QDI - working with a consultant

1. Principles:

Working with a consultant needs to be thought about carefully to ensure that your organisation is clear about what should be achieved and that the consultancy work creates a real difference to your organisation.

The following principles should be considered before working with a consultant:

Your organisation needs to 'own' the work. This means involving all the relevant people in the organisation who will be affected and involved in the work carried out by the consultant (Management Committee, relevant staff and volunteers).
The consultancy will only leave a long lasting effect within your organisation if you are clear about the objectives you want to achieve and how it will improve the skills of people within your organisation. For example:
1. If a consultant works with you to develop a fundraising strategy how will staff and MC skills be improved to enable them to fundraise in the future?
2. Or if a consultant works with you to develop the written procedures you require to meet a quality standard such as the Quality Mark, how will people within your organisation be made aware of these to ensure that their work practices follow the written procedures?
You should be clear about the type of skills, knowledge and experience a consultant should have to be able to undertake the work in your organisation in the same way as you would if you were employing a member of staff.

2. Appointing a Consultant:

The process of appointing a consultant should ideally follow these steps:

Decide who in your organisation will be involved in the selection of the consultant (e.g. members of the Management Committee and staff team, you may also want an external person such as your development /field worker to be involved in this)
Develop a clear brief for the consultancy
Ideally you should have a tender process, the brief for the consultancy should be sent to appropriate consultants inviting them to tender for the work. The QDI project has a list of recommended consultants you may want to approach. NCVO (The National Council for Voluntary Organisations) produces a directory of approved consultants (QDI has one copy of this directory). Your development worker or local council for voluntary services may also be able to recommend consultants to you.
Once you have received tenders for the work, decide how you will undertake the final selection, this may involve short-listing the best tenders and interviewing those selected. When considering the tenders think about the following:
- Does the tender come within the budget for the consultancy?
- Does the tender set out how deadlines will be met to ensure the work is completed on time?
- Does the tender show how the consultant will ensure that your organisation is fully involved in the work?
- Does the tender outline the skills, knowledge and experience of the consultant undertaking the work?
Once you have selected the consultant to work with you decide who in your organisation will be the main point of contact with the consultant and draw up a contract between your organisation and the consultant (see below for more detailed information about drawing up a contract).

3. Writing a Brief for the Consultancy:

The consultancy brief should provide information about your organisation, what you want to achieve from the consultancy and what you are looking for in a consultant. Ideally the brief should contain the following information:

Background details about your organisation or particular project.
Outline of the particular piece of work required and clear objectives about what should be achieved.
Information about the relevant personnel within your organisation and how you would like the consultant to work with them throughout the period of the consultancy.
Skills & experience required of the consultant undertaking the work.
Requirements of the consultancy e.g. to work within the policies and practices of your organisaiton.
Timetable & Costings - you may want to present a global figure for the consultancy and then leave it to the consultant to state in their tender how they would carry out the work (including number of days) in order to meet the cost. Or you may want to set out how many days work and allow the consultant to state their costs. The costs and number of days can be negotiated with the consultant to ensure that you have a mutual agreement on how the work will be carried out and costed.
Tendering process and timetable - the deadline for submitting a tender, who the tender should be submitted to and what your organisation will be looking for in the tender.

4. Drawing up a Contract with the Consultant:

The contract should cover the following:

Overall targets and timetable
Tasks that the consultant is responsible for and tasks that your organisation is responsible for
Payment details - payment may be in stages after completion of particular tasks or meeting particular deadlines
Who the consultant should be reporting to in your organisation and how often progress of the work should be reported
Observing any policies within your organisation e.g. treating information about your organisation confidentially
Circumstances where the contract may be withdrawn e.g. not meeting deadlines and completing tasks, breaching equal opportunities policy of your organisation etc.

5. Support Available:

If you require further guidance on developing the consultancy brief and contract your development/field worker will be able to help. There may also be other advice organisations you know of in your local area who have worked with a consultant in the past and they may be able to give you information or examples of consultancy briefs or contracts that they have developed.

6. Contact Details:

QDI Project: Lasa, Universal House, 88-94 Wentworth Street, London, E1 7SA. E-mail: qdi@lasa.org.uk

NCVO (for details of their directory of consultants): Regent's Wharf, 8 All Saints Street, London, N1 9RL. Tel: 020 7713 6161. Website: www.ncvo-vol.org.uk

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