The Policy Consortium is an informal group of experienced senior professionals, working together as independent consultants. We have been providing services across the field of FE and skills since 2006, and offer a comprehensive range of expertise and experience. We have a strong background in communications, with writing, editing and general journalism skills that can compete with any national news and policy communications team.
Outputs for clients have included:
• bulletins and policy papers
• seminars and other events
• policy briefings
• fortnightly / monthly news digests
• conference reports
• support for organisations’ public-platform inputs
• campaign advice
• support for consultation responses
• field interviews
• case studies
• evaluations
What we can do for you
The range of experience and expertise within the Policy Consortium membership enables it to tackle projects across a wide range of areas. These include:
Each contract is placed with a small selected team of our members with appropriate specific and complementary skills, and a single nominated contact point. Other members are also kept informed so that they can supply inputs as appropriate. This method offers significant value for money, since it allows more time, energy, resources
and insight than any one individual consultant could provide, resulting in a portfolio of high-quality outputs at an affordable cost.
For further information on the experience and expertise available to the Policy Consortium, please click on the Members bar to the left.
We pride ourselves on keeping overheads to the minimum required to provide an efficient and effective service to our clients, with our charges geared to the specific costs of project delivery. Our rates are keenly competitive and are negotiated according to the precise levels and types of expertise required for the assignment concerned. You therefore only pay for what you get.
The Policy Consortium has worked for many national and local bodies, including:
• Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS)
• City & Guilds
• Enterprise Insight
• ORC International
• Vital Regeneration and WestminsterCouncil
• Becta
• Learning and Skills Council (LSC)
• Learning and Skills Network (LSN)
Comments from our clients include:
“…very grateful for the Policy Consortium feedback on our draft report: we received broad expertise and experience… Particularly appreciated was the feedback exploring the findings’ deeper meaning (making for a more readable worthwhile report), and the often conversational tone.”
Chitro Ghose, Head of Research, UK Qualifications and Skills Team, LSIS
“I have always received excellent service from the Policy Consortium. The service that they provided for LSN always went above and beyond what I expected, giving me the latest specialist knowledge that allowed me to stay one step ahead.”
Mike Cox, Head of Bid Management, LSN
“ORC International have worked with the Policy Consortium for over 2 years. The Policy Consortium has supported a number of our projects by providing in-depth subject matter and expertise. We have found the Policy Consortium members to be extremely professional and knowledgeable. Their outputs have been to a very high standard and we would highly recommend their services.”
Nigel Maxfield, Head of Public Services Division, ORC International
“The Policy Consortium has delivered a series of policy reviews at a time of considerable and fast-moving change. What impressed me most was the way that they were able to pick up the wider political and national context, produce the evidence base and then re-focus to describe the impact and the opportunity that this offered all written in a very accessible style. I am very grateful that we had this in place at the time. While we could have researched the areas ourselves it was the different viewpoints and clarity of this vision that really supported us – all very thought-provoking.”
Jane Williams, former Executive Director for Further Education and 14-19, Becta
The Policy Consortium has enjoyed excellent links with ORC International, jointly developing successful proposals for projects since 2009. These projects have generally involved a selection of members providing their expertise as part of the delivery team. Clients include:
• Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS)
• London Borough of Newham
• Learning and Skills Network (LSN)
Our members have also worked successfully in an individual capacity for a wider range of clients.
In addition to those already listed these include:
• Age UK
• Association of Colleges (AoC)
• Association of Colleges in the Eastern Region (ACER)
• Association for Learning Technology (ALT)
• Birmingham City Council
• British Council
• Campaign for Learning
• CfBT Educational Trust
• Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)
• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
• Dysg
• FE Sussex
• FE Women’s Leadership Network
• Foundation Degree Forward (fdf)
• Higher Education Academy (HEA)
• Institute for Effective Education
• Institute of Education (IoE), University of London
• JISC
• Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA)
• Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK)
• National Education Research Forum (NERF)
• National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)
• National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE)
• National Offender Management Service (NOMS)
• Network for Black Professionals
• Open Society Foundation
• Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA)
• RCU Ltd
• Remploy
• Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB)
• Scottish Further Education Unit (SFEU)
• Scottish Funding Council (SFC)
• Shelter
• Sixth Form Colleges Forum (SFCF)
• The 157 Group
• Welsh Assembly Government (WAG)
Policy Consortium members have also undertaken work for individual FE colleges, and have contributed articles to the Guardian; Independent; Times; TES; Education Journal; and FE Week.
For details of contracts delivered by the Policy Consortium and its members, and examples of their outputs, please click on the Projects and Publications bar to the left.