Tommy’s

The challenge 

Tommy’s is a pregnancy charity working to stop the heartbreak and devastation of baby loss and make pregnancy and birth safe for everyone.  

With a new CEO in post, and the previous organisational strategy coming to an end, Tommy’s was looking for support to bring staff, trustees, and people with lived experience together to develop a new long-term strategy for the charity. Tommy’s wanted this strategy to answer several knotty questions that needed cross-organisational buy in, and to be flexible enough to stay relevant in a rapidly changing external environment. 

The approach 

NPC supported Tommy’s through a strategy development process that covered: 

• Insight gathering: NPC conducted an analysis of existing insight at Tommy’s and developed a plan for filling identified gaps. The plan was delivered by Tommy’s with support from NPC, including: surveys, interviews, and desk research. A thorough insight gathering phase meant that subsequent strategy discussions could be evidence-led, with stakeholders from across the organisation having a shared understanding of the context for Tommy’s. 
• Discussion: the NPC team then delivered a series of in person workshops to engage staff, trustees, and other key stakeholders in the development of a new strategy. These workshops were iterative, building on input at each session, and included discussion of all elements of NPC’s strategy’s triangle. By acting as an external facilitator to these discussions, NPC could allow Tommy’s’ ‘knotty questions’ to be properly debated and resolved, laying the foundations for a successful strategy.  
• Consultation with people with lived experience of pregnancy loss: running alongside discussion workshops, NPC consulted with Black and minority ethnic people with experience of baby loss and pregnancy loss, a key priority group for Tommy’s to support in the new strategy. Through two online sessions, we received input into the key focus areas for a new strategy, and feedback on the final strategy itself. Bringing in the input of people with lived experience meant that the strategy was informed by a wider range of perspectives, increasing its relevance and potential impact.  
• Finalisation: NPC acted as critical friends to the senior leadership team at Tommy’s as they finalised and articulated the strategy and secured final board approval. Supporting Tommy’s to ‘hold the pen’ meant that the strategy felt owned by senior leaders in the organisation. Regular advice and guidance meant that the final strategy reflected the richness of the full process. 

The result 

Across the strategy development process, NPC worked alongside Tommy’s to engage: 

• 40 staff through workshops, and 50 through a survey. 
• 48 external stakeholders through 1:1 calls, and 1,000 more through surveys. 
• 12 people with lived experience of pregnancy and baby loss. 

These people shared their unique experiences of pregnancy and baby loss in the UK–from challenges with data; to exciting research breakthroughs; to stark inequities in maternal outcomes –and shaped the strategic direction of the organisation going forwards. 

Thanks to their input, Tommy’s new strategy launched in Spring 2023, with positive feedback from staff, supporters, and stakeholders who, having felt included in the strategy development process, now feel bought in to the strategy itself.  

Tommy’s is now focussing on embedding and implementing this strategy, going from strength to strength as a charity. Through its work to grow evidence on baby loss and pregnancy complications, to improve care for those on their pregnancy journey, to tackle inequities in maternity care, and to mobilise its community for change, Tommy’s will save babies’ lives. 

Tommy’s new strategy provides us with a north star by which to navigate an increasingly complicated landscape, and we never could have created it without the help of NPC. Their experience, knowledge and processes guided us throughout, providing the expertise we sadly didn’t have in house. NPC gave advice, and more importantly “friendly challenge”, when needed, ensuring that the result was a robust, informed and evidenced strategy which will help us deliver impact for the next decade.

Amy Thomas, Chief Operating Officer