Rebekah Ramsay smiles when asked why she called her company Twenty-Seven Consulting – it's a question she’s familiar with. It began when she was brought in to run the Recruitment & Skills function at the Government Digital Service (GDS) as a consultant in 2013, to advise on recruitment strategy. Faced with a proliferation of government websites, each built separately, each one with its own individual look and feel, GDS had mandated that each government department must recruit its own Chief Technology Officer and Chief Data Officer.

Rebekah quickly realised that the recruitment process was fraught with problems, and she identified at least 27 points of failure within the typical campaign (hence the name). These problems began from the very start – for example, poorly written job descriptions which were mainly a generic list of required skills, and frequent errors in the advertising of roles were rarely spotted. The problems went all the way through to the end of the process. Sometimes, when a decision was made to hire a candidate, delays in the offer process could result in good candidates being lost.

Rebekah left GDS in 2016 and went on to set up a similar function in Canberra for the Australian government, before getting homesick and returning to the UK. Eventually she set up Twenty-Seven Consulting, along with partner Caroline Gibson, to continue providing advice to government departments on how to debug and streamline their recruitment processes.

 
 

“We don’t operate like regular recruiters”, she explains. “We don’t charge per hire – we work as business consultants rather than recruitment agents. This means that we are paid to get the process right, rather than be incentivised to simply fill positions. So we fix processes and find the best people for each job”. This makes Twenty-Seven popular with public sector organisations.

But Twenty-Seven Consulting hit a glitch: services such as hers are purchased via frameworks such as the CCS Management Consultancy Framework Three. And complying with the demands of such frameworks is complex and costly for small companies – often prohibitively so.

This is where Bramble Hub comes in. Bramble Hub has successfully bid, along with partners such as Twenty-Seven Consulting, on multiple frameworks, including Management Consultancy Framework Three. Our processes allow us to help SMEs like Rebekah’s win public sector business, so that our partners can focus on their core strengths. And we work on a no-win, no-fee basis.

Rebekah says: "Hiring staff with specialist skills is one of the biggest challenges for government departments. We are a small company that has years of experience in helping the public sector build specialist capability, however, procurement frameworks make it extremely difficult for hiring managers to buy our services. Working with Bramble