Our story

The Ideas Alliance CIC started life in 2016 as a passion project to help share the stories and grow the movement of people in the UK who had a hunger to transform the way we do things in the public sector using collaboration, co-production and approaches that focused on people’s strengths, not just their needs.

But back then, it felt like most of us didn’t know about each other. Many of us were trying to work in these ways on our own, committed to our convictions but without any expert support.

Co-production, collaboration, asset-based thinking – all those approaches which will transform the way we work, are scary and messy and often fly in the face of our structured, strategic and risk averse leadership. And it wasn’t the budgets, research or evidence that was persuading others to work in this way, it was the stories of people doing things across the country that seemed to shift people’s thinking. We needed a space to connect and celebrate these stories, and so the Ideas Hub was born.

We then officially joined forces to create the Ideas Alliance in 2017 to help support and work with others to be brave and do things differently, as well as continuing to share and champion stories on the Ideas Hub.

Over the last few years our team has grown and so has the movement to make this way of working the norm and not the exception.

If you want to find out more about how we got started and why, read the first blogs from our founding Directors Helen and Linda.

Our experience

Through our work on the front line in the public sector and our consultancy work with local authorities, clinical commissioning groups, children & young people’s services, NHS Vanguards and community projects, we have built up considerable knowledge of strength based and coproduction approaches in action. We have developed a deep understanding of how it can work on the ground, where resistance might be met and how to overcome some of the challenges that prevent change from happening. We have seen what works and what doesn’t.

We can bring our expertise, experience and enthusiasm to any organisation and community wishing to apply strengths based approaches and co-production.

Our mission

#RoleforEveryone

We want to accelerate progress towards a future where public services work in equal partnership with local people rather than to or for them – using collaborative and strengths-based approaches such as co-production, restorative practice, appreciative inquiry and strength based community development. We want this to become the norm, not the exception.