An experienced team
The PublicServiceWorks team is made up of experienced people who are committed to working with leaders and communities to explore how the basic values of public service can form the core of innovative and transformative collaborations.
The following quote is attributed to a senior UK politician; but variants of the message are common across public, private and not-for-profit sectors in many countries:
‘Whitehall has all the levers of power, but it is not until you get into government you discover they are not connected to anything.’
The PSW team has long experience of working in the space between decision and action, rhetoric and reality. ‘Who really needs to lead and who to follow?’ is rarely a wasted question, we find, often leading to insights into how things can be changed for the better.
Each member of the team has a record of successful independent practice. Working together, team members have carried out pioneering work in:
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Designing focused research and evaluation linked to practical outcomes for change, and working with stakeholders as co-researchers.
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Working effectively with large groups, through facilitating whole systems, scenarios development and Open Space events.
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Developing policy in health and social care, while never losing sight of ways in which the policy can be implemented.
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Planning, researching, and developing innovative resources to support change.
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Creating and running cross-disciplinary Masters level programmes designed to enable leaders in health and social care use their own experience as the launchpad for learning.
‘PSW were a great organisation to work with – they listened carefully to the brief, were inclusive and creative in terms of involving key stakeholders, focused but flexible in carrying out the project and delivered a comprehensive, well-written report on budget and within our timescale.’
Charity trustee
[PSW] 'inspires complete confidence in their attitude as researchers - their approach, motivation, and empathy with context, circumstance and purpose. The way they 'get us' is hugely reassuring.'
Charity chair of trustees
What team members contribute
Marsaili Cameron
Helps people and organisations say what they mean to say – and align their words with action.
Maria Duggan
High-profile career in social work, social and health policy as both practitioner and researcher, has spurred national innovations in mental health policy and organisational development.
‘How do you improve communications? Start by being quiet. Listen.’
‘To be worth anything, policy has to be rooted in the complexities of real life.’
Associate: Dr Louise McDowall, Dance Artist and Dramaturg. Visiting Research Fellow in Exercise and Health Psychology, University of Leeds. Fellow of RAI. Louise is Principal Researcher for the Resi/Dance study for Dance United Yorkshire, a current PSW project
Roma Iskander
Specialises in design and facilitation of innovative techniques to develop participation and engagement of all involved with organisations in the health, voluntary and local authority sector.
Sheila Marsh
A highly-skilled facilitator, learning designer, evaluator, project leader and researcher, with a broad management background.
‘I know that initiatives are successful only when local people, as well as staff and commissioners, have the chance to be “a part of the solution”.’
‘I want to work on aligning people’s focus and energy with what matters to the public, despite the top-down agendas that often divert them…’
Associate: Anna Iskander-Reynolds, facilitator and project manager. Anna is a talented PSW associate who has worked on project management for the Marie Curie project and on Open Space events, especially the work with Wildlife Direct in Kenya.
New ways of thinking and doing in difficult times.