PlaceSense
Securing funding. Mobilising programmes. Keeping programmes honest.
Senior independent advisory for the people responsible for major public programmes. Green Book business cases, programme mobilisation, and governance that keeps programmes honest when the pressure is on.
Work with me
A focused sprint with a clear scope and a written output. An ongoing senior advisory relationship. Or as a named senior specialist within a larger consultancy or contractor team: a significant part of my work sits inside broader commissions where Green Book, governance, or programme expertise needs to be credibly present in the offer.
PlaceSense is available through Constellia and Bloom for public sector clients procuring without a separate competitive tender.
Andrew Alsbury - Founder
Most advisers know one side of public investment. I have been on all of them: writing the policy at DfE and MHCLG, delivering it as a national contractor at Willmott Dixon, advising on it at AtkinsRéalis, and now working independently with the senior people responsible for making it work.
That breadth is what PlaceSense is built on. I have written investment cases and sat on the approving side. I have mobilised national funds and built the governance and challenge that kept them honest. I have helped local authorities make the case to national government, and helped national programmes understand what local delivery actually requires. I know what public clients get wrong about their private partners, and what private partners get wrong about public clients.
I founded PlaceSense to do this work at the level it deserves: senior, independent, and without an overhead that gets in the way.
Better Business Cases accredited (HM Treasury Green Book). MSP Advanced Practitioner. Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
I write about public programme delivery at Rough Bearings on Substack.
Selected Experience
Building Safety Programme (MHCLG)
After Grenfell, I worked at the centre of the national building safety response. I helped develop the evidence-based guidance issued to building owners and worked directly with the Expert Panel and the Industry Response Group.
When the £1bn Building Safety Fund was announced, I had six weeks to build the eligibility framework, design the assessment process, and open it to applications. Over the following eighteen months I reviewed around 1,300 fire safety reports and approved eligibility for 981 buildings. In the four months after I left, no further approvals were made, despite no change in the underlying pipeline. The process was intact. The willingness to decide had not carried over.
Department for Education
The state of England's school estate wasn't being taken seriously at the centre.
I delivered and analysed the results from Europe's largest condition survey: 18,830 schools. The data reshaped how senior officials understood the problem and became the foundation for successive rounds of national school investment.
National Galleries Scotland
A national collection facility was struggling to make its case as an art storage problem. I reframed it around cultural access, regional equity, and the regeneration of Granton. The reframe is what unlocked the funding. The Scottish Government allocated £56m in the Spending Review and has now approved the FBC
Get in touch
Email Andrew for a 30-minute introductory conversation.