Who we are

A team you can trust

Curiosity is one of our core competencies: we dig deep and ‘look under the bonnet’. We are committed to giving you actionable insights. We are driven by the need to truly understand what’s going on - and make recommendations to help you move forward.

Consultancy with soul

We care. Genuinely. We’ve chosen to work with charitable and public sector organisations, because we want our work to help you improve people’s lives. This is the essence of Brightpurpose. A consultancy with purpose. A consultancy with soul.

We understand how vital and serious our work is. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be an enjoyable process too. We operate with enthusiasm, sensitivity and warmth. You can trust us to give you solutions that work because we truly want to see you succeed – and we have the capability to help you make that happen.

Meet our team

Helen Highley

Director

Helen began her career in public service, in the NHS and then in economic development. A move into consultancy gave her the opportunity to make a difference with more organisations and people. She founded Brightpurpose in 2008, and works directly with all our clients. She’s a specialist in developmental evaluation, and loves being in front of a flipchart and supporting teams to find new insights in their work. When she’s not at work, she can be found throwing herself into a loch, river or reasonably sized puddle.

Sam Frost

Consultant

Sam joined Brightpurpose after a successful career in forensics and crime scene investigation, including training CSI teams internationally. It turns out those skills are a perfect preparation for being an evaluator and an OD practitioner! Sam is our project manager par excellence, keeping all our client projects on track and ensuring they can have absolute confidence in our ability to deliver their requirements. Outside work, Sam is a busy mum and referee between the two dogs and two cats who rule the roost.

Kerry Allan

Consultant

Kerry started her career in the voluntary sector, working on data analysis, evaluation support and evaluation design for a local infrastructure body. She joined us to apply those skills to our UK-wide client base, and get her teeth into some big datasets. Kerry leads our work with quantitative datasets, from designing data management processes to creating data visualisations that bring our findings to life. She also loves getting out to client sites to conduct qualitative fieldwork. Kerry is a keen Celtic fan, attending matches whenever she can.

What can I say…it has been so amazing to work with you. You have been so kind, patient and thorough. Your expertise and knowledge will help us create a real legacy. Everything and I mean everything we do is underpinned by the three differences now.

Craig McManus -

Manager

Street Soccer London

Brightpurpose have provided insightful, thoughtful and creative support to BBC Children in Need and our funded partners whenever we have worked together. Helen and the team are able to balance intellectual rigour with an understanding of where organisations and individuals are at and what they need in that moment in order to learn. Above all, they bring genuine curiosity and a passion for learning to any project they work on - enriching the work as a result.

Ralph Hartley -

Programmes and Funding Partnerships Manager

BBC Children in Need

Flexible and adaptable, Brightpurpose have worked alongside us and supported our learning; in doing so they challenge and ‘stretch’ us to think deeper and go further in our work. In addition, they are really helpful at pointing us in the direction of other learning that helps us even more as well bringing things to us that they think we will benefit from.

Jill Baker -

Director of Development

Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales

Brightpurpose remained a calm and steady presence throughout the evaluation, with clear communication which was sensitive and considered. They were tenacious at every stage of the evaluation and were not afraid to challenge us but did this with skill and attention. We found this approach refreshing and helpful, allowing us to fully reflect and consider our actions and approach. Their attention to detail was excellent and they produced high quality reports which were well written, balanced and fair.

Liz Lawrence -

Head of Health Service Improvement

Versus Arthritis

Thank you so much for all your support, patience, wisdom and good humour throughout this period. I’m sure that we would not have as good a ‘product’ as we do now were it not for you and I’m even more convinced of the value of developmental evaluators!

Dr Mat Hickman -

Curiosity Programme Manager

Wellcome

BBC Children in Need have worked with Helen and the Brightpurpose team on a number of research, evaluation and organisational change projects since 2014. When the pandemic was at its peak, we asked them to help us analyse and interpret of the vast amount of additional information we collected from our grantees about the challenges they were witnessing and experiencing. This was testament to Brightpurpose’s knowledge of us, their flexibility, and research and analytical skills. It then made sense to work with Brightpurpose later in the pandemic to capture a full account of BBC Children in Need’s response and experiences of supporting organisations that work with children and young people affected across the UK. The final outputs, and the sharing of these insights through presentations and conversations, have been instrumental to our ongoing reflections and planning about how we respond to future crises.

Craig Tomlinson -

Head of Insight for Impact

BBC Children in Need

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Samaritans

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Skills Development Scotland – Adult Digital Careers Resources

How we helped Skills Development Scotland to demonstrate the value of their digital resources for adults looking to improve their career prospects

The Food Foundation

How we helped The Food Foundation and their partners show the difference they were making to veg consumption across the UK

Brightpurpose is here to make a difference

Learn more about our methods and how we work.