You need to see the socially inclusive future you are building. Together we will step into possible futures so you can feel the difference you are going to make. We will try out different narratives and hear different voices. Creating a luminous and rich vision for your future is the basis of your success.

Successful vision is built by meaningful values. We will work collaboratively to identify which values are already shaping the way your organisation works (the values in action in an organisation aren’t always the ones you have written in your strategy), and if there are ways of harnessing your chosen values for greater impact. You will develop ways to use your values to empower everyone to work in ways that will achieve your shared vision.

Rae has a wealth of experience in supporting organisations to develop and deliver values and vision. She has worked with Universities, Charities and Government departments to help them achieve this over the last 25 years. This includes identifying and articulating the Government’s vision for Widening Participation in 2014 as “that all those with the potential to benefit from higher education have equal opportunity to participate and succeed, on a course and in an institution that best fit their potential, needs and ambitions for employment or further study”. This vision remains relevant today and is evident in the continuing work of the Office for Students.

As CEO of a national social mobility charity Rae embedded a values-led culture, ensuring Fairness, Aspiration, Courage and Empowerment drove behaviour and decision-making across the organisation. This significantly increased staff morale, engagement and trust in leadership. It also led to more effective programmes delivered to beneficiaries and more cost-effective ways of working.

Evaluation is how we grow and protect what is working, and learn from what is not so we can try something new. For evaluation to be effective it needs to be proportionate, robust and accessible. More important though, is that it needs to be received by an organisational culture ready and able to learn, share knowledge and change ways of working. Together we can develop cultures of reflexive practice across your organisation. This is the most effective and efficient way of supporting staff development, inclusivity and continuous improvement. Within this enriching culture we can build appropriate, practical evaluation tools that meet the needs of your stakeholders and support organisational sustainability and growth.

Rae developed and delivered the Office For Fair Access’ evidence and effective practice strategy, leading her team to work across the higher education sector to build robust evaluation to support targeted and impactful university spend. Rae led evaluation symposiums focused on developing evaluation cultures in the higher education sector and effectively worked to bring together practitioners, academics and policy makers in understanding the importance of robust, proportionate evaluation in influencing policy, practice and future research. Rae has co-authored papers in academic journals on this subject.

Working together we will identify the most appropriate way to evaluate different elements of your inclusion work. We will establish evaluation that supports both effective delivery, internal understanding and meeting reporting requirements.

In an ideal world, evaluation frameworks are established at the beginning of a project. We don’t live in an ideal world, and know that it doesn’t always happen like this due to funding, resources or time constraints. In these instances, Rae can work with you to understand what data you have and how you can use it meaningfully to understand your impact. She can also help you develop approaches to working that mean that in future you have the skills and knowledge to embed low burden, robust evaluation into everything you do.

Across all sectors there are organisations at the forefront of inclusion, and those just embarking on their journey. To know how to move to where you want to be, it is essential to understand where you are starting from. Assessing your organisation’s inclusion maturity is an essential step in building effective and efficient strategies towards your vision. Understanding where you are starting from also helps you to measure distance travelled, focus attention where it is most needed and recognise your successes.

Every organisation is unique. However, having worked with hundreds of different organisations over decades, I have developed an understanding of types of inclusion maturity. We need to understand both the saturation of an inclusion culture (is this something that happens in one or some parts of the organisation, or adopted by some staff but not others, or is it in the organisation’s DNA), and the practice of inclusive culture (is it effective at delivering against your vision, evidence led, well targeted and embedded in all areas of the organisation both outward and inward facing).

Working together we can better understand where you are starting from, enabling us to build effective strategies to achieve and measure change.

Working together we will develop ways of working that breed success and a plan of action to get there. Key to building a sustainable strategy is a deep understanding of what success will be like when you achieve it, and well-articulated values to navigate with. I will support you to co-design strategies with senior leaders, frontline staff and the communities you want to engage. Together we will continuously build on our pooled learning. I will provide supportive and insightful challenges to help you build an effective, collaborative strategy that will deliver the change you want to see.

I have extensive experience in developing strategies that deliver the change you want to achieve. Strategies that are ways of working, decision making and moving forward, not documents that sit on your bookshelf – although having a clear and concise strategy document is an essential tool in effective strategy delivery. I have led work on the development of strategies for Government, including the strategy for access and student success and the strategy for mental health in the student population, as well as for organisations like Villiers Park Educational Trust.

To achieve sustainable social inclusion, we need to change how we work in our systems, and how our systems work for us. Changing how our systems work for us is achieved through effective influencing, whether within your team, your organisation or in the national policy landscape.

Rae is recognised as an effective influencer, delivering both organisational, policy and political changes in complex landscapes. Rae has experience delivering compelling, evidence-led advice to senior leaders in higher education, the third sector and Government to achieve ‘buy in’ and changes in policy and practice.