PA Consulting advises Scope on charity's restructuring

24 January 2019 Consultancy.uk

Global professional services firm PA Consulting was called in by Scope to help lead an organisational change programme, as part of a five-year strategy. The disability charity did not bring in the level of donations in the year of 2016/17 that it had planned for, leading to the sale of a number of its assets since.

Scope is a national disability charity which was formed to campaign to challenge and change negative attitudes about disability, while providing direct support services. The organisation was founded in 1952 by a group of parents and social workers who wanted to ensure that their disabled children had the right to a decent education. However, a decline in the level of donations to the charity has forced the organisation to realign moving forward.

The need for organizational change has seen the charity spend £282,978 on advice from PA Consulting. The charity was charged a further £180,000 by the company for the secondment of Kerrie O’Connor to Scope to lead work on the overall change programme for Scope's five-year strategy.

Part of this strategy saw Scope auction off its regulated and day services provision wing. The transaction generated £23 million for the charity, while almost 1,600 staff transferred to the private sector firm Salutem Healthcare as part of the deal, affecting services at 51 locations in England and Wales. Scope also made a profit of £14 million on the sale of its London offices and other properties throughout that same financial year.

Without including the £23 million sale to Salutem, Scope's income for the year ending 31 March 2018 was £94.6 million, compared with £97.8 million in the previous year. Its income included £58.7 million on continuing operations and £35.8 million on discontinuing operations, which Chair Andrew McDonald suggested illustrated the need for the organisation’s "transformational year".

In his 2017/18 Chair Report, he wrote, "Staying as we were was no longer good enough. We needed to act in order to achieve greater impact and reach more people, to focus our energies and resource towards what mattered most. We needed to create an organisation fit for the future."

PA Consulting’s Head of Consulting sectors, Andrew Hooke, is also a Scope trustee. The same is true of Joe Barrell, Managing Director of Eden Stanley, a PR advisory firm which Scope paid £116,649 for audience insight work. A spokeswoman for the charity assured the press that the appointments of PA Consulting and Eden Stanley were undertaken in line with governance procedures and Charity Commission guidelines, however. She added that PA Consulting went through a full procurement process to be listed as a preferred supplier, while Eden Stanley was appointed after a competitive tender, and a decision by the board of trustees.