testing of a workforce development toolkit for third sector advisers in London
• Management and technical assistance to 5 third sector skills pilot projects funded by the LDA's Skills Development Fund
• Lothian Association of Youth Clubs
• Evaluation of the Youth Justice Initiative
• Lothian Primary Care Trust
• Design and facilitation of a series of consultation conferences for NHS in Lothian on its new mental health and well-being strategy
• National Employment Panel
• Design and facilitation of launch event for Highland Employer Coalition: Moray for local employers
• Facilitation of the launch of the NEP Employer Coalition in Lochaber
• Research, design and facilitation services for the National Employment Panel and Jobcentre Plus around the launch in Manchester of 'Ambition IT', one of the next generation of welfare-to-work programmes
• Advisory design and facilitation services for the National Employment Panel in connection with the development of the second wave of welfare to work programmes - the Ambition programmes, now being developed in selected locations across the UK. Additional services were provided in relation to Ambition IT‚ covering the information and communications technology sector
• New Deal Environment Task Force, Argyll & Islands
• Facilitation of a young people's consultation day to inform development of New Deal in Argyll
• Newcastle City Council
• Design and facilitation of away day for Newcastle Partnership Board
• NHS Borders Public Health Department
• Design and facilitation of a seminar to identify opportunities for the NHS Healthy Living Network to work in partnership with Scottish Borders Council Community Learning services to engage with disadvantaged communities. The purpose of this work was to identify initiatives which would contribute to both Health Improvement and Community Learning and Development strategies
• Facilitation of operational planning day for Health Promotion Department
• NHS Health Scotland
• Complete conference support for the development of the Approaches: Young People and Health Conference. Rocket Science project managed the whole event from professional support to the Steering Group, to workshop organisation to speaker liaison
• Input to Environmental Health conference on adult learning methods and tools
• Consultancy support in the design and organisation of a national conference on the Health of Looked After Young People and Children
• Contracted to help deign and facilitate this conference designed to share knowledge about good practice in supporting and developing community-based health promotion initiatives. Over 100 participants took part, representing NHS, local authorities and community activists
• NHS Lothian
• Assessment of the current provision of health promotion training for youth workers in Scotland, from higher and further educational provision to work-based and informal. As well as an assessment of current provision this work provided NHS Health Scotland with an indication of how best to support youth workers and youth organisations to deliver health promotion to young people through existing and potential training
• Design, organisation support and facilitation of the NHS Lothian Drug and Alcohol Action Teams' conference. Over 80 people participated in this event bringing together key partners from East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian and Edinburgh DAATs to consider key priorities for the future and to identify areas of common interest
• Facilitation of a major conference to launch the NHS Lothian Young People's mental health strategy
• Norfolk Centre of Procurement Excellence
• Rocket Science have designed a Bid Assessment Tool for the Centre of Procurement Excellence in Norfolk. The tool will be used to allocate several million pounds of funding to support local government efficiency projects
• Norfolk County Council
• Facilitation of a conference attended by all Hertfordshire County and District Authorities to progress collective actions to address National Procurement Strategy targets and the Government's Efficiency agenda
• Consultancy and support services for Norfolk County Council and its partners on the development of the Norfolk County Strategic Partnership
• Support to the Norfolk County Strategic Partnership to develop the county's community plan - including stakeholder consultations, initial drafts of the community strategy, design of a county-wide community conference and a performance evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of the Partnership in moving forward and delivering the Strategy
• Facilitation and consultancy services to the Norfolk County Strategic Partnership, leading up to the county wide conference in February 2002. Research and writing of the first Norfolk Community Strategy - Norfolk Ambition. Development of Norfolk Investing in Communities programme
• North Ayrshire Council
• Conference to consult young people and practitioners on the newly launched Youth Charter
• North East Centre of Procurement Excellence
• The first annual conference for the North East Centre of Excellence was designed and managed by Rocket Science. This included carrying out a pre-conference survey with key stakeholders and making effective use of participant technology at the event itself to help ensuire that the future development of the Centre is fully informed by the needs and aspirations of stakeholders
• Design of conference programme for an event bringing together 120 participants from across the North East to launch the North East Centre of Procurement Excellence. Rocket Science also facilitated the event using participant technology to enable every delegate to influence future activities to be carried out by the centre
• North Lanarkshire Council
• Evaluation of the European funded Scottish Equal Access Development Partnership and its outputs
• Audit of youth justice services and working with the North Lanarkshire Youth Justice Forum to devise a Youth Justice strategy
• Nottinghamshire County Council
• Design of a Bid Assessment Tool for the Centre of Procurement Excellence in the East Midlands. The tool was used by Rocket Science to allocate £2m of funding to local authorities looking to undertake efficiency projects
• Design and facilitation of an intensive workshop for the Labour Group to ensure that all members were able to make a full contribution to the debate on budget decisions for 2005-06
• Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
• A team of Rocket Science facilitators designed and managed a series of challenging workshops to explore approaches and strategies to embedding equal opportunities policy and practice into the Fire Service. The workshops comprised senior representatives from Fire services across the UK along with colleagues in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
• One North East
• Design, facilitation and reporting of workshop of core funding partners for skills in North East England to make progress on integrating working and funding
• Orkney Enterprise
• Design and facilitation of a 'blue skies' strategic planning process for Orkney Enterprise and its partners in the local economy
• Park Royal Partnership
• Mid-term evaluation of the Park Royal Partnership's SRB6 programme, "Connect." This is being undertaken in parallel with a Best Value Review of the Partnership itself in order to assess its appropriateness and effectiveness in terms of managing the ongoing delivery of the area's regeneration.
