About Us

Who We Are

Place Group's mission is to transform education by innovating and creating positive change. We challenge convention to create a vision for 21st century teaching and learning in environments that are inspired by the stakeholders. Place Group is passionate about education and improving the lives, hopes and aspirations of young people.

Place Group is a specialist programme management consultant company that works in partnership with its clients to transform education and raise standards in schools. We do this by maximising the scope and potential of school building and refurbishment programmes to drive positive change. As part of a wider educational change agenda, programmes such as 'Building Schools for the Future' and 'Academies' can have a huge impact on educational achievement and act as the catalyst for significant transformation.

Click here to visit Place Group’s website www.place-group.com

What We Do

Place has a broad range of experience in local authority strategic planning, operational planning and delivery, leadership development, change management and schools’ improvement. Much of this work is carried out under the banner of national programmes, such as Building Schools for the Future, the Academies programme (currently managing 15 Academy projects) and Integrated Children’s Services / Every Child Matters, but also as bespoke commissions from local authorities, individual and groups of schools, private sector partners and national government bodies including Partnership for Schools and the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

As a result, Place has worked in close collaboration and partnership with some 40 local authorities and 800 schools and their stakeholders (school leaders, staff, governors, parents, LA officers, other agencies, business partners, the local community; and, most importantly, children and young people); and developed a working methodology which includes:

• A strong emphasis on innovation and transformational thinking
• A clear and joined-up understanding of policy frameworks and political drivers
• A commitment to broad and ongoing stakeholder involvement in shaping the direction and operational focuses for education and children’s services
• A wide array of tools which open up thinking, provide challenge and support and logically drive operational delivery plans and commitments out of visions and ambitions – a ‘Strategy for Change’
• A desire to work with schools and local authorities to grow and develop internal leadership capacity as the key resource for sustainable improvement
• Dedicated and consistent teams which develop local knowledge, empathy with the client’s strategic intentions, relationships of trust and openness, and effective communication

How We Do It

Working closely with central and local government, schools and community stakeholders, Place creatively challenges the way in which schools are designed and educational services are delivered. At every stage of the process, we work with clients to define the educational vision, manage widespread consultation programmes, provide educational specialists to supplement the capabilities of our clients, drive innovation and diversity of choice, develop education-focused design briefs and ensure our clients' education objectives are front of mind throughout the entire capital programme.

Our Frameworks

Place is appointed to key government frameworks to support the national Children’s Services transformation agenda, and to help local authorities, business sponsors, schools and their communities develop visions and strategies to deliver the change desired.