ConsultancyLived experience & participation consultancy
I support organisations on the journey to being grounded in the communities they work with and centring people with lived experience of injustice. Drawing on grassroots organising, I'll work with you to shift the culture and structures that are keeping power from being shared.
I don't validate tokenistic involvement, or put lived experience above all else. I approach this work with complexity, recognising how our diverse life experiences intersect with structural inequality to shape the way we make decisions that affect ours and others' lives.
Deciding if this is for youWho I work with
Types of organisation
- Charities
- Social enterprises
- Voluntary groups
- Networks
- Funders
- Research institutes
- Cultural institutions
- Public sector bodies
Your organisation could be working on any issue that affects people's lives — for example health inequalities, climate justice, poverty, racial justice, arts & culture, education, community cohesion.
People and teams I support
- Senior leadership
- Directors/managers with decision-making responsibility
- Teams working on community engagement, lived experience, participation or co-production
- Policy & campaigns
- Service design & delivery
- Community organising
- Governance
Challenges I can help you withWhere you might be now
People come to this work at all points in their organisation's journey — you might recognise some of these as where you are now.
Involving people with lived experience, but not consistently
You’ve been involving people with lived experience, but without a unified approach — and want better, more justice-based practice across the board.
An ambitious strategy, but culture is slowing things down
You have a strategy that centres lived experience, but the culture and existing ways of working have to change to make that strategy into reality.
Knowing change is needed, but not sure where to start
You want to shift decision-making towards communities and involve more people with lived experience, but wanting to “do it right” has held you back from getting going.
Previous attempts at participation haven’t turned out well
You’ve tried, but past participation work turned out extractive or tokenistic – and you want to learn from it so you can build a better approach.
Slow buy-in from key people is getting in the way
Your strategy points towards more participatory ways of working, but key people aren’t bought in yet, so progress is slow and frustrating.
A project needs technical expertise that you lack in house
You’re setting up a piece of participatory work – from involvement to coproduction – and need someone who can plan it well, while supporting the team to learn as you go.
How we could work togetherThe work takes different shapes
Depending on what you need, that might be:
Training on different types of participation, including co-production.
Reviewing current practice and producing recommendations for your next steps.
Ongoing consultancy that accompanies you on the journey.
Strategic consultation on a lived experience / participation strategy.
Designing a meaningful participatory process from the ground up.
Facilitating coproduction workshops with communities with lived experience.
Running a participation community of practice for your organisation or network.
None of this is short-term — it can't be done quickly, or in silos. I generally work with clients for anywhere between four months and several years.
Selected WorksRecent projects
Since 2021 · Trussell
Embedding meaningful participation
Work closely with the Participation Team designing and delivering projects including: the Together for Change panel, Trussell's first lived experience panel; the Participation Champions network; Participation Practice Circles; ongoing all-staff Participation Training.
2023–24 · Macmillan
Participation Training at scale
Designed and delivered core Lived Experience Participation Training for 100 key staff ahead of a strategy process, plus bespoke sessions for the Senior Leadership Team and a vision for the Lived Experience Participation Team.
2025–26 · Independent Age
A single 'lived experience pool'
Independently reviewed the charity's current practice of involving storytellers and volunteers with lived experience, resulting in recommendations drawing on best practice across the sector to bring varied ways of working with older people in financial hardship into one approach.
Working with othersA trusted network of collaborators
For some projects I work alongside a small network of trusted collaborators, so we can bring the right mix of expertise and lived experience to your work.
next stepsGet in touch
Send a short enquiry telling me a bit about your organisation and what you're navigating — and we'll set up a call from there.