Embedding Performance Improvement into Practice

It felt like you could be really vulnerable and safe at once – I have never seen any other trainers create this so well. Being able to be vulnerable enabled that big growth and connection with others – it meant we could work from an honest place.

The level of genuine conversations that took place changed relationships between our agencies – I think this would have taken 10 years under normal circumstances

The interface team are very approachable and responsive to our ever changing needs. They are incredibly supportive and really go the extra mile to support us.

We felt that Interface listened to our needs and that of our clients and they translated our vision into a product of high standard and quality. The outcome of the work was achieved, we were able to obtain Interface support even when our contract with them ended and we feel that Interface is an organisation that genuinely cares and desires the best outcome for their clients.

I have worked with Wendy and Interface since her days at DFES and later as the Founder of Interface. She has built considerable expertise in the key developments in Family Support over the last 20 years and with her partners has been able to offer us knowledge, experience, flexibility to meet our changing requirements as we have developed our services. We have valued her help developing our practice, management , systems and meeting our partnership workforce development needs most recently on Family Hubs, Management and Leadership and Trauma programmes.

Wendy and colleagues are responsive, excellent communicators with us, partners and staff. We have been really pleased with the outcomes. I would you use them again and recommend to others.

Our approach to early help was inadequate as was our Troubled Families programme, overall we were not fit for families and as a result we were failing. Interface worked alongside us as we built our new Early Help offer, enabling external trouble shooting, facilitation of the identification of solutions and growing practitioners that had all the skills but were lacking in confidence and application. Interface worked alongside us. They were excellent and professional throughout. The outcomes were excellent with a recent Ofsted inspection praising within our Early Help teams.

We set a very challenging timetable for the piece of work we commissioned. Interface developed an approach which both met our time frames, but also provided an incredibly robust and challenging assessment. The combination of the 2 associates with different backgrounds was a benefit to the project and outcomes as it meant we received challenge from a number of angles.

We approached Interface to add their wealth of experience, knowledge, and capacity to the project in Gloucestershire to move towards Family Hubs. This is a huge change programme for Gloucestershire and one that needed to be co-produced with stakeholders to ensure we understood ‘what good will look like’ for our families and practitioners.
Interface were approachable, flexible to the ever-changing needs of our project and have been invaluable adding in national context as well as really taking time to get to know our communities, so they walk in the shoes of our children and families. Having great communication ensured we worked together to achieve the outcomes set for us each step of the project. The staff responded to last minute requests for work and or changes to the programme seamlessly and their expertise in the area of Family Hubs was so valuable to us in responding to challenges. Interface staff became an integral part of the project team not just a consultant on the end of the phone. They provided strategic as well as practical support.
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the team at Interface, it’s just so amazing what we achieved together in such a short space of time. I am really excited for the next stage of the programme to see all the groundwork be bought to life in the tender.
I would highly recommend Interface as an organisation and although this project is not yet finished, I would not hesitate to draw from their knowledge, experience, and expertise for future projects.

Thank you for your thorough evaluation of our partnership. You navigated some complex relationships and issues extremely well and we look forward to taking forward the action plan to the next level.

Many thanks for the report, the work that went into it and the slides. I hope you are all having a well-deserved rest! Please know that the work will result in positive change and that you will have been instrumental in putting us on the right path.