I had the great pleasure of meeting some of the wonderful people that help drive and energise Rotunda Community College in Liverpool earlier this week. It was not the first time I had been up to Liverpool. On the last occasion I had been working on the management buy out of Liverpool-based Wealth At Work, and while it may seem like these two organisations couldn’t be more different, with one backed by private equity, the other a local charity; one in the heart of the city, the other in a virtually derelict terrace, they do in fact have quite a lot in common.

They’re both in the same city, they both believe education to be of vital importance to their respective “businesses”. One might even be so bold as to say that they both aspire to provide their community of “customers” / users with the ability to (re)gain/maintain their independence: one through the provision of sound financial education, advice and planning, and the other through the provision of a more general, but more fundamental, education that covers everything from literacy and numeracy through to arts, culture, health and well-being.

I was visiting Rotunda to revisit some collaborative service design work that had been conducted before Christmas. The aim of the work was to develop a plan for 2010 that would help meet the needs of the local community and help ensure Rotunda’s contribution to the community was as relevant, meaningful and valuable as possible. It was a great piece of work involving local residents, volunteers, staff and trustees, coming together to conduct a piece of strategic priority setting, and in due course I’ll be sure to point you in the direction of the work. It promises to be an exciting year for Rotunda.