Home

Alan Cripps

Alan is an independent consultant who specialises in working with voluntary and non-profit organisations.  His work as a consultant draws on some 30 years experience of working in the voluntary sector – more than half at Chief Executive level – and of chairing a number of charities including Centrepoint and National Homeless Alliance.

Areas of Interest and Experience

Alan has worked as a consultant with a wide range of organisations from major national charities and government departments to very small community-based projects.  What motivates him is the satisfaction of working with value-driven organisations seeking to change things for the better, and helping them to manage processes of transition, improve services and/or develop new ways of working.  Since becoming an independent consultant in 2002 he has built a reputation for successful work on:
  • strategic, organisation and service reviews
  • facilitation of collaborative working
  • support through merger processes
  • development of business cases, financial modelling, and business planning
  • development of new projects and systems
  • governance reviews and Board development

Recent Assignments

  • Housing Associations Charitable Trust.  Developing “Collaborate”, a CLG-funded pilot programme working with 8 groups of small Supporting People providers to develop collaborative approaches to joint tendering and resource sharing. Phase 2 of the project is still in progress, but the outputs from Phase 1 have been a best-selling publication (the Collaborate Resource Kit), and a detailed evaluation which helped HACT frame its evidence to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Supporting People.

  • FRANK.  Working with colleagues from the Pullens Group on a project to enable the FRANK drugs helpline to make effective referrals into local treatment services.  Alan’s main input was on analysing and developing systems, and evaluating, interpreting and writing-up the results of the initial pilot phase.

  • National Voices. Designing a governance structure for a newly-established alliance of national health and social care organisations to give service users a stronger voice in dealings with the Government and policy-makers.

  • Groundswell.  Working with a small, user-focused organisation on a review of governance systems and an appraisal of the options for collaboration or merger.

  • ScotsCare/Borderline/Royal Caledonian Schools Trust.  A study investigating the feasibility of a possible joint venture between three charities with overlapping client groups; this led on to a second piece of work facilitating a process of deep partnership between two of the participants.

Qualifications and publications

A degree from Oxford (if you want any Anglo-Saxon translated, he’s your man), and an MBA from the University of Westminster.

Contact Details:

Telephone:  020 8579 9983

Mobile:  07905 911790

Email:  click here to send an email

Web:  www.neadon.com

Some Little Known Facts About Alan

First job in the voluntary/community sector?  A five month stint as a Community Service Volunteer in a large mental hospital in Stenhousemuir (gap years have come on a bit since 1969).

Favourite treat? Solitude and time to think. Every winter I go away for a week by myself in a cottage on Dartmoor to reflect on what I’ve learnt from the work I’ve done over the last year, catch up on background reading, write articles and “think pieces”, and plan how to improve the work I do in future.

Greatest achievements?  Surviving parenthood on speaking terms with those on the receiving end, and taking all 10 wickets for 11 runs against Hythe B in 1967.

Relaxation?  Cooking – whatever’s fresh from the farmers’ market.  Also lead vocalist, rhythm guitar and harmonica in The Homertones – a typical Dad-rock band; not bad on our night (shame the night in question was in 1993).