Company Impact Report, 2018 - 2023

This five-year Company Impact Report represents the first since Public Practice was founded.

In 2023, we commissioned an external agency, AKOU, to independently audit the Associate Programme’s impact since Public Practice was founded in late 2017. AKOU worked closely with Alums and line managers from our Associate Programme to collect new data and insights, and, importantly, to highlight aspects of impact, both good and bad, that we were unaware of since launching.

In addition, the report captures some of the findings from our own data analysis and review of Public Practice’s key activities over the first five years of operation.

The report unveiled new learnings for our organisation and influenced our strategy and priorities for the coming years:

1. Community of practice: We play an important role in growing and supporting social capital within our network during and after our placements. We will look to understand this better.
2. Influencing the sector: Our Associate Programme has been the core service in the organisation’s first five years. We want to develop and grow our influence on workforce planning and resourcing practices in the coming years.
3. Diversity and Inclusion: We want to be more ambitious about the diversity of our Associates and believe there is room for improvement. We will continue our work on capturing and tracking data, including less visible characteristics.
4. Local government capability: Despite difficult working conditions, we have positively brought in new mid-career level skills. We will explore further opportunities to bring other levels of experience into the sector, support
   the retention of existing officers and facilitate the sharing of learnings across siloes of teams and geographical boundaries.