31ten is an agile, independent consultancy and certified B Corp. Trusted by our clients and partners, we’ve been named as one of the UK’s Leading Management Consultancies by the Financial Times every year since 2020. 

We work in partnership with the public sector to make places better for the people that live, work, and learn in them. 

Integrity, inclusivity, social and environmental awareness are at the heart of what we do, and we collaborate with our clients to deliver sustainable change, meaningful impact, and better outcomes. 

31ten works across Local & Central Government, Housing & Development, Education, Health & Social Care and Blue Light Services. 

Working with us: 

We're growing our pool of experienced Associate Consultants to support our core team on live client engagements. Associates are contracted on a project basis — for a defined piece of work or output, at an agreed day rate and number of days across the project timeline.

Our Transformation & Change practice currently spans:

• Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) — option development, service and financial disaggregation, business case production, programme mobilisation, shadow authority preparation and early implementation planning

• Financial Sustainability — stabilising organisations under financial pressure, identifying savings and income opportunities, and embedding sustainable operating and governance arrangements

• Social Care, SEND and Housing — transformation of statutory services through commissioning, service redesign, demand management, and system working with NHS and other partners

• People-Led Change — workforce and cultural change alongside wider transformation, including post-LGR integration, financial recovery and technology-enabled change

• Digital, Data & Technology — technology-enabled transformation including data and insight, AI-enabled service improvement, ERP and core system change, and cloud migration

• Operating Models — redesign of organisations around place-based approaches, resident access to services, and new delivery models

We don't expect experience across all of these — associates with deep expertise in one or two areas are just as valuable as generalists.

We'd expect you to:

• Slot into live project teams quickly, contributing high-quality analysis and outputs from day one

• Support delivery leads with scope, planning, and risk management on discrete workstreams

• Bring strong data analysis skills and the ability to convey insight clearly, with sensitivity to client context

• Communicate clearly and confidently, tailoring style to the audience

• Produce polished, client-ready written outputs and be comfortable presenting findings directly to clients

• Bring an existing understanding of the local government/public sector landscape

• Bring a strong commercial acumen

About you:

We're keen to hear from candidates with:

• A track record of delivering discrete pieces of work reliably and to a high standard, often across multiple concurrent clients

• The ability to work autonomously, manage your own time, and integrate quickly into new teams

• A relational working style and strong stakeholder engagement skills

• A genuine commitment to improving public sector and local government outcomes

• Comfort with ambiguity and complex, fast-moving environments

• Strong analytical and structured thinking