Development Team

Established in 2006, the Development Team is headed by James Allen who has extensive experience working for health and social care providers, in both the statutory and independent sector.

This experience forms the foundation of the Development Team principles: working with commissioners to identify local priorities, enabling Consensus to meet and support targeted and quantifiable needs.

The team works in partnership with each local authority, carefully assessing different requirements within the area, as well as Consensus’ ability to deliver support for those needs to the highest standard.

Our developments mirror our person-centred care support plans, with each service having a bespoke design that is unique to the specific needs of the area. The guiding principles that all our services share is a commitment to high standards, and an aim to allow the people we support to achieve positive outcomes and live more independent lives.

Evidence of the difference that our Development Team has made is visible in the rapid expansion that has characterised Consensus over recent years. From supporting around 200 people in 2006, we now support nearly 600 individuals in a range of specialist and supported living settings. Our growth has been achieved through the acquisition of some fantastic existing services, bringing with them a wealth of experienced practitioners to join Consensus staff and new developments.

The Development Team itself is comprised of two former commissioners, a former social housing operator and a former social worker. This cross-cutting experience allows the team to fully understand how the commissioning process operates and also the need to deliver value for money and high quality.

In addition to new services, the Development Team is also leading an investment programme at existing services, focusing on infrastructure and service improvements. Whether supported living or residential services the team is working to drive quality within the organisation.

By investing time in understanding and meeting identified local needs, we have developed a range of services that are making a difference to people’s lives.

Local services to meet local needs

One of the many services that the Development Team have designed is based in the South West.

Before beginning the design process, the team worked to develop and establish a strong relationship with the local commissioning authority. This investment enabled us to understand their support requirements and how they could be met in a cost effective way.

At the time the local authority was having to refer people to services outside of the county due to a lack of support provision. Although there was an existing service within the area, it did not meet the level of support they were seeking to provide in the future.

Using the local authority’s commitments as a foundation, we designed a service that would enable people to receive support locally. In addition to creating a sustainable solution for the authority, this also enabled us to create an outcome focused service from scratch.

The service has now been running for over a year. In this time we have achieved our key goal of enabling a number of the people supported there to move on to more independent lives. We have also been able to expand the facilities to cater for more people with different needs.

As a result of the strong relationship we have with the local authority, the service has high occupancy and we are now working together on further developments.