Who are we? |
In 2012, a senior police officer and an academic had a coffee together to discuss 'how to do community engagement better'. This led to a rapid appraisal of the challenges of neighbourhood policing from the perspective of police & community support officers. This developed into a training programme for PCSOs and neighbourhood policing teams, designed by PCSOs, capturing the best of neighbourhood policing tactics and making them more effective.
|
The neighbourhood policing teams kept getting stuck when strategic decisions ran counter to the daily tactics of building trust, resilience and legitimacy. By 2017, the Intensive Engagement toolkit had been developed to tackle the structural challenges; advising senior leaders on how to focus and support effective neighbourhood policing where resources are very limited.
|
The team

Richard James, Managing Director, Organisational Development
Richard is the managing director of Intensive Engagement Limited with responsibility for organisational development with our clients. He spent 30 years working in several police forces and is a highly experienced police leader. He has led significant force-wide change programmes and commanded events of national significance.
Richard has several years experience of working alongside academic institutions to develop and implement evidence-based practice. He recently completed a Cambridge Masters focusing on the implementation of effective community engagement practices in complex locations. His work within challenging community settings after the London 7/7 bombings was recognised when he received a national award from the National Association of Muslim Police. Richard’s support for the charity Remembering Srebrenica saw him leading a multi-agency delegation to Bosnia and Herzagovina in 2015 to support the ongoing mission of the charity and meet with families affected by the 1995 conflict.
Richards experience and knowledge of implementation of change and service transformation means he supports the National College of Policing with its International Leadership course and is a part of the peer review team. Richard has presented on all aspects of local policing at numerous national conferences and international courses. Richard has recently spent time working with 8 EU policing agencies examining effective community policing practices and exploring the benefits that technology can offer.
Richard continues to support policing currently providing advice and guidance across several UK police forces and community safety partnerships
Contact Richard at richard@intensiveengagement.com
Richard is the managing director of Intensive Engagement Limited with responsibility for organisational development with our clients. He spent 30 years working in several police forces and is a highly experienced police leader. He has led significant force-wide change programmes and commanded events of national significance.
Richard has several years experience of working alongside academic institutions to develop and implement evidence-based practice. He recently completed a Cambridge Masters focusing on the implementation of effective community engagement practices in complex locations. His work within challenging community settings after the London 7/7 bombings was recognised when he received a national award from the National Association of Muslim Police. Richard’s support for the charity Remembering Srebrenica saw him leading a multi-agency delegation to Bosnia and Herzagovina in 2015 to support the ongoing mission of the charity and meet with families affected by the 1995 conflict.
Richards experience and knowledge of implementation of change and service transformation means he supports the National College of Policing with its International Leadership course and is a part of the peer review team. Richard has presented on all aspects of local policing at numerous national conferences and international courses. Richard has recently spent time working with 8 EU policing agencies examining effective community policing practices and exploring the benefits that technology can offer.
Richard continues to support policing currently providing advice and guidance across several UK police forces and community safety partnerships
Contact Richard at richard@intensiveengagement.com

Tim Curtis, Executive Director, Research & Capacity Building
Tim is an internationally renowned author on social innovation & entrepreneurship and Senior Lecturer at the University of Northampton. He helps people and organisations make decisions in complex and confusing situations. He is also adept at getting decisions made when he is not in charge. His focus is on the nitty-gritty theory and practice of community organising and social innovation. Tim is also co-founder of the global recognised 'Changemaker Campus' initiative at the University of Northampton, facilitating a high profile co-curriculum challenge, summer schools and international conferences on social innovation.
Tim developed the LISP approach to Intensive Community Engagement out of 15 years work in decision-making support and systems analysis in complex social contexts. He developed and refined that approach through teaching a highly innovative module Social Change & Communities as part of the BA in Social & Community Development over five years. This experience was then rapidly deployed with Police and Community Support Officers in Northants Police. Tim has been undertaking detailed research into the development and implementation of the LISP approach since 2012, which is being written up as a PhD.
