About the project
The project focuses on understanding the current and future needs of voluntary and community organisations (VCSOs) in Wandsworth, and how the Council and partner organisations can best support the sector to build and sustain its capacity.
Rocket Science will conduct a wide range of in-person consultations which are essential in order to build a foundation of trust which is a pre-requisite of co-designing outcomes which are understood and shared within the community.
They will speak to a broad range of stakeholders, including VCSOs and statutory sector partners such as the Council’s commissioning teams, NHS partners within the Integrated Care System and service departments that work with the voluntary sector.
Opportunities to listen to the full range of community stakeholders will include 5 themed working groups (each meeting twice); a borough-wide survey; impromptu meetings at community events as well as 1-to-1 interviews.
The findings and draft recommendations, which will be co-designed along with the project steering group, will be fully tested at a large community consultation event in the summer before their presentation to the Council.
About Rocket Science
Rocket Science UK Ltd, established in 2001, is a business with a social purpose; we help to tackle social inequalities through research, service design and grant management across the UK. We enable individuals’ and communities’ participation in identifying and implementing improvements to services and changes to systems which enhance peoples’ livelihoods. We are practised at involving a diverse range of organisations in our consultations and co-productions of needs analyses.
For more information about us please visit our website, where we also have a bite-size introductory video about the work that we do across London and beyond.
Introducing the Rocket Science team
John Griffiths is one of the co-founders of Rocket Science and has 20 years’ experience working in public-policy development, implementation, evaluation, strategy reviews and grants management. He recently led part of the review of the City Bridge Trust’s 5-year strategy (Bridging Divides) to capture the learning from the Trust’s strategic investment programmes. He has also consulted and reported on several London Boroughs’ strategic and funding relationship with the voluntary and community sector.
John Griffiths will be the Project Director and oversee its delivery, quality assurance and be accountable to the Council for outputs from the commission. He will also contribute to consultation activity and support the team in developing recommendations and actions.
The team will be led, day-to-day, by our Principal Consultant, Alisi Mekatoa, who is a long-standing local resident. Alisi has worked in the NHS in public health for 9 years, followed by policy positions in mental health at the Cabinet Office and the DHSC. Her academic career spans the wider determinants of health and health policy implementation. Alisi will be the main point of contact on the project and she will work alongside the other consultants in engaging stakeholders and attending VCS events throughout the borough.
Alistair Ross is a Lead Consultant at Rocket Science whose work has focused on various youth employment and transitional programmes, and is involved in engagement with young people, employers, and stakeholders. On this project, Alistair’s role will involve engaging and consulting with stakeholders throughout the borough, collecting data and writing up the final needs analysis report and recommendations based on the findings.
Elliot Negru is a Consultant based in the London office and a current Wandsworth resident. He has experience working on various projects with a focus on employment, mental health and wellbeing and housing. Alongside Alisi and Alistair, he will be supporting the team with data gathering and stakeholder consultations throughout the borough.
Information about the project