• Pension Service
• Design and facilitation of a national conference to celebrate one year's progress and understand the way in which its lessons can be applied to the challenge of the following 12 months
• Pepys Community Forum
• Investigating best practice to inform the organisational/ management structures and service provision of a young Neighbourhood Renewal Funded project supporting refugees into learning and employment in Lewisham.
• Perth and Kinross Council
• Development of baseline information for development of a Youth Strategy for Perth and Kinross area
• RegenWM
• Rocket Science supported Regen WM with the design, field work and reporting on an innovative research study to identify how to attract young people to careers in regeneration. The work was reported to a major seminar of Regen WM stakeholders
• Rocket Science supported graduate programme participants at the West Midlands Regional Centre of Excellence in Regeneration Design. This also involved carrying out research into how to attract young people into careers in regeneration and a participative youth event at the West Midlands Youth Parliament
• Renfrewshire Council
• Renfrewshire Council has supported a multi-agency partnership, Renfrewshire Youthlink, to design and launch a strategy for delivering opportunities to young people across Renfrewshire. Rocket Science facilitated early meetings of the partnership to help clarify and agree the focus for this strategy
• Scottish Adult Learning Partnership
• Facilitation of focus groups with excluded young people to help identify what constitutes well-being
• Facilitation of a national event for stakeholders involved in promoting adult learning initiatives
• Scottish Enterprise Dunbartonshire
• Design and implementation of partnership working tools, including the Partnership Evaluation Tool; an excel based decision making tool.
• Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh & Lothian
• Production of an Information Sheet about the public sector for inward investors and indigenous companies in the financial services sector
• Production of eight case studies of financial services companies to be used by Scottish Development International to attract inward investors
• Analysis of the needs of the tourism industry across Scotland. The exercise helped Scottish Enterprise clarify roles and responsibilities for Careers Scotland and the tourism cluster in supporting key partners in the tourism industry
• Feasibility study for Financial Services Academy‚ leading to design of alternative approach to raising awareness of the sector among young people and their supporters
• Production of publication describing the financial service sector and how it works, aimed at young people and their supporters
• Production of job profiles for the financial service sector
• Design and delivery of a interactive seminar-based development programme for key employment intermediary organisations in the SEEL area.
• Research and production of major guide to Living and Working in Scotland for those in the financial service sector
• Design and delivery of 5 case studies of individuals, companies and research organisations in the biotechnology sector portraying the advantages and attractions of Edinburgh as a location
• Scottish Enterprise Fife
• Facilitation of workshop on the Fife Business Base for senior staff of SE Fife
• Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley
• Consultancy support to production of new workforce development strategy
• Review of the future of labour market intermediaries in Forth Valley in the context of changing government policy
• Scottish Enterprise Glasgow
• Review of Local Development Companies in Glasgow
• Rocket Science have been commissioned three years consecutively to carry out a Stakeholder Survey. The third year included analysis of medium term performance trends and perceptions of different stakeholders
• Scottish Enterprise Network
• Study to explore the benefits for partnership working and how to measure them
• Scottish Enterprise Renfrewshire
• Production of strategy and action plan for engagement of the private sector in the welfare to work agenda
• Scottish Executive
• A seminar involving policy-makers and service providers was designed and facilitated by Rocket Science as part of the Mid-term evelauation of ESF Objective 3 Funding in Scotland
• Design and facilitation of Scottish Executive Conference to inform the development of policy around vocational qualifications at Level 2
• Study using case studies to explore the ways in which partnerships could be rationalised in the light of community planning
• Scottish Executive Local Govt. Division
• Client focus groups across Scotland for the review of Training for Work. Stakeholder Survey for Transition to Work Division. Scotland-wide client feedback to contribute to Training for Work Review. National Development Project on Youth Work with Vulnerable Young People (with Prince's Trust). Michael Cross, Scottish Executive, said that Rocket Science: "Went to great lengths to understand our needs. Very realistic in discussions, professional presentation, discussed intelligently with the management team how to present the results to staff. Challenged us but in a very charming and diplomatic way." Kevin Doran, Scottish Executive, judged us to be "Quick to understand the subject area and issues, good communication, professional and honest."
