Nicholas Day, Director

While training as a Catholic priest, Nick worked with the street homeless at the Liverpool Street Night Shelter in London. This led to a strategic change of direction and in 1981 he gained an MA in Social Work from UEA. After qualifying as a probation officer, Nick worked for the former Devon Probation Service from 1981 to 1991, latterly as Partnership Development Officer for Supported Housing. He established nda (then Nicholas Day Associates) in 1991.

Nick has been a board member of a drug and alcohol service provider in the South West, chaired his local church’s Pastoral Centre committee for many years, was a founding board member of Homemaker South West – a successful housing and debt services agency in Devon and Cornwall (2001–2008), and served as Chair of Governors of an Exeter primary school (2001–2005).

Trevor Gardner, Associate

Active in community and project development for over 25 years, Trevor has a wide range of experience working with community groups, voluntary sector organisations, charities, church and other faith communities, private companies, statutory agencies and government departments. He has helped set up over 20 major projects and initiatives and since 2013 has been directly involved with transforming rehabilitation, including tender preparation, working with the Dorset, Devon and Cornwall Community Rehabilitation Company and with Working Links across the South West and Wales. His relaxed, enthusiastic style and ‘can do’ approach encourages engagement and partnership and helps him to draw out innovative solutions.

Barbara Smith, Associate

Coming from a big-business background, Barbara has been working for a number of years as a freelance consultant to the commercial sector, supporting start-ups, small companies, charities and individuals. She has strong expertise in project management, public relations, brand management, governance, effective administration and managing stakeholder and client relationships. Her approach is always to tailor her response carefully to a client’s needs, and this means the involvement she has can take a wide range of forms, from strategic advice right through to hands-on support in streamlining day-to-day tasks.

Ben Emm, Associate

Ben is an independent consultant, executive coach and expert facilitator, who specialises in working with senior teams and middle managers. A former Probation Chief Executive and senior civil servant, Ben has advised a range of private, public and third sector organisations, helping in particular to drive transformational change, improve organisational performance, devise and implement strategy, and develop management and leadership skills.

Jon Ralphs, Associate

Jon is Nick’s newest Associate. With over 25 years of experience in health and social care Jon combines his Clinical Management and Fine Art degrees to offer creative and engaging training and facilitation.

In his professional career, he has worked as a Senior Staff Nurse, Community Nurse, Clinical Nurse Specialist and Service Manager. During the 2000’s he became passionate about combining his knowledge and experience to become a Person Centred Planning Coordinator. Jon has developed his expertise in graphic recording, graphic facilitation and illustrations (which have been widely used in government and professional publications) to support his unique facilitation and training skills to deliver national programmes.

Jon is equally passionate about making a difference in his local area and is actively involved in the community as the chair of PACA-MK (Parents And Carer’s Association Milton Keynes).

Andy Champness, Associate

Andy Champness (www.champnessconsulting.co.uk) is an associate with Nick. Andy is a successful public sector leader, experienced in developing effective boards, organisational structural and cultural change and effective partnerships.

As a Barrister in criminal courts, he learned how to listen to what people were really thinking and feeling. He developed the skill to help others reach structured decisions that they could articulate and explain to others. He transferred those listening, decision-making and transparency skills to the governance of policing, dealing with growing scale and complexity. There he learnt the importance of understanding others’ approaches and preferences, and the criticality of compatibility: why values and culture are more important than strategy.

As well as working across the public sector, Andy has worked with staff mutuals, community interest companies, voluntary and faith organisations: anywhere where the emphasis is on enabling and supporting the lives of others, listening to the public and service recipients and acting on what is heard. He has reviewed their governance arrangements, undertaken sensitive investigations, helped them restructure staff and strategy, and supported the development of their boards.