ShackletonReach is supporting the development of Quorum (with Chicken).
Quorum is an open-source committee management system designed collaboratively with UK local councils as an alternative to proprietary platforms. The model is intended to give participating councils more influence over development, reduce vendor lock-in and create a shared digital asset that can be improved over time.
Our work encompasses discovery, stakeholder engagement and programme delivery. The role includes:
Supporting funding conversations
Engaging councils and other stakeholders around the emerging offer
Supporting product demos, discovery and prioritisation
Helping shape the proposition around real Democratic Services needs
Coordinating programme activity, with the product now moving from concept into funded development
The work combines proposition development, stakeholder coordination and practical programme support. We have helped to turn an early-stage idea into a viable, collaboratively developed public-sector product.
Quorum: Making democracy open
Dentsu: Strengthening complex bid responses
Dentsu was preparing responses for a Crown Commercial Service framework, involving multiple Lots, contributors and tightly defined assessment criteria.
ShackletonReach supported the bid team with structured review, quality assurance and response development, helping ensure draft answers were focused on the requirements being scored rather than becoming overly descriptive or credentials-led.
The work included:
Reviewing draft responses against the CCS specification and marking criteria
Identifying gaps, ambiguity and areas where answers might be improved
Strengthening future-focused commitments, delivery detail and measurable outcomes
Helping writers distinguish useful evidence from unnecessary background or “creds” content
Providing sentence-level feedback on successive drafts
Developing a repeatable evaluation process so responses could be reviewed consistently across different Lots and contributors
Supporting work across areas including Out of Home, production, transparency, onboarding, client service and social value
The role combined detailed editorial judgement with an understanding of how complex public procurement responses are assessed.
Rather than simply proofreading completed answers, ShackletonReach worked alongside the bid process to help turn specialist input from multiple contributors into clearer, more specific and more assessor-focused responses, while working within strict character limits and the requirements of the framework.
CHIRP: Developing clearer, more consistent communications
CHIRP is an independent charity that helps improve safety in aviation and maritime through confidential reporting and the sharing of safety learning.
ShackletonReach has supported CHIRP to strengthen the foundations of its communications across the charity and its two programmes.
The work has included:
Values development, using a trustee workshop and staff engagement to identify the principles that should shape how CHIRP works and communicates.
Working with the Maritime and Aviation programmes to identify audiences, key messages and potential channels, helping each programme articulate its role and communicate more consistently while reflecting the different communities it serves.
Developing a clearer charity-level narrative and voice, connecting the work of both programmes and strengthening the way CHIRP explains its wider purpose.
Ongoing support with editorial and social media content, practical assistance during a website hosting move, and work now underway to update website copy and resources.
The result is a stronger and more coherent communications foundation, developed collaboratively with the people who know CHIRP and its audiences best.
Chicken Digital: Supporting growth, delivery and client relationships
Chicken Digital designs and builds digital tools for councils and public-sector teams, with a particular focus on creating services that are fairer, clearer and easier to use.
ShackletonReach works with Chicken to support both operations and business development, adding capacity where client delivery, internal processes and growth overlap.
The work includes:
Working with the founders on operational improvements and ways of working
Leading proposal development, pitches and client onboarding
Leading stakeholder engagement and discovery
Supporting client project management and day-to-day delivery
Programme management for Drupal CMS development projects
The engagement is deliberately broad. It combines client-facing delivery with the practical work needed behind the scenes to help the business grow, projects run smoothly and new opportunities progress.
Rather than providing a single discrete service, ShackletonReach acts as an experienced extension of the team. We help to connect business development, stakeholder relationships, project delivery and operational improvement as Chicken grows.
ILM helps people and organisations develop leadership and management skills, supporting personal development and organisational performance.
ShackletonReach worked with ILM on a four-month content improvement programme focused on a selection of key landing and index pages.
The work combined content review, stakeholder engagement and customer insight to understand how existing content was performing, where users were experiencing friction and how pages could better support their needs.
The programme included:
Collaborative review of existing content
Stakeholder and customer interviews
Content development workshops
Development of revised web copy
Detailed reporting and recommendations
Identification of opportunities for further improvement
Rather than treating the work as a simple rewrite, the programme used evidence and stakeholder input to shape the content, helping ILM develop clearer, more useful pages grounded in the needs of both the organisation and its audiences.
ILM: Improving content through research and collaboration
#FutureSkills – with City & Guilds and FE News
City & Guilds, in collaboration with FE News, ran a series of livestreams exploring the skills challenges facing sectors that are critical to the UK economy.
ShackletonReach supported the programme by turning livestream discussion into clear, accessible content for wider use.
The brief included:
Writing feature copy based on the livestream content
Producing lightweight web copy that participating organisations could reuse
Capturing key themes, arguments and emerging skills needs
Helping demonstrate City & Guilds’ role as a convener of experts and policy makers
The work required more than simply summarising the discussion. It needed to reflect the evidence, opinion and nuance accurately, identify the most useful insights and shape them into content that worked for different audiences.