• Scottish Executive Transitions to Work Division
• Leading one of three workstreams established by the Scottish Executive to inform the Scottish Employability Framework
• Design, management and analysis of questionnaire about the Scottish Employability Framework
• Scottish Natural Heritage
• Advised on the consultation process of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code
• Scottish Prison Service
• Review of education services within the Scottish Prison Service and making recommendations for future contracting of education services in light of a new Learning, Skills and employability framework
• Scottish Qualifications Authority
• Design and facilitation of a major event for the Scottish Qualifications Authority to engage directly with the end customer of its services - students and learners. Over eighty people participated in a range of participative workshops. The ideas and views generated through this event are being integrated into the future design and management of delivering qualifications to learners
• Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum
• Working with the Board to reposition the organisation and its role in the light of changes in the structure of the Scottish Executive
• Shetland Community Council
• Facilitation of the Shetland Community Planning Partnership to consider their vision for Shetland in 2020
• Silwood SRB Programme
• Evaluation of the impact and value for money of an SRB-funded neighbourhood wardens scheme based on a SE London Housing Estate. Rocket Science's report and recommendations were commissioned in order to inform the proposed exit/continuation strategy for the scheme beyond the lifetime of the SRB programme
• Step Family Scotland
• Professional line management of a youth worker employed to develop a pilot project for supporting young people in step family situations
• Research into engaging young people through the use of technology
• Stirling Council
• Evaluation of Stirling Joblink
• Feasibility study for use of Miner's Welfare building as local learning resource. Facilitation of 3 year process to develop an innovative village centre incorporating health, learning and leisure. Design and facilitation of a study visit to London for members of the Plean Community Centre project steering group. 2 day study tour to London to examine examples of innovative community-based regeneration centred on the integrated provision of learning/leisure/health services. Facilitation with Community Planning Theme groups
• Tower Hamlets Consortium
• Work with Tower Hamlets Employment Consortium (a sub-partnership of the Tower Hamlets Partnership, comprising the Council, Jobcentre Plus, the Education Business Partnership, Tower Hamlets College and the LSC) on the design of a new employment/access to jobs strategy which will be overseen by the Local Strategic Partnership
• Tranent Social Inclusion Partnership
• Leading a people's jury process involving 12 young people and four community representatives to question public services on the possible development of opportunities for young people in Tranent.
• Design of monitoring system. Designing and managing peer research project on youth issues. Preparing funding proposal for People's Jury initiative. Training for Local Management Board
• Formal evaluation of the Tranent Social Inclusion Partnership
• Visit Scotland Golf
• Design and facilitation of workshops for senior staff to review the strategy and structure of Visit Scotland
• Voluntary Action Westminster
• Worked with the Community Empowerment Network to build its capacity in order to take a leading and distinctive role in shaping and delivering the objectives of the Westminster Local Strategic Partnership and Community Plan (April 2003). Pamela Park, Voluntary Action Westminster, said that Rocket Science showed "Strong understanding of community based organisations and the voluntary sector. Initial understanding of the brief was good and the proposal was great. Initial draft document didn't meet the brief but deficiencies were made good in the final document. Leader of the Council stood up at a meeting and said 'this is the most readable document that I have ever had across my desk'."
• Staff training day for Voluntary Action Westminster
• Voluntary Sector National Training Organisation
• Consultancy support and coordination of a group of Skills Development Funded projects addressing workforce development issues within London's voluntary and community sector. Design of a Workforce Assessment and Development Tool for the Second Tier Advisors Network (STAN) in London
• Volunteer Development Scotland
• Volunteer Development Scotland, the national agency for promoting and developing the impact of volunteering in Scotland, commissioned Rocket Science to contribute to a market research exercise to identify new market opportunities for Volunteer Development Scotland's products and services
• Wales Council for Voluntary Action
• Design and delivery of a one-day training course on mainstreaming and sustainability for a group of ILM projects funded under the Welsh Objective 1 programme.
• Wansbeck District Council
• Preparation of enhanced worklessness action plan
• Waterloo Project Board
• Facilitation of training session for regeneration and community development project managers, on different routes for project session and demonstration and use of the Readiness Assessment Tool to enable participants to judge progress of their project in securing continuation routes
• West Lothian Council
• Designed and delivery of 4 cases studies of West Lothian companies portraying the advantages of West Lothian as a business location
• Case studies to attract inward investment to West Lothian
• West Lothian Social Inclusion Partnership
• Scorecard exercise with 120 key partners involved in the work of West Lothian Social Inclusion Partnership to assess the impact of the SIP on partnership working in the area
• Western Isles Enterprise
• Design and facilitation of a workshop to develop contingency plans for possible job losses in the fish farming sector in the Western Isles
• Wise Group
• Facilitation of Board Meeting to clarify strategic direction
• Wise Move
• Facilitation of an Edinburgh network of homelessness and welfare-to-work initiatives to consider how to work in partnership
• Young Scot
• Facilitation of the Smart Citizenship residential event. This event involved around 150 participants from schools across Scotland to consider the development of citizenship materials to be delivered in their own schools. Rocket Science supported the design of the event and facilitated both days. We also piloted the use of a scorecard for evaluating the personal development of individual young people and the programme as a whole
• Design of a programme to support a youth editorial board to produce a young people's edition of 'Well?' magazine, the Scottish Executive's mental health magazine