Our Story

 

Pentuple Consulting was established in 2015 by Steve Dibnah, an economic and community development professional with over 30 years’ public sector and private consultancy experience in the UK and overseas. This includes over 10 years working at director and senior management level within UK public sector. Most recently, he was Director of Sustainable Economic Growth at Leicester City Council and Prospect Leicestershire Limited, before returning again to private sector consultancy.

 

Steve brings to Pentuple Consulting a strong reputation for making things happen and an impressive track record of delivering sustainable economic growth, the regeneration of places and communities and creating stronger, more vibrant local communities. For example, he spent over 10 years leading the successful regeneration of the former Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfields area: supporting the creation of a diversified local economy; attracting significant inward investment; completing successful ‘award-winning’ land reclamation, employment land and area regeneration programmes and bringing new life to deprived former rural mining communities.

 

Our Strengths

 

Our expertise is borne out of many years working at a senior level within all three tiers of local government as well as independent consultants.

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As Change Catalysts, we know how to help clients make things happen and drive projects forward from inception through to completion to deliver changes that enable people, places, businesses and local communities to thrive and grow and makes local economies stronger and the environment a healthier place in which to live.

 

We have substantial experience of working in the public sector and managing the interface between the public sector, businesses and local communities. This experience and knowledge enables us to add value and play a pivotal role in many assignments involving collaborations between businesses and the public sector, working with local communities and collaborations involving all three sectors. For example, we are able to offer valuable insight into the needs, priorities and challenges facing local authorities, businesses and local communities. This means we are able to work effectively within a public sector environment and reflect the needs of businesses and local community groups within public policy making and the design and delivery of public services. We are also good at building effective cross-sector collaborations, balancing competing interests sensitively and managing a process of change across a diverse range of communities.

 

We are passionate about making a real difference for people and their communities, businesses and the local economy and the environment. We bring to each assignment a proven track record of making things happen, getting the job done and doing it well. We offer a wealth of practical experience gained over many years as a leader, initiator, coordinator and manager of large and small scale projects and programmes. We are comfortable with complexity and ambiguity, with a proven track record of initiating, developing and delivering projects with complex partnering and funding arrangements and operating in challenging environments.

 

In view of the breadth, depth and transferability of our experience and skills means we are able to add value for a client in a very short space of time. We have a clarity of purpose and are agile and flexible. We are capable of adapting our skills and expertise to serve as a catalyst for positive change in a wide range of situations and sectors, even those that are new to us. 

 

Who We Support

 

We undertake short term and interim assignments and deliver commissioned projects for and on behalf of:

 

• Local authorities, local enterprise partnerships and other public sector organisations

 

• Small and medium sized businesses, particularly those that are innovation and technology-led

 

• Research-led universities and not-for-profit research institutions

 

• Community groups: formal and informal

 

• Third sector organisations, including voluntary and community organisations, social enterprises and charities

 

The Way We Work

 

We operate at both the strategic and operational level, facilitating positive change in areas relating to:

 

• Economic & community development.

 

• Regeneration of places & communities.

 

• Urban healthy living & the impact of air pollution exposure on people's health.

 

• Uptake of technology-enabled tools & services by the public sector to improve policy making and delivery of services.

 

• Urban planning & active travel.

 

• Transitioning to a low carbon economy.

 

• Design, funding & delivery of health and social care services.

 

We adopt a pragmatic and realistic approach to each assignment, focussing on those things that can be directly changed and influenced. We take the time to make sure we understand the needs of each client and what they wish to achieve, so we are able to offer the right services and support.

 

How We Support Clients

 

As experienced Change Catalysts, our role is to bring to a particular assignment or commissioned project additional support to enable it to happen. That support can take many forms, depending on the nature and scope of the commission and our specific role, whether as the lead consultants or working in a specialist sub-consultant or associate capacity.

 

Typically, we support assignments and commissioned projects where the client:

 

• Needs additional short term ‘hands-on’ support to fulfil a specific task or role;

 

• May have a solution in mind, or at least a sense of the direction they wish to travel in order to address a particular issue, but needs help to shape it, get it off the ground and support its successful delivery;

 

• Is looking for an objective perspective, fresh insight and an independent ‘big picture’ view for tasks such as exploring new policy directions or preparing/reviewing strategies and programmes of action;

 

• Requires specific experience, expertise or knowledge not found within their organisation to help make something happen.

 

Our Partners and Collaborators

 

We undertake short term and interim assignments and deliver commissioned projects directly for clients. We also provide specialist support as a Sub-Consultant and Associate, particularly on assignments with the public sector involving collaboration with the private sector and working with local communities.

 

We work with a number of associates who are also independent consultants and we are able to assemble a specialist team of experts to match an individual client’s needs at short notice. All share our commitment to providing a quality service and achieving sustainable development and growth, healthy urban living and a low carbon future.

 

We collaborate as a Sub-Consultant and Associate on a project-by-project basis and always welcome new opportunities work as part of a larger project team on challenging and complex assignments. Our role is typically to provide project management, coordination and other specialist inputs, including consultation and stakeholder engagement, policy analysis and strategy preparation, managing teams of technical experts, translating technical evidence and advice into clear, concise and coherent reports and presentations that are easily understood by the client, and frequently serving as the main client contact in public sector assignments, in particular managing the interface with public sector and community based end-users.

 

We also work with technology-led SME partners to initiate and deliver projects of our own, usually in partnership with the public sector. These are often in response to open calls for proposals from Government funding programmes, typically to advance the development of innovative new technology-based tools and services for the public sector. Our role is to support the initial proposal development and bidding process to secure project funding, facilitate the creation of public sector development partnerships, support the delivery of the projects, manage the interface with public sector end-users and contribute to the analysis, evaluation and report writing stages. Our goal is to increase the uptake of these new tools and services by the public sector to enhance policy making and enable smarter, more efficient delivery of public services: typically in areas relating to sustainable development, healthy urban living, air pollution, sustainable transport and the transition to a low carbon future.

 

Our Current Collaborations

 

Through Pentuple Consulting, Steve is currently working in partnership with:

 

• Redshift Associates Ltd

 

• Geospatial Insights Ltd

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• Earth Sense Ltd

 

• DragonGate (DGMI) Ltd

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• Edwards and Edwards Consultancy Ltd

 

• Breaking Barriers Innovations Ltd

 

• Belanda Consulting

 

Steve Dibnah is also an Advisory Board Member for Breaking Barriers Innovations, which supports place-based transformation in public services. BBI works with public service professionals, innovative suppliers, experts and other stakeholders to devise new public service models based on innovative place-based working. Initially focussing on four frontline areas: health and social care; criminal justice; housing and infrastructure; and skills, employment, and local growth.