Services / Devolution
England is being rewired, but regions are still finding their footing.
Structures are changing faster than the relationships, the evidence and the stories that hold places together.
We help organisations, places and communities navigate change with strength and evidence.
Devolution
Make the new maps work, with confident and flourishing places.
We provide insight and intelligence for missions that people care about.
We help councils, strategic authorities and the organisations around them navigate devolution and local government reorganisation with their eyes open.
We’ve living this transition in our home county of Sussex, from the creation of a new strategic authority to the redrawing of the councils beneath it. We bring that ground-level understanding to places going through the same upheaval elsewhere.
We map what’s changing, who decides and what’s at stake. We test the case for new arrangements against the evidence, and make sure residents, businesses and the voluntary sector are part of the conversation rather than an afterthought. Then we tell you, in human, what it means for your plans and what needs to come next.
No big P politics. Just independent evidence and a clear view of what’s happening and where you fit.
“Always Possible’s ‘Sussex And The City’ project has made a strong, independent contribution to the Sussex & Brighton Strategic Authority’s understanding of people, organisations and issues across Sussex.
It’s been particularly helpful to have a third-party view alongside our own that’s neither issue-specific nor pushing a particular agenda, and that sees the puzzle as a whole.”
Steve Skelton
Strategic Lead – Policy, Strategy and Investment, Sussex & Brighton Strategic Authority
What we do and how we do it
Click any one of our service areas below to see what it involves.
Transition readinessKnow what’s changing, and when.Click to learn more
Understand what devolution and reorganisation mean for your organisation, your funding and your partnerships.
See the risks and the openings before the new structures settle.
Typically includes
Impact assessments
Scenario planning
Risk reviews
Transition roadmaps
Place evidenceBuild the case on solid ground.Click to learn more
Make sure new authorities inherit an accurate picture of their places, economies and assets, not a patchwork of old assumptions from the structures they replace.
Typically includes
Place profiles
Economic baselines
Asset mapping
Comparator studies
Power mappingKnow who decides what in the new system.Click to learn more
When structures change, so does influence. Work out where decisions will be made, who’s gaining and losing power, and who you need to be talking to now.
Typically includes
Influence mapping
Governance analysis
Stakeholder interviews
Partnership reviews
Resident engagementBring people into the conversation.Click to learn more
Reorganisation is too often done to people rather than with them. Reach residents through channels they trust and hear what they value about their place before the lines are redrawn.
Typically includes
Public engagement
Seldom-heard voices
Deliberative events
Peer research
Identity and belongingKeep what makes places distinctive.Click to learn more
New boundaries rarely match how people feel about where they live. Understand local identity and belonging, so new authorities build on it rather than flatten it.
Typically includes
Belonging surveys
Place narratives
Community voice
Longitudinal tracking
Asset mappingProtect what matters through the change.Click to learn more
Museums, theatres, parks and community buildings can fall through the cracks when councils merge. Find out what you hold, what it’s worth and how it could be run in future.
Typically includes
Asset reviews
Operating models
Comparator playbooks
Options appraisal
Strategic briefingsStay ahead of a fast-moving agenda.Click to learn more
Short, independent briefings on what the latest decisions, consultations and white papers mean for you. Clear enough to take to your board straight away.
Typically includes
Data briefings
Board papers
Horizon scanning
Policy updates
Convening and facilitationGet the right people in the room.Click to learn more
Neutral, well-run spaces where councils, businesses, institutions and communities can work through the hard questions together, and leave with something to act on.
Typically includes
Roundtables
Public debates
Workshops
Conferences
Devolution // CULTURE // DEVON
CASE STUDY: Devon Councils Cultural Assets Commission
Devon’s eleven councils, working with Arts Council England and led by North Devon Council, asked Always Possible to make sure culture, heritage and the arts were protected through local government reorganisation. They wanted it done before any decision on Devon’s future structure had been made, so the work was designed to stay useful whatever new map emerged.
We built the first shared picture of Devon’s cultural system. A county-wide Cultural Index of more than 1,000 organisations, buildings and programmes sits alongside a detailed register of 75 high-value assets exposed to reorganisation.
The register sets out who owns each asset, who runs it, how it’s funded and what depends on it. It showed that most publicly owned cultural infrastructure is run by someone other than the council that owns it, so continuity rests on leases, agreements and relationships as much as on property.
A comparator playbook draws on thirteen places that have been through structural change, and a Transition Manual was produced for each of the eleven authorities.
Findings were presented to Devon’s LGR group of senior officers and to chief executives. The commission gives councils a practical framework for decisions now, during transition and in the longer term, and makes sure culture is carried into the new authorities rather than lost in the move.
“This is a very good piece of work. You have done exactly what we wanted and presented it in a way that seems ideal for the intended audience and purpose of the commission. Almost best of all, it’s written in really simple, effective plain English and that is incredibly refreshing.”
Simon Jutton
Senior Relationship Manager, Arts Council England
Projects
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Devolution Made Accessible: Sussex And The City
An independent podcast, newsletter and events programme helping Sussex make sense of devolution.
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What happens when you get in touch
01
A free 45-minute call
With our CEO, not a salesperson. You leave with a view on your problem, and how to approach it, whether you hire us or not.
02
Scoping
Our proposals are in plain English, setting out the question, the method, the cost, the timescale, and the expected outcome. If we are the wrong people, we say so.
03
Matching expertise
You will meet the specialists who will do the work – expertise tailored around your brief, not an org chart.
04
Empowering
We will always end delivery with findings you can use, and the means to keep measuring long after we have gone.
We are trusted by organisations shaping places, policy and the new economy
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