New Skills Consulting

An economic development practitioner and economist, Peter has led the growth of the company since its formation in 2005.

During his 15 year career, he has worked in roles across the broad field of economic development, from analysis, evaluation and strategy, through funding policy and management, to the hands-on delivery of employment, enterprise and physical regeneration projects.

Peter's key areas of expertise include economic research and analysis, economic impact evaluation, and the management of UK and EU regeneration funding. In his time with New Skills, he has led projects across all areas of the business including a regional research project on behalf of Entrust exploring the take-up of graduate placements with SMEs, an economic impact assessment of the North East Public Sector Workforce Development Programme, and a bidding exercise that secured £1m in Single Programme and EFF funding to support the Seafood Training Centre.

Prior to setting up the company, Peter worked as an economic analyst with Deutche Bank in the City of London, as a research consultant with Trends Business Research in Newcastle, and as Economic Development Manager at North Tyneside Council's Economic Development Unit, overseeing a team of 50 staff delivering skills, employment and business and enterprise services.

Chris heads up our Funding Advisory Service. Specialising in UK and EU economic development funding throughout his 15 year career, he has developed significant expertise and technical knowledge in the field.

In his time with New Skills he has developed many successful funding applications, securing an £11m ESF grant for Business & Enterprise North East to fund SME workforce training, and winning £1m of Working Neighbourhoods Funds for an enterprise coaching project led by the NE Business and Innovation Centre. He has also advised One North East on the implementation of the ERDF Competitiveness Programme, translating technical ERDF guidance into simple 'how to guides' for practitioners, and undertaking appraisals of business support projects. Chris has also applied his policy expertise to help shape the development of Objective 2 and 3 ESF programmes, through membership of regional and national funding committees. His economic development skills extend to project / programme design, funding management and monitoring, evaluation, and audit and assurance work.

His previous roles include head of North Tyneside Council's European Funding Team, and Senior Consultant with Ernst & Young's Grants Division, where he worked for blue chip clients including Accenture, RM Plc and ABP Ports.

Helen leads our Project and Programme Management Service, putting into practice her expertise in the management of complex, multi-million pound economic development programmes.

Since joining New Skills in 2005, Helen has worked extensively on education, skills and employment initiatives, developing an excellent understanding of the national and regional skills and economic inclusion policy agenda. Recent assignments include developing a programme management framework for Tyne & Wear City Region's £5.2m Single Programme funded employability project, leading the outsourced programme management function for One North East's £5.9m Higher Level Skills Capacity Fund, and developing a Future Jobs Fund project securing £10m from DWP to support young unemployed people into work. Her core skills also encompass project appraisal, monitoring and evaluation, and bid writing.

Helen has 18 years' experience working in senior funding and project management roles. She has previously held the posts of Senior Manager of External Resources at LSC Tyne & Wear where she managed over £24m of ESF co-financing resources, and European Funding Manager in North Tyneside Council's Economic Development Unit.

Claire is a marketing and research specialist. She leads our product development and innovation activities and works on a variety of research and quality improvement projects.

Recent assignments with New Skills include an evaluation of the Tyne and Wear Together Employment Support Programme for North Tyneside Council, an appraisal of the market for social care qualifications with Skills for Care, and the development of a quality improvement strategy for Van Hee, a North East-based logistics training provider. Her key strengths are her analytical skills and ability to use research insights to shape highly effective marketing campaigns and the development of new services and products.

Claire has an excellent track record in marketing, research and operations management gained during a 16 year career in the further education and training sector. This included senior roles with Newcastle College and online learning company, Creating Careers, where she was responsible for planning large-scale corporate marketing programmes and developing new education brands and training products with Microsoft, Edexcel, and City and Guilds.

Anne leads our research and evaluation services, putting into practice her expertise in appraising economic needs and understanding the impact of regeneration activities.

Key recent assignments with New Skills include an economic impact evaluation of the regional CDFI microloan fund on behalf of One North East, an assessment of the market for health and social care qualifications with Skills for Care, and for Skills North East the development of a practical 'how to guide' to help funders and service providers improve how they evaluate employability projects.

Anne has a strong track record in social and economic research, and a particular expertise in measuring economic impacts in line with the RDA Impact Evaluation Framework and HM Treasury Green Book guidance. Several of her recent evaluations were cited as good practice during an independent review of RDA performance by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

She worked previously in Wansbeck District Council's economic development department supporting the successful Go Wansbeck LEGI programme, and also worked for 3 years as a consultant with URS Corporation in Manchester where she helped to grow their Northern England Economics office.

A highly experienced economic development and regeneration professional, Ian plays a leading role in our programme management, monitoring and evaluation services.

During his time with New Skills he has led a varied range of assignments including the design and implementation of a multi-faceted £12m 'Fairer Scotland Fund' regeneration programme on behalf of Inverclyde Council, developing processes to monitor the financial and output performance of One North East's Higher Level Skills Fund, and evaluating a programme of microloan funds for financially excluded businesses delivered by Community Development Finance Institutions.

During his 20 year career, Ian has developed a particular specialism in the management of complex, multi-million pound regeneration programmes, encompassing Single Programme, SRB, City Challenge and Urban Programme. His core strengths lie in strategy development, project appraisal and performance monitoring, across the full scope of regeneration activities including employability and enterprise, community safety and infrastructure development.

He has previously held a series of senior level posts including Head of Service for Economic Regeneration at North Tyneside Council and Regeneration Manager at the urban development company, North Tyneside Challenge.

An experienced economic development funding specialist, Sue plays a key role in our bid writing and project management services.

During her time with New Skills, Sue has monitored the output and financial performance of the Seafood Training Centre's £300,000 Single Programme funded fishing industry skills project, developed a health and social care workforce development project on behalf of Gateshead College, and prepared funding bids for the UXL consortium of work-based learning providers.

Sue's main area of expertise lies in the development, appraisal, delivery and monitoring of regeneration projects, particularly involving voluntary and community sector organisations. She has a strong track record in the management of ESF, ERDF and Single Programme funds, securing over £30m funding for regeneration projects in some of the North East's most deprived communities while working with ESFVON. She has also worked in funding management roles in the education and public sectors, including with Government Office for the North East and South Tyneside College, developing an excellent appreciation of the regional and national regeneration funding and policy environment.

Lucie works across all of our key service areas, although her main specialism is in research and evaluation.

Since joining New Skills in 2008, Lucie has worked on a variety of research assignments including an evaluation of Gateshead Council's 'Not All Dragons Bite' enterprise project, a longitudinal study of Entrust's New Entrepreneur Scholarship programme, and an evaluation of the City of Sunderland Hospital's Work Experience programme. She also works on monitoring and tracking the performance of One North East's Higher Level Skills Programme, and writes funding applications on behalf of training providers, local authorities and FE colleges.

Before joining the company, Lucie completed an MA in Local and Regional Development at Newcastle University where she achieved a national award from the Royal Geographical Society for her work on evaluating the impact of place-based marketing of 'NewcastleGateshead'. She also worked in Newcastle City Council's economic strategy team, reviewing and evaluating labour market and skills policy.