Jon Carling Consultancy

I offer skills that I have developed in working environments like yours, over many years. These include:

- Managing small organisations, people, budgets and projects. I have a proven track record of transforming small organisations in the public or VCSE sectors and enabling them to deliver more than was expected of them. 

- Developing new projects, from initial concept to delivery

- Successfully bidding for funding from charitable sources. At Catalyst I obtained well over £1million funding from a wide range of charitable institutions, from the National Lottery to small charitable trusts

- Impact evaluation. I have produced written evaluations derived from quantitative and qualitative analysis for projects funded by the state, and by charitable institutions

- Economic analysis. I am a trained economist and I am experienced in using economic models to assess the impact of local initiatives. In 2023, for example, I showed how £45,000 of public investment in local youth services had generated £242,000 of additional economic benefit to the local economy

- Data analysis. I spent 15 years in posts where I looked at large and small datasets and derived conclusions and policy recommendations from trends in the data. For example, my report on travel patterns in North East England was influential on the geography of the two Local Enterprise Partnerships established in 2011/2012.

- Developing strategies. I have developed many of these over the years, based on a combination of political direction and community engagement. Examples include the Middlesbrough Community Strategy and the Durham Police and Crime Plan

- Research. I am experienced in using data and comunity engagement to assess local needs. I can also analyse published documents, talk to local service-delivering partners, and engage with local communities to identify how to address local needs 

- Mapping exercises. I have undertaken and/or commissioned exercises to identify the services that operate in a region, a town, a neighbourhood or a community

If you commission me to undertake a piece of work for you, I will be flexible and cost-effective. I will sit down with you and agree the scope and content of the project, and how much time it will take. I will agree a price with you - either an hourly rate, a daily rate or a price for the whole project. No job is too small - if you need an hour's work done, I can do it. If it will take six months, I'm happy to do that too. 

My motivation for working for you will always be to achieve something worthwhile for the community you work with. My background is working in some of the most disadvantaged parts of North East England, often with marginalised communities and demographic groups. I have always sought to make a difference, and I still want to do so.