Annual Review 2024: Ripple Effect

A message from our team

The theme that keeps coming up this year is the ripple effect of our work as Just Ideas – the way that individuals, communities and small organisations like ours can make a big impact, through the work we do and the way we do it.

Whether we’re facilitating model climate conferences, evaluating a community leadership programme, or being part of Berkshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy, we’re taking actions that affect people, society and culture. It happens through the approaches we choose, the energy we bring, and the connections we make.

When we talk about a ripple effect, we’re talking about a way that energy travels. The work we do sparks energy in us, because we care deeply about it and find meaning and purpose in it. People tell us we bring a lot of energy when we facilitate a workshop, and we’re aware of channelling that energy deliberately. We know that good facilitation takes dynamism, which in turn initiates new energy, inspires people, empowers them to come up with new ideas and encourages them to find their voice.

We may not know about all the positive changes that happen because of our collective efforts, but we do get feedback that tells us the work we’re doing is helping people and organisations to move forward, beyond the projects we work on together. Perhaps they start thinking in a new way, learn a new tool or skill, or become interested in the approaches and causes that are close to our heart around social justice, community and sustainability.

We’d like to share with you some highlights of this ripple effect in 2024, to celebrate the progress we’re making collectively. We hope it’s inspiring and encouraging, and we look forward to keeping up the good work in 2025.

COVID Inquiry Listening Exercise

This year, our work with Ipsos on the UK Covid-19 listening exercise reached even further into communities across the UK. In partnership with WSA Community, we’ve talked with people with complex health and mental health needs, people with neurological conditions, people with learning disabilities, people with care needs and unpaid carers, people in the care workforce, people who are rurally isolated, people who are digitally excluded, nomadic people, young mums who had babies during the pandemic, and communities in areas experiencing structural exclusion or multiple deprivation.

Collaborative teams: Thanks to the Just Ideas Collaborative, we’ve been able to put together diverse, skilled and experienced teams to do the substantial work of contacting and interviewing people. Their networks have played a significant part in extending the project’s reach, enabling the ripple effect to stretch far and wide.

While three different teams of people worked on three different modules, we managed to keep the integrity and quality consistent, ensuring the best possible experience for the people participating, while working to meet the project’s targets. Together with our associates, we’ve put a lot of thoughtful care into our approach, drawn on our trauma-informed training, and balanced an awareness of the needs of teams and participants with detailed management and monitoring.

Ripple Effect: One participant said they felt it was cathartic to know that their experience might help others. A lot of participants expressed that they felt empowered after sharing their experience of isolation, and that knowing their stories matter helped them move on from their traumatic experiences. We see this positive feedback as a reflection of the care and skill of our teams and the trauma-informed nature of our approach. It’s important to us to gather information in a way that supports and affirms the people participating.

After a focus group at a school in Falkirk, staff fed back that was the first time they had come together to reflect on how changes made during the pandemic had impacted the young people they work with. This led them to define some real gaps in the children’s experiences during that time, and to articulate how the school’s policy and practice could address these social, emotional and behavioural needs.

At a community centre in rural Somerset, we talked with a group of people who define themselves as digitally excluded, or choose not to connect digitally. We saw how a government policy can have a huge impact on communities and people, while not reaching or connecting with these groups. We were able to take those experiences back to the inquiry and make sure those voices were heard alongside all the perspectives we gathered.

In September, the first Every Story Matters record from the UK Covid-19 Inquiry was published, including quotes from our fieldwork. We’ve been able to reassure the people we talk to that their voices are being heard at a national level. Ipsos’ Managing Director of Public Affairs celebrated the publication of the first record on LinkedIn, paying tribute to the partnership with Just Ideas and WSA.

We’ve been heartened to hear a broad recognition of the need to build relationships, consider language and meet people where they are, resulting from the positive and enlightening conversations we’ve been able to facilitate and feed into the project.

The Magpie Project

Working with this small charity has been a real highlight of 2024. The Magpie Project supports mums and pre-school children suffering in temporary or insecure accommodation due to the hostile immigration environment. We facilitated a number of listening events between professionals and mums of under-fives experiencing developmental and learning needs. We designed and held those sessions in a way that gave the mums a platform to articulate their experiences on an equal, expert footing with the health professionals. That focus on relationships has enabled the ripple effect from this work to really radiate.

Following a series of thorough and detailed reports on those sessions by our team, we were invited back to facilitate four co-design workshops with the mums and professionals, where we co-created work programmes around the themes that emerged in our listening events. Those work programmes focus on developing tools, materials, resources and practice to shape future services, interventions and advocacy.

Ripple Effect: As a result of the focus placed on relationships, and the space created for professionals to really listen to mums, the charity now has workstreams that rearticulate the pathways for mums and their under-fives to access what they need. Crucially, Newham Council’s public health team has agreed to support this work, in collaboration with the charity and these mums, creating the opportunity for a significant impact on government policy.