Contact Tim at tim@intensiveengagement.com
Tim is an internationally renowned author on social innovation & entrepreneurship and Senior Lecturer at the University of Northampton. He helps people and organisations make decisions in complex and confusing situations. He is also adept at getting decisions made when he is not in charge. His focus is on the nitty-gritty theory and practice of community organising and social innovation. Tim is also co-founder of the global recognised 'Changemaker Campus' initiative at the University of Northampton, facilitating a high profile co-curriculum challenge, summer schools and international conferences on social innovation.
Tim developed the LISP approach to Intensive Community Engagement out of 15 years work in decision-making support and systems analysis in complex social contexts. He developed and refined that approach through teaching a highly innovative module Social Change & Communities as part of the BA in Social & Community Development over five years. This experience was then rapidly deployed with Police and Community Support Officers in Northants Police. Tim has been undertaking detailed research into the development and implementation of the LISP approach since 2012, which is being written up as a PhD.
Contact Tim at tim@intensiveengagement.com
"Every problem interacts with other problems and is therefore part of a set of interrelated problems, a system of problems…. I choose to call such a system a mess." Russell Ackhoff, 1974
|
Dave Spencer, Cohort Support Associate
Dave is an experienced Executive Coach and Organisational Development Consultant. Having served for 30 years as a police officer in the Metropolitan Police, Northamptonshire Police and national police bodies he has now established The Friendly Coach Ltd to continue helping people and communities.
As a police commander, Dave developed strong working relationships with statutory partners, business and voluntary services in delivering effective outcomes for communities. He held the force wide responsibility for violence, achieving significant success by managing the wider social system through a partnership approach with local authorities, health partners and licensed premises. |
From 2016 – 2019 he led peer reviews of police forces for the College of Policing providing coaching and organisational development support helping forces to improve. He supported the National Police Alcohol Harm Lead from 2013 – 2015, liaising and influencing across two Government Departments (Health and Home Office) and senior people from health services, the alcohol industry, academia and charities; a challenging environment with significantly different views held between organisations.
During the years 2010 – 2012 he served as Staff Officer to Sir Hugh Orde, ACPO President during the progress of the Police Reform Bill into an Act that introduced arguably the most radical changes to policing.
Dave holds an MBA and a Post Graduate Certificate in Performance Coaching. He is a Member of the Association for Coaching and the Chartered Management Institute.
During the years 2010 – 2012 he served as Staff Officer to Sir Hugh Orde, ACPO President during the progress of the Police Reform Bill into an Act that introduced arguably the most radical changes to policing.
Dave holds an MBA and a Post Graduate Certificate in Performance Coaching. He is a Member of the Association for Coaching and the Chartered Management Institute.
Paul Halstead, Cohort Support Associate
Paul is an extremely experienced retired public servant with 30 years’ experience in policing across a variety of diverse and challenging roles.
More recently worked in the private sector managing the education and rehabilitation of young offenders in a secure custodial environment. Whilst a police territorial deputy Commander Paul worked within a very challenging community to implement Intensive engagement, one of the first to be developed in the Thames valley. As a local Police Neighbourhood Inspector Paul introduced numerous initiatives providing increased opportunities for communities to engage with police and partners. Paul understands the value of working collaboratively within communities across private, public and voluntary sectors. Exemplified when developing, implementing and reviewing mental health triage within Milton Keynes, resulting in a significant reduction of people being detained under the mental health act. Paul is an incredibly committed and passionate professional striving to improve the lives of citizens within our communities. |
Stephen Carr, Associate
Stephen is Head of Organisational Development for Senedd Cymru, the Welsh Parliament.
Until this recent move, he was programme manager for the Welsh Government’s Safer Communities Programme – aimed at refreshing and reinvigorating community safety partnership working across Wales – following his work in 2017 leading the Working Together for Safer Communities Review. Previously Head of Community Safety for Cardiff, he led the Safer Capital community safety partnership and the development and implementation of the 2010 Tilley Award-winning Transforming Neighbourhoods model of multi-agency neighbourhood management programme. He has led partnership training and leadership development programmes on behalf of the Home Office, Welsh Government, Skills for Justice and the UK-wide National Community Safety Network (NCSN), and also worked with the Institute of Public Care (IPC), Oxford Brookes University, to develop and deliver collaborative commissioning training. He was one of the sift judges for the 2020 Tilley Awards and a finals judge for next year’s awards. He is also an associate member of the Wales Violence Prevention Unit (VPU) and Intensive Engagement. |