CT were easy to work with. The process was good and we had a good range of candidates.

One Housing was going through a period of change and transformation. At the start of the process we wanted to gain some good intelligence about our people – their values and their views of us. We worked with Campbell Tickell to carry out a CultureScan.

The work gave us vital insights into how the organisation really works – as opposed to how we thought it did. It highlighted real strengths for us to work with; for example that many staff valued and recognised our commitment to diversity and this was a key part of their work experience. But we also found challenges – our commitment to empowering front-line managers, for example, was not a reality to many, who felt decision making was slow. The scan gave us a better sense of our overall culture, and also identified the pockets where local cultures were different. Perhaps most importantly, it gave us a strong sense of what we need to do to create the vibrant, focused, fun culture that we aim for.

I would like to thank Campbell Tickell for their help and support during the recruitment of a new Chief Executive. From the initial reply, to our tender invitation, it was clear that CT’s attention to detail; searching out our needs and the support to the senior members of the board to refine their thinking; made all the difference to the final outcome. The innovative approach employed to involve the full board has been commented on and the final agreement by them made the selection of the best candidate a relatively simple matter. The list of potential applicants was wide and varied and gave us the opportunity to test the market and line up a new CEO to fit our needs in the next stage of our development. It was gratifying to note that the panels of Trustees and CT’s own interviews brought out the same results. This gave the board a measure of confidence added to their own thoughts in the final analysis. The whole process was designed to involve as many of the board as wished to take part, with the final selection of the last 3 being attended by the full board. This gave the necessary buy-in by the board and was handled in an innovative way with presentations from the candidates. I would have no problem in recommending Campbell Tickell for recruitment or other work in our space, you seem to have a great and detailed understanding of the needs of our sector.

Campbell Tickell provided excellent support as our Senior Team developed and refined our latest business model facilitated by BRIXX. Our Board wanted to ensure that this year’s business planning cycle included rigorous stress testing of a wide range of scenarios and that Board members fully understood the combination of risks that combined to create our perfect storm. Campbell Tickell’s enabling work facilitated the Board as they identified and reviewed our key risks and their impact. This enabled the Board to challenge senior management effectively on the Association’s mitigation plans.

We secured development funding through the Life Chances Fund to develop three Social Impact Bonds. We commissioned Campbell Tickell to help conduct research and support the development of a business case for full applications to the Life Chances Fund. I found CT to be professional, knowledgeable and accommodating. Their support and work has resulted in us making two full applications to the Life Chances Fund. I would recommend CT. Liz and Shaun were brilliant.

We commissioned Campbell Tickell to advise and support the development of our current ambitious and forward-looking Housing Strategy, ‘Building Together for a Strong Future’. We found that the team had a range of expertise and skills sets which were used to good effect over the course of the project. Our experience of Campbell Tickell was that they worked well in conjunction with council officers as part of a rounded and interactive project team. With support and advice from Campbell Tickell we now have an adopted Housing Strategy that reflects the council’s ambitions for the future.

Campbell Tickell helped transform our resident scrutiny arrangements. Their senior consultant, Niku Mawby, supported Board members through change and helped to deliver a new way of working. Staff and members valued Niku’s independence, her wide knowledge and experience working in the housing sector. The project was completed on time and presented good value for money. We would work with Niku and Campbell Tickell again.

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to you, to Niku and to all the consultants who have helped us prepare for inspection. There is no doubt CT have added an enormous amount of value to the process and helped keep us sane at the same time! Fantastic job, we couldn’t really have asked for more.

Niku Mawby and Zaidee O’Dell have a wealth of practical experience and have added significant value in all the areas where they have worked with Victory Housing Trust. This work has included supporting our Road to Excellence service improvement project and providing ‘hands on’ Audit Commission Inspection support. At the end of the day the proof is in the pudding and Niku and Zaidee have delivered exactly what we needed, when we needed it – a responsive, professional, value adding service, delivered to challenging timescales.

Ben Wilson was such a hit with the Management Committee last time that he is our first choice to facilitate this next away day!

Radojka Miljevic accepted the assignment of taking our Board through self-assessment, a task it had undertaken dutifully for years. With her perceptive and bold use of the survey returns from individual members bringing out the key questions for us and pushing for answers, we came out of the event with a handsome list of actions to pursue. There’s a new energy and sense of common purpose, and I’d have to give Radojka real credit for bringing that out of us.

I can thoroughly recommend Campbell Tickell for sourcing high quality interims and assisting with permanent recruitment.

We used Campbell Tickell to support us with our recent Board appraisal and governance evaluation process. As always, we are delighted with the highly professional, friendly and well informed service that we received from James Tickell and Niku Mawby. We would strongly recommend their services to any other organisation considering similar work.

I am exceptionally pleased with both the quality and professionalism of Niku’s work. That alone would earn plaudits, but when you add the exceptional commitment she has shown I cannot praise her more highly. Niku has helped to harness fierce determination within the team and the transformation is incredible. The net result is that we have received a superb exemplary service.

I’m very pleased to say that our advert on your website was very successful. We had 8 responses, which translated into 4 interviews, and 2 really excellent candidates who we’ve been able to offer board membership too. Its often difficult for small HAs to recruit board members, and to be able to pick up a former medium sized HA CE and a recently retired large HA FD was beyond our expectations.

I was really impressed with the efficient and proactive service provided by Maggie Rafalowicz and the team at Campbell Tickell in helping us to source one of our Board members and delighted that we were able to choose between a number of strong candidates.

Thanks to Mark, Denise and the others at CT for all the support with this recruitment. It has really been a first class process.

Campbell Tickell have played a pivotal role in helping to deliver the Trust’s new Group Structure governance arrangements. The strength and success of these was evident during our pilot In Depth Assessment by the HCA.

Greg and the team are always on hand to provide timely advice and support in whatever form this is needed and they an integral part of our ongoing governance development framework

We engaged Campbell Tickell to undertake some facilitation and review work with our Board of Management in 2015. This work included interviewing all Board members, and then facilitating a Board workshop on effective modern governance within a bilingual work environment, which resulted in the delivery of a clear outcome report with recommendations on Board member recruitment and training, Board agenda structure and a refocus on strategic issues and emerging sector risks.

This work was delivered on time and within budget, and assisted the Board and the Executive Team in reviewing the strategic governance and accountability of this large scale stock transfer association at a pivotal point at the end of its first five years. We definitely gained from the experience which James and his team brought to the workshop, and their honest and challenging approach was effective in moving the Association’s governance thinking forward.

Thanks for a great seminar and the excellent VFM Good Practice Guidance. Susan French and Jon Slade made both thought provoking and accessible.