“Having a trusted, objective party to reflect back learning from either side of the issue meant that both sides felt heard and understood and nobody became defensive or frustrated. The quality and compelling nature of Just Ideas’ framing and reporting, I believe, made it possible for the public health team to come on board with the next stage of our project – the mapping of services.” 

Jane Williams, CEO & Founder, The Magpie Project

We’re very proud of the team that’s been delivering these workshops so expertly, and of how we’ve been able to join together in this important work for such a vulnerable group, and start to make change happen. In the past month, we’ve also facilitated The Magpie Project’s AGM and we’re happy to continue this successful working relationship.

“It’s been the most rewarding experience, working with the team and in this environment with the mums, the professionals, the staff at Magpie. It’s such a pleasure coming here. I leave every session feeling so grateful, and like I’m part of something big.”

Associate, Just Ideas

Trust for London – London Housing Panel

Following the success of the previous hybrid workshops we delivered for the London Housing Panel, we were invited back to facilitate a workshop for them in June.

The panel is made up of different groups, representing different tenants and residents across London, including London Gypsy and Traveller communities, people experiencing domestic abuse, people in different minority communities and people in different housing situations. They were brought together to influence housing policy in London, and we were invited to facilitate because of our expertise in inclusive, flexible, sensitive facilitation.

Ripple Effect: The methods and activities we used to stimulate debate included the Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry method, which the panel was keen to learn more about for future work. We were also able to draw on our experience of facilitating these sessions to create a guide to running successful and inclusive hybrid meetings.

The London Housing Panel secretariat fed back to us that the outcomes of this workshop are already showing up in meetings and conversations with Greater London Authority.

We’ve now been invited to work with Trust for London to provide coaching support to one of the small organisations they fund, helping them to think about strategic development.

Local Trust and Big Local

Feedback from Reflect | Recharge, the support offer that Just Ideas Director Richard Usher facilitated for Local Trust’s Big Local programme, has been positive and encouraging. We also facilitated Your Shared Vision sessions at regional meetup events for Big Locals in Manchester and London.

Reflect | Recharge provided space for fifteen Big Local resident partnerships to consider their priorities, achievements, goals and needs, exploring what worked well, celebrating success and addressing challenges. It’s already led to constructive, tangible results.

“It was really great to work with you all. I still hear lots of comments about how valuable it has been to areas. It was a huge piece of work to develop and deliver, and I know you put a lot of care, consideration and expertise into it.”

Senior Programme Co-ordinator, Local Trust

Ripple Effect: Since the Reflect | Recharge sessions, we’ve heard that the Big Local partnerships we supported have been able to move on with their work. The chair of Rastrick Big Local gained confidence to run a consultation event with local groups. As a result, these groups have come together to do a collective solar power project.

In another Big Local area that we worked with, the partnership decided to invest in the community centre where many of their activities were based, which resulted in significant matched funding from the local council.

In all cases, the connections and skills already existed, and conversations were happening in corners, but making the space for the sessions and joining up the necessary people enabled really meaningful things to happen.

“This process has done more to connect experienced and new partnership members than any other session we have done.”


Gaunless Gateway Big Local

InterClimate Network

Coinciding with this year’s Cop29, we’re happy to have produced another round of UN-style model climate conferences in partnership with InterClimate Network. The good relationships and reputation we’ve built over the years have enabled this project to gain momentum and even greater reach. The Reading conference was over-subscribed thanks to Mary Singleton-White and the great job she has done connecting with local secondary schools. We also facilitated a first conference at Ipswich High School, supported by Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils.

Together with InterClimate Network, we delivered nine conferences in two weeks, and we’re proud of our team of Just Ideas associates who travelled around the country on trains, passed resources to each other, and made the events such a success.

“What I enjoyed the most about the conference was how well set up it was. I learnt about how other schools were tackling climate action which was very interesting.”

Student, Solihull

“For me it’s shown how difficult it is for so many countries to reach consensus. I hope the real COP29 is successful in making connections between different countries.”

Student, Reading

Ripple Effect: The Cheltenham conference had some great coverage on BBC local news and there’s been fantastic feedback from teachers, panel members and observers. We know that the impact of these conferences extends beyond the events themselves, expanding students’ awareness, influencing their thinking and even inspiring their future plans.

“Such an enjoyable and relevant day, the young people were incredibly engaged and that is thanks to how well-run the event was. Well done to your amazing team. Looking forward to the next one already!”

Climate Change Manager, Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils

“Thank you for everything that you did to facilitate such a wonderful climate conference. As ever, our students got such a lot out of the conference and will hopefully carry forward some of the ideas, both within school and in their personal lives.”

Teacher, Kendrick School, Reading

Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy

Just Ideas was invited by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to be a delivery partner for Berkshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy – a new initiative from DEFRA and Natural England to shape the priorities for nature recovery and increasing biodiversity in local areas.

Through a series of workshops, we worked with residents and stakeholders from local communities to make sure their views and priorities for nature were represented in a meaningful way.

We organised and facilitated:

• six place-based community workshops, attended by a total of 235 people
• three workshops for farmers and landowners, attended by a total of 140 people
• an online workshop with 35 participants
• 400 responses to an interactive survey.

Ripple Effect: Our associate, Natalie, produced some beautiful illustrations of Berkshire’s habitats and species for these workshops. They were very effective in bringing a wealth of complex information to people in a meaningful way and encouraging them to engage with it. Natalie also created a striking graphic summarising the priorities of the people we talked with. One of our big learnings from this work is the power of creating a ‘project on a page’ image. We’re continually exploring visual ways of working, including graphic reporting.

At a recent review of the pre-consultation draft of the strategy, with the supporting authorities and Natural England, there was positive feedback on the extent and depth of our public engagement work. The graphic Natalie created was also highlighted as an example of best practice.

“We were really impressed by your description of how the stakeholder engagement was undertaken and how it contributed to the setting of priorities and measures.”

Representative, LNRS supporting authorities and Natural England

A public consultation on the strategy is planned for early 2025, and it’s good to see the results of our collective efforts progressing to the next stage. We’ve had really positive feedback on our involvement in the strategy, thanks to working with a great team of associates with strong experience and expertise in nature, as well as the significant contribution of our contact at the council.

Thanks to the success of our work with Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy, we have already been recommended to two new contacts for future projects.

St-Martin-in-the-Fields Charity

Just Ideas is proud to have worked with St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity, providing a combination of one-to-one coaching and facilitated group sessions, to develop their leadership skills and support them through a period of significant growth and change.

Ripple Effect: Through our work together, the charity has deepened its understanding of organisational culture and the importance of living its values. They have fed back that our input has been significant in helping them to evolve their culture, and we’re glad to have made that impact.

New Local and Local Authorities

We’ve worked with New Local on two new projects this year. One is with the Ealing Council, co-designing ways for communities to get engaged in voicing ideas for shaping their town. The second is with Leicester City Council, on the Leicester Changing Communities project, helping the council understand the needs and priorities of diverse, changing local communities, with a view to being better able to connect with people.

Ripple Effect: We received great feedback on the work we did with New Local last year, and were delighted to hear that the team had learned a lot about engagement from being part of the work we did.

“Thank you so much for coming on board during the early stages of us building the practice function at New Local. It has been great working with Just Ideas. I hope you will continue to collaborate with the team and find yourself in many more exciting locations, town halls and community venues around the country in the future!”

Director of Practice, New Local

IVAR

We’re happy to be continuing our work as associates with IVAR (Institute of Voluntary Action Research) on the Connecting Health Communities programme, and supporting IVAR’s evaluation and learning partner role with the Propel programme. Over the next two and a half years, Just Ideas Director Helen Garforth will be contributing significant facilitation and partnership-building skills, and working with two new areas: Somerset and Leicestershire.

Just Ideas Collaborative

Our wonderful Just Ideas Collaborative – the teams of people we bring in to work with us on the projects we deliver – is vital in enabling our work to happen. It’s a group of people that really support each other, and enjoy working in teams together. We believe that speaks to our shared values, as well as our flexible and responsive ways of working, which build a sense of loyalty and connection.

“I’ve developed my confidence so much. It’s such a welcoming and supportive environment.  I feel that you give me a lot of responsibility, and I enjoy it. It’s nice to be trusted with something that you know is big, and to be given that space to grow.”

Associate, Just Ideas

Growing the team

Our core team at Just Ideas has grown from three to four this year, which is exciting. A big welcome to our new team member, Mike Ball, who is joining us as Data Systems Designer and Co-ordinator, and has already done some great work putting systems in place that make life easier and more efficient for us all.

We welcomed a number of new associates into the Just Ideas Collaborative in 2024, bringing even greater diversity of experience and expertise into our team.

Looking ahead to 2025

Developing the business

We’ve already started to invest in our business development processes, organising how we find work and put in tenders, with a view to taking on more ambitious projects.

We’ve also developed our capacity to delegate the leading and operational management of projects to associates. Our work on the Covid Inquiry Listening Exercise has been a great demonstration of what we can take on, and we want to build on that momentum. We’re working with more associates, investing in HR support, and putting systems in place to coordinate and support a growing team while assuring the quality of our work.

Keeping in contact: We’ve been on the lookout for an alternative to X/Twitter for sharing our news, and have now moved to Bluesky. We’d love it if you would follow us.

We’ll also keep on sharing Just Ideas’ company updates on LinkedIn.

A big thank you

As always, we’re deeply grateful to all the wonderful people we’ve been able to work with this year. We couldn’t do it without you!

We look forward to keeping in touch and continuing to work with you. We hope the ripple effects of the work we’re doing together will last for years to come.

Richard, Helen, Mary, Mike and the Just Ideas Collaborative.