Recent News and Blogs

Saturday 1 December 2012 09:00 by Graham English

The Future of Fontis

For some time I have operated Fontis single-handed. This reality hasn't been reflected in our governance arrangements. I am now regularising these by closing down the separate company and will continue to operate the brand within my existing other company arrangements. I remain committed to the objectives of Fontis and am happy and willing to participate in collaborative approaches with partners or supporters.

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Tuesday 13 November 2012 15:00 by Graham English

When leadership isn't enough

What are the limits to leadership? When is it meaningful, or necessary, to say that a problem isn’t amenable to leadership action alone? Leadership has been applied as the solution to a long list of high profile service failures yet the problems recur. This approach is a panacea, a trap of the slow-boiled frog variety, fraught with dangers. Our existing tools for getting out of a fix are unlikely to work, just as they haven’t worked before. This is a dilemma, so we need new tools, starting with a new relationship between people and their public services.

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Sunday 3 July 2011 14:00 by Graham English

When's the right time?

With hospitals, fire stations, schools and more under threat of closure in a time of austerity can there ever be a 'right time'?

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Welcome to Fontis
Fontis screen logo

We aim to transform the quality of public services, public life and well-being in the UK by improving the practice of involvement, engagement and participation.

We will do this by
  • leadership and advocacy for involvement at all levels across the public domain
  • a membership network connecting people who share our aims Click here
  • an innovative resource centre providing an authoritative and comprehensive guide to practice
  • investment, with others, in effective ways of enabling more people to be involved in decisions that affect them
  • capacity development for individuals and organisations
  • support and challenge to thinking on policy and delivery
Making a Difference

We believe these different components, brought together with passion and expertise, will make a difference that isn’t otherwise possible.

Our aim is to be flexible and diverse, adopting different structures and ways of working appropriate to what needs to be done –- a new model of operating which grows, challenges, supports, campaigns, and creates new bridges which support involvement and active participation.

We’d like you to join us - to show your support for our objectives to find out more about how we work to help us get there!

To register click here

To find out more about each of the work areas, simply click on the topic above