We build bridges between communities and organisations
We are a social enterprise that wants public services to work in equal partnership with local people rather than to or for them, so better decisions are made and everyone can experience better outcomes.
We partner with the brave pioneers and innovators who want to adopt this way of working using collaborative and community-based approaches.
We hosted the first UK Alliancing in Health and Social Care Symposium in Birmingham to bring together anyone interested in alliancing and alliance contracting. We reflected on 10 years of alliancing, bringing together a diverse group of people from different sectors at different stages in the alliancing journey.
This mixed methods research project's aim was to work with local people and organisations to better understand digital inequalities in mental health with the aim of reducing inequalities when redesigning services, with a focus area on adults with severe mental illness in Milton Keynes.
This special event was a celebration and culmination of a year's work helping to spread and share learning about co-production in Manchester.
We helped Dudley Council get a better understanding of how the pandemic changed health and social care priorities by listening to and analysing local people’s stories of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as creating a participatory photography project and community quilt.
A three-year lottery-funded project with People's Voice Media looking at how we develop and spread co-production across England.
This project included photography workshops with women experiencing homelessness as well as an exhibition called Hidden and Hunted of their work in a seafront shelter. It was part of a story gathering exercise to understand more about the women, how their experiences differ from men and who might be best placed to influence them.
Working in partnership with People's Voice Media to gather insights about people’s lived experiences of poverty in Dudley.
We helped staff, carers and parents work together to improve the wellbeing of families of children and young people with autism in Bromley with a 100 day challenge.
We worked with Dudley Council to help them explore and set their new priorities for adult health and social care services.
We reviewed Turning Tides current approaches to co-production.
"Through our work with Ideas Alliance, it has completely changed things. We have different conversations now, we share ownership and have equal power."
Julia Simmonds, Service Manager Strategic Partnerships, Dudley Council
"Our organisation has benefited considerably from working alongside the Ideas Alliance. For us it has been good to be able to have the opportunity to take time to reflect and have a critical friend to drive us to do better for those we serve."
April Baker, Head of Development & Quality, Turning Tides
"I really felt empowered working with the Ideas Alliance team. They echoed children and young people's voices and experiences in an innovative way."
Nazmin Mansuria, Senior Commissioning Manager, NHS Bromley CCG
“Working with the Ideas Alliance has always been rewarding. Supporting my work as a Health and Care Commissioner to introduce Alliance Contracting enabled a positive shift in culture as well as practice to take place and more recently their collaborative, relational approach to supporting power shifting has generated real learning, particularly about the importance and place for values and trust in a public service system.”
Nick Dixon, Greater Manchester Health & Social Care Partnership
"It was a pleasure to work with the Ideas Alliance Team. They provided an honest, friendly and dedicated service to use throughout a complex project with a very tight deadline. Working on a complicated and sensitive area of local government, they were able to offer us with insightful workshops and in-depth fieldwork that allowed to us to better understand service delivery. As a researcher, I fully endorse Ideas Alliance."
Declan McDowell-Naylor, Research Officer, Surrey County Council
We partner with local people, charities, councils, community organisations and national bodies on specific projects or as end-to-end delivery partners.
Collaborative commissioning and alliances
From relationship building to financial, technical and governance issues
Co-production advice and guidance
Through workshop sessions and supporting you on specific projects
Communities of Practice
People learning and sharing together in a safe, open space.
Community research and evaluation
An appreciative approach to quantative and qualitative reviews
Looking for ideas and inspiration? Here you'll find stories about communities, collaboration and co-production.
We have been working alongside some pioneering commissioners and partners in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot as they transform the substance use services in their area. Here are our highlights from the co-design process.
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2024 marks 7 years of Ideas Alliance. Over that time we’ve grown from a small story sharing platform to a social consultancy on a mission to make co-production and collaboration the norm across the country. Co-founder Helen Sharp starts our celebrations by looking back at how it all started and what's coming next.
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Ideas Alliance co-founder Helen Sharp kicks off the new year reflecting on how exciting it is to see the health and social care commissioning landscape shift slowly as more people take up the co-production and collaborative commissioning banner.
Read articleWe work with a range of people and organisations including local authorities, charities, community members, voluntary groups and national bodies.
