Project Plans

Client objectives

Upon appointment we meet with our clients to review the work to date and determine their vision for the project. From this we can then tailor our approach, providing a bespoke service that meets the needs and expectations of our clients.

Consultations and staff/volunteer reviews

Before any plans can be produced, we believe that it is key to not only consult with the public to begin informing the plans, but also with the staff/volunteers that that plans will refer to. This allows us to begin with a secure understanding of how your project is seen by those that will be engaging with the plan.


Once we have a clearer picture from the public consultations, we would then seek to undertake workshops with the staff/volunteers and the public in order to generate more detailed responses, informing the key areas of the plans.

Desk top studies

In addition to the public consultations and workshops, we will support the plan with several desk top studies, conducting independent research into both opportunities for the plans as well as the robustness of the plan itself.

Activities planning and costing

A significant contribution to many funding applications is an activity plan, detailing what activities will be performed during and after the capital build to engage the public with a space. Not only do we have significant experience in producing these plans, but our project management experience allows us to produce a plan that not only engages the public but also is cost effective for our clients.

Business planning and sensitivity analysis

We understand that not only does a project need to meet the needs of our clients in the short term, it also needs to be financially viable in the long term. To help ensure this, we are able to produce a business plan that indicates how the space can be used to generate a self-sustaining income, along with a sensitivity analysis to ensure that our models are robust enough to weather any financial turbulence.

Management and maintenance planning

A significant cost for organisations is the cost of running the organisation and maintaining its spaces. To assist with this, we can produce a Management and Maintenance plan. This can informing client and trusts as to what the ongoing costs of running a space/organisation are likely to be and how to minimise these costs where possible

Conservation planning

With a significant number of our projects involving listed buildings, scheduled ancient monuments and conservation areas, we understand the importance of conserving the heritage of a project whilst developing it for future use.

Coordination review

As NLHF and ACE specialists, we understand that funders do not look at these plans in isolation. For any of these plans to be effective and practicable they need to feed into each other and so we usually seek to perform a coordination review in which we compare the plans and ensure that all of the outputs are linked up and form part of a cohesive vision for the project.