The Team

Laurence Chester Dip./Sw MA - Director

Laurence established Marchbid Ltd. In 2004 and has already been at the forefront of some of the most innovative projects in the sector. He is regarded as a leading advisor on community engagement with groups often described as ‘hard to reach’.

Laurence has contributed to professional journals including Professional Social Work and written a chapter for The Russell House Companion to Working With Young People and is currently guest lecturer at Loughborough University – Social Science Department.

Prior to forming Marchbid Ltd Laurence worked at Director level within the private social housing sector setting up vital support services for asylum seekers and the homeless. In this role, he was responsible for leading a nation wide community engagement strategy to build partnerships with local stakeholders including political representatives at strategic levels within local government. As a result of this work, Laurence became recognised as a leading advisor on issues relating to positive community engagement with groups often described as ‘hard to reach’. He sat on a Joseph Rowntree Foundation specialist advisory panel to inform policy recommendations on housing issues and became Chair of the Home Office’s prestigious National Refugee Integration Forum sub group for Children & Young People.

A qualified social worker with a Masters Degree in Social Work with Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children he also gained significant experience in the field of child protection. Within the Statutory sector and whilst at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) he was involved in groundbreaking work on major child protection investigations.

Through his experience, Laurence has advised government Ministers here and abroad on community engagement issues.

Henry Sopher - Director

Henry acquired his experience in the auditing and legal professions respectively, sharpened by working as a director in the service arm of a large underwriting organisation. He provides strategic and commercial guidance to Marchbid.

Associate Organisations

Social Spider

A not-for-profit design, communication and social action agency committed to helping people to communicate with each other in the most effective ways possible. www.socialspider.com

Priority Research

Priority Research is a research house experienced in the support of public sector clients. Our customer base reflects this specialisation and much of our work is designed to assist such bodies to not only measure the effectiveness of their current services and strategies but also to identify customer priorities for future service development. We do this by using a combination of tried and tested methodologies coupled with unique software which allows us to measure how strongly respondents feel about key issues. www.priority-research.com