Our Consultancy Service

The Pool ...

Been there
Done that
Ready to help

.....a refreshing consultancy experience from DTA Scotland

The Pool

The Pool is a new style of consultancy from DTA Scotland.
It draws on DTA Scotland’s very special asset: the wealth of grassroots expertise and knowledge of community-led regeneration, asset development and community enterprise within its members, staff and wider contacts.
Across Scotland we can provide the support communities, third sector organisations and public sector organisations and others need to make community-led regeneration and enterprise a thriving reality.

Our services

Because of the vast range of experience in the Pool we can provide a broad range of services including:

• Feasibility studies
• Business planning
• Advice on sustainability, financing and trading strategies
• Reviews and policy advice
• Researching and writing up case studies
• Community consultation and engagement
• Training and facilitation
• Constructive reviews, a form of collective intelligence report on any issue you bring us

If the service you require is not listed above, please ask us as we are constantly adding new areas to our service.

We work in a collaborative and supportive way with our clients and the distinctive set-up of the Pool allows us to tailor our support to their individual needs and situation.

Our advice is always impartial, constructive and hard-headed.

Our consultants

Our consultants are practitioners in community regeneration and enterprise – people who have made things happen on the ground and learnt the lessons the hard way!

Our consultants:

• know what they are talking about and how to listen so that our advice and support is always tailored to the needs of our clients.
• share a common ethos and passion for community-led regeneration and also offer an uncompromising quality of advice and support.
• have experience of working with community organisations, central and local government, public agencies, the private sector in fact anyone with an interest in the community-led regeneration and enterprise.
• are selected to join the Pool by a rigorous selection process to ensure that they have both excellent consultancy skills as well as the necessary skills and experience.

We can deploy individuals or teams of consultants flexibly to respond to the needs of our clients.

And standing behind our consultants is the collective knowledge and experience of over 400 development trusts across the UK which we have unequalled access to.

Examples of our work

The Pool has undertaken a broad range of work on diverse issues.
Recent examples of our work include:

• a feasibility study for the Unst Partnership of a possible community acquisition of the Saxa Vord resort (a former RAF base) in Unst Shetland.
• an analysis for Senscot of the recognition of social enterprise in all the 32 Single Outcome Agreements for Scottish Councils.
• training for community groups on community involvement on behalf of the Scottish Sustainable Development Commission.
• researching and writing up case studies of social enterprises engaged in health promotion for Senscot.
• preparing a business plan for a community cafe on behalf of Ardler Village Trust.
• a feasibility study for Stow Community Council of the conversion of a former school building.
• advising Prospect Community Housing on the viability of a new community newspaper for west Edinburgh.
• helping to deliver the Promoting Asset Transfer , a major programme on community assets funded by the Scottish Government.

We are happy to provide references from previous clients.

Contacts

For further information about the Pool in general or to discuss a specific requirement, please contact:

Toby Johns, Head of Consultancy at toby [at] dtascot [dot] org [dot] uk