PDW would like to welcome Jean as an Associate Consultant with PDW. 

Jean is highly experienced in extra care housing and sheltered housing management gained at one of the UK’s largest housing and care organisations for older people, where she directed and controlled services to over 75 sheltered schemes providing 2,400 units of accommodation, with operational budgets in excess of £2.5m.

From March 2003 to April 2004 Jean led a national project team to implement and manage the new Supporting People regime as it was introduced.

Working as an Associate Consultant since April 2004, Jeans portfolio has included project managing successful bids for funding from the DH Extra Care Grant for Bolton and Cumbria CC as well as acting as a critical friend on two other successful bids.  Other assignments have included interim management of sheltered and supported housing, the development of an older people’s housing strategy, design and development support for extra care housing  and more recently working on both supporting people and telecare tenders.

Jean is currently the joint North West regional lead for the Housing LIN.

We have just completed a comprehensive and current Development Procedure Manual for a Registered Housing Provider client.  This is the latest and best version of a manual we have produced. We are confident that this new manual is an excellent tool for development staff at all levels within developing housing organisations. We offer this manual tailored to suit any organisation in a range of formats, including an electronic format, which is very easy to navigate through the procedures and standard documentation.

We also offer a regular update and review service for all our clients.

We are happy to present an example of this manual to anyone interested.  Please ring 0870 757 0990 for further information.

Through our expanding associate network we are now delivering additional management and care policy support services for an extra care housing project in Widnes.  We are assisting with staffing structures, contract negotiations, SP advice, service charge policy and general management issues within the extra care scheme known as ‘Naughton Fields’.  This is an exciting, mixed tenure, extra care project for Halton Housing Trust.

Please contact us on 0870 757 0990 if you would like further details of the project and/or services we are offering.

We are currently looking to recruit a highly motivated individual to join our team as a Project Manager and become involved in a wide range of projects related to development and housing.  The work is challenging and varied and the successful applilcant will be involved in project delivery for housing clients as well as options appraisal, strategy development and other consultancy projects within the housing and development sectors.

If you are interested in applying for this role and would like more information then please contact us.

We would like to apologise to clients who may have had difficulty in contacting us by email us last week.  This was due to the installation of a new server.  Things are now back to normal.

We recently delivered a conference for a senior management team of a large stock transfer organisation.  The development away day was scheduled to present a series of presentations ranging from option appraisal and stock investment techniques, procedure guidance, the Affordable Homes Programme and Extra Care Housing.

The day was very well received and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting the client team and discussing their development and investment issues.

PDW appointed to provide development consultancy services to WPH.

With the AHP bidding process well underway, we have been appointed by Wirral Partnership Homes to provide project management services in respect of several current development initiatives.  The appointment is initially short term, and we are very much enjoying getting to know the team at WPH.

Just 5 months ago we started working with Halton Housing Trust to deliver an extra care housing scheme in Widnes.  We are delighted to confirm that a high quality 47 unit scheme has now achieved a start on site this month.  The scheme will provide much needed housing and care services for older people in the Widnes area.  HHT have now extended our appointment to provide ongoing project management support to deliver this scheme. The timescales have been very demanding, but the client and consultant team have all worked extremely well together to get to this point. Grant funding has been awarded from both HCA and Halton Borough Council and Cruden Construction have been awarded the works contract following a competitive tender process.

We are delighted to be part of the winning bid team to provide an assessment of the supply and condition of older persons’ and supported housing across Cheshire West and Chester.  We have joined Arc4 for this important research project and our role will be focusing on the sustainability of the current supply of existing accommodation. We very much look forward to working with the team at Arc4 and the Officers at CWAC. We will start this work before the end of November 2010 with a completion scheduled for February 2011.

David has worked in housing and regeneration for over 20 years. Since graduating, David has worked in a variety of development and project management roles with Local Authorities, Developers and Housing Associations, before establishing a consultancy business in 1998.

Initially focusing on RSL development activity, David’s work over recent years has involved a wide range of housing and development consultancy roles, including a particular emphasis on older persons and extra care housing initiatives.  David specialises in development agency services, option appraisal and investment strategy and has gained a reputation for clear objective advice leading to sensible and deliverable investment strategies.

David established Project Development Workshop Ltd (PDW) in 1999, and has personally lead housing consultancy and development agency roles for RSL’s and Local Authorities throughout the UK. Clients range from small voluntary organisations with single scheme issues, to regional and national organisations requiring review, appraisal or project management of large portfolios of housing stock.

The range of housing and development services David through PDW is extensive.  We would be happy to arrange a presentation of experience on request.