Rising Curve

Our consulting and business advisory services cover a number of sectors and disciplines, reflecting the experience of our members. We focus on areas where the public and private sectors meet, through public private partnerships and other approaches to collaborative working.

We are currently involved in the Building Schools for the Future programme, working with private sector clients that want to improve their chances of success in the bidding process and the value that they offer to local authorities. In this area of our work we make use of the experience we gained in working with Partnerships for Schools, where Glenn Richer supported the BSF programmes in Sunderland, Durham, Barnsley and North Lincolnshire.

Another major area of work is the NHS LIFT programme, where we offer financial advice to both public and private sectors. We have a commitment to ensuring that LIFT delivers value for money and assist health bodies in reviewing private sector proposals. We also help the private sector to develop systems to guarantee VFM and continuous improvement to their public sector clients. At the moment we are working with the Community Health Partnerships, the organisation established by the Department of Health to deliver and manage the LIFT programme. We act as financial and procurement advisers to public sector bodies involved in LIFT and recently assisted in bringing the Truro Health Park scheme to financial close. We are also working with North Tyneside Council, developing the new Joint Service Centre at Whitley Bay through the local LIFT company.

By working with both public and private bodies we have developed a full understanding of the expectations of both sides. This enables us to offer a particular expertise in leading negotiations to a successful conclusion that meets the needs of all parties.

Our consulting and advisory activities underpin our training programmes and seminars, allowing us to offer a unique degree of insight to participants.

Rising Curve is an organization with an entirely new approach to the Midlands. We aim to identify the key features of the economic, social and cultural framework of the area, while recognizing that national and international trends will have their own impacts to which the region will have to respond. We also acknowledge that while there are many issues about which it is possible to talk about an overall Midlands perspective, there are many others where the differences between the villages, towns and cities in the region require separate consideration to do them justice. 

Reflecting this diversity, Rising Curve offers a range of activities that combine to lead to an innovative set of contributions to improve well-being and aspiration in and for the Midlands. Part of our work involves surveys of the Midland economy and key aspects of its social and cultural life. At the same time we lead opinion by authoring and commissioning polemical pieces that invite comment from everyone with an interest. In both cases our future findings will be available free of charge via this website.

We chose the Midlands as the centre for our think tank activities since Michael Clark and Glenn Richer have both spent significant proportions of their lives working and living in the area. Since then we have had the opportunity to make a contribution at national and international level and our awareness of the the tensions between central policy making and local delivery has inspired us to create a new initiative for the benefit of the region.