Welcome to Alder Advice
Who Are Alder Advice?
Alder Advice is a group of independent professionals commited to using strengths based approaches to enable improvements in the adult social care, children’s social care, health and housing sectors. We all share a common value base and join together to work across Britain as specialist advisers. Our mission is to help people who need support to achieve wellbeing to live the lives that they choose and to overcome the inequalities that they, all too frequently, experience.
We are proud to promote the use of “Appreciative Inquiry” and to have developed the “Progression Approach”. It is a strengths-based approach to supporting people with disabilities to live the lives they aspire to. The “Progression Approach” is best known in relation to support for learning disabled adults, but we use related approaches and the same value base to underpin our work related to supporting older people, children, and adults living with physical/sensory disabilities and living with or recovering from mental illness. For a brief introduction to the “Progression” approach – read more
Our first project was in 2009. Since then we have worked with more than 50 local authorities, the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADASS), The Social Services Improvement Agency, Welsh Local Government Association, Local Government Association (England), a number of provider organisations in the sector, 3 local authority trading companies and a number of NHS clients. We always use strengths-based approaches (Underpinned by Appreciative Inquiry) and our clients comment that this positive and collaborative approach helps them achieve transformational change that is essential to benefits realisation. For example, after working with Alder Advice Julie Bateman (Head of Service Development at Suffolk County Council) said:
“The suggestion by Alder Advice that we could both achieve greater VFM alongside improved outcomes for people was highly motivating.” … “The fact that the suggestion was backed up by hard objective external evidence as to how we could do things differently to everyone’s advantage …… was hugely persuasive.” … “Senior managers and the learning disability community signed up to a detailed action plan to develop a “Progression” model which aims to transform both service delivery and the service offer.”
We undertake a broad range of projects across the whole of the UK, and have particular strengths in service evaluation, redesign and transformation projects, strategy development, commissioning, market analysis and predictive modelling. Our consortium operating model allows us to combine the expertise of outstanding experts in specialisms relevant to our clients’ business and to form teams that can provide the highest standards of professional advisory and consultancy services at a competitive price.
We have a deep understanding of and extensive experience in our sector. All of our advisors have worked in practice and management roles in statutory organisations operating in this area. Many are qualified and registered social work or allied health professionals, whilst our finance professionals, and analysts are all highly experienced in health, social care or housing.
We bring extensive experience in working with people who use services, often using innovative methods for public engagement such as Open Space Technology and Appreciative Inquiry. For a brief introduction to appreciative inquiry – read more
As will be evident from our extensive client list and long track record of delivering successful projects, we offer a high standard of consulting practice. Prior to founding Alder Advice, our founding members, Rob Griffiths and Dan Short, held senior roles in major consulting practices. We have a strong commitment to working collaboratively with our clients, seeking to co-produce solutions and transfer skills where appropriate and possible.
Our customer regularly say that they welcome the strong values of our advisers and our deep understanding of the sector.
Alder Advice
Appreciative Inquiry
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Alder Development / Interims
What We Do
We provide support in four different forms:
Alder Advice provides consultancy, mentoring and coaching. We also provide provide and guidance and hands-on assistance to support organisations to undertake major projects using their own staff. Our mission is to improve the lives of older people and adults with disabilities and we pride ourselves on our independence, our values led approach and on using strengths based approaches. Read More.
Alder Development offers bespoke learning programmes and interim staff.
Our training activity grew from our thought leadership and expertise in professional practice. It was provided to complement our advisory work and to support transformation projects based on our models of practice and support. It has since expanded to transfer learning from Alder staff to our customer organisations, helping them to acquire the internal capacity to wor k more effectively. Read More.
Alder Interim Solutions Our staff are available to work as part of your local teams on an interim basis as we recognise that sometimes the additional capacity and expertise provided by an experienced interim manager or locum will better meet the needs of customers than the inputs from our advisers. Our interims have access to the support and expertise within the wider Alder Advice network. Read More.
Appreciative Inquiry Training. Alder Advice collaborates with Appreciating People and other like minded independent advisers to develop and expand the use of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) to improve the effectiveness of public and 3rd sector services in UK and abroad. Specifically, we provide AI training and development opportunities and provide peer support opportunities for individuals and organisations that see the potential to use AI based approaches to improve their effectiveness. Read More.
How We Work
Using a strengths based ethos
All our work is underpinned by our belief that every person/ team/ organisation has assets and strengths and that these need to be recognised and built on. This, we believe, is the key to improving the lives of older people and of adults with disabilities and is also the key to helping organisations, that exist to support older people and adults with disabilities, to be more effective and efficient.
This core belief is important as it underpins our work at all levels e.g. with individual service users, individual staff, teams and organisations.
Once we know what your strengths are we can help you build on them to deliver the improvement needed. We can also plan/agree with you how to add to or augment your skills and strengths with the skills and the knowledge of our network of advisers.
Our appreciative approach is an essential component of our values.
Joining-up skills and know how
Our advisory teams bring together a blend of skills and knowledge tailored to your specific local needs, but the strengths based values and the commitment to helping to improve the lives of older people and of adults with disabilities are always the same.
We combine financial/ analysis skills, inquiry/ investigation approaches and professional practice experience/ sector knowledge to get beneath the surface of the issues faced, and explore how feasible each of the possible available improvement opportunities is.
Our sector knowledge, passion to improve public services and deeply held values about promoting independence all help us to engage well with your staff, suppliers, customers and partner organisations.
Team work and mutual support is central to our way of working.
Working as your partner
We believe that working together is the best way to learn and grow together. We always seek to work in partnership with you.
We want you to feel we are your equal partner working towards shared goals. You should feel that we are enabling you to use your skills and that the skills and knowledge we bring is complementary.
We will always seek to identify your existing strengths so that these can underpin improvement and be built on. We will nurture your staff’s skills and transfer our skills to you and we will help you to reflect and learn from your experience of working with us.
Where you have the capacity, and you want to, we will work co-productively with you, your staff and other stakeholders such as customers, suppliers and partner organisations.
Agreeing the way forward
Change only starts if the people who will implement it “own it”. Our recommendations will be:
“Appreciative” meaning they will always build on existing strengths,
“Evidence based” as we always seek evidence about what is happening now? and why? as well as sharing information about what works elsewhere with you,
“Beneficial” as they will be based on a strong evidence base arising from our combining analytical, inquiry and practice skills,
“Practical” as they build on existing strengths and are developed in partnership with your staff, and
“Acceptable” to stakeholders as we are experienced in political environments and always discuss draft recommendations with you to pre-empt issues of acceptability.
We respect local expertise, understanding and judgement, but please expect us as your critical friend to be “constructively” challenging.
In for the long haul with you
Improvement will only be delivered if you plan how to make it happen and adequately resource the implementation process.
Key to this are having:
– Some easy to action first steps that deliver some tangible changes to prove to stakeholders that the change planned is feasible, and
– Appropriately skilled resources to carry out implementation tasks.
Alder Advice can help by planning the implementation process, providing “interim” implementation staff, and training your staff in the skills they need now/in future.
We can also help you monitor your progress and help you reflect and learn throughout the exploration, analysis and implementation processes.
We know success takes time, persistence, planning and resources.
Why Choose Us?
Our aim is to work closely with our customers. We seek to augment your skills and knowledge by providing you with temporary extra capacity with excellent consultancy skills and practical experience of your business. We can do this because:
- Our advisers are all experienced senior managers and consultants with expertise in and a deep commitment to either Adult Social Care, Health or Housing so they know your business and will be credible with staff at all levels in your organisation.
- Many of our advisers are/have been involved in national level developments e.g. by NICE, by Department of Health including Valuing People and by Social Services Improvement Agency in Wales. So the team has a deep understanding of the relevant policy drivers.
- The teams we form to support you will normally combine experience of your business plus good analysis and other consultancy skills i.e. our findings will be based on sound analysis and evidence assessed by a practioners eye and underpinned by our strengths based and outcomes focused ethos.
- We have experience of supporting regional and national improvement initiatives as well as invididual organisations so we will help you look outside your organisatoions as well as within it for innovative ideas and practical solutions.
- We have an extensive client list …. so we may know what others are doing to respond to the issues you face.
We give the highest priority to ensuring that we deliver only the highest quality of services and advice. - We expect every team member to take personal responsibility for the standard of their own work and for the performance of the overall project.Rob Griffiths and Dan Short, however, have overarching responsibility for quality and are accountable to our customers for the standards achieved in every part of our engagement.
- We will not accept any assignment that is outside the knowledge, skills and competencies of our team members. We will use only team members with proven excellence and reputation in areas relevant to the project.
- We will not accept any assignment unless we have the capacity and team named in our proposal available for the agreed indicative timetable of the project.
In addition to ensuring our work is always of a high quality; we are also commited to:
- Employing safe working practices,
- Promoting equality and diversity,
- Minimising our environmental footprint, and
- Achieving the highest possible standards of information governence and confidentiality.
We assure we can meet all the above commitments by setting out and strictly complying with a clear set of policies on each of these issues. You can read these poplicies by following the attached link to our compendium of policies.
Our People
Victoria Shore
Dan Short
Rob Griffiths
Daniel Fisher
Annette Lumb
Our Clients
Since we began trading in 2009 Alder Advice has worked with a wide range of health, local government and central government organisations a variety of care and support providers.
We often work with the same clients multiple times. Our client list includes:
- ADASS Care and Health Improvement programme (CHIP)
- Aberdeen City Council
- Barnet LBC
- Barnet CCG
- Barnsley MBC
- Bedford Council
- Bradford Council/Bradford Children’s Trust
- Bridgend Council
- Bristol North Somerset and South Gloucestershire STP
- Bury Council
- Cambridgeshire County Council
- Caerphilly Council
- Cardiff Council
- Care in Hand
- Central Bedfordshire Council
- Cheshire West and Chester Council
- Conwy Council
- Croydon LBC
- Croydon Care Solutions (LA Trading Company)
- Cumbria County Council
- Cwm Taf Health and Social Care Economy
- Department of Health and Social Care
- East ADASS Region
- East Midlands ADASS Region
- Essex County Council
- NHS Grampian
- Gwynedd Council
- Health and Social Care Moray
- Hertfordshire County Council
- Hounslow LBC
- Improvement East
- Kent County Council
- KeyRing
- Kirklees Council
- Local Government Association
- Luton Council
- Merton LBC
- Moray Council
- NHS North Central London
- NHS England – London Region
- Neath and Port Talbot Council
- Northamptonshire County Council
- North West ADASS
- North Tyneside Council
- North Wales Commissioning Hub
- North Wales Regional Partnership Board
- North West London NHS
- North West ADASS Region
- Octavo Partnership Ltd
- Olympus Care Services (LA Trading Company)
- Pembrokeshire County Council
- Peterborough City Council
- Portsmouth Council
- Powys County Council
- Redbridge LBC
- Skills for Care
- SSIA – Wales
- Social Care Wales
- Somerset County Council
- Southend-on-Sea Council
- South East ADASS Region
- South Tyneside Council
- Southwark LBC
- South East ADASS Region
- Swansea (City & County)
- South West ADASS Region
- Swindon Borough Council
- Three Counties (Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Hywel Dda Health Board) Learning Disability Partnership
- Thurrock Council
- Tower Hamlets LBC
- United Response
- United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust
- Vale of Glamorgan Council
- Vivo (LA Trading Company)
- Wellgate Supported Living Limited
- Welsh Local Government Association
- Western Bay Learning Disability Programme
- West midlands ADASS
- West Wales Care Partnership
- Wiltshire Council
- Wilshire and Swindon User Network
- Wokingham Council
- Wolverhampton MBC
- Yorkshire and Humberside ADASS Region
Bec Cicero Rheolwr Datblygu a Gwella / Improvement and Development Manager, Gofal Cymdeithasol I Oedolion / Adult Social Care commenting on the Dementia learning and development framework/toolkit developed by Alder Advice for Wales said:
“We are really pleased with the work Alder Advice has done for us in developing a simple and practical tool to help organisations plan and deliver their dementia learning and development. The team (Dan, Annette and Ceryl) really listened to what we needed and have created a really helpful, evidence based resource that has been well received by colleagues in the social care sector in Wales.”
What our Clients Say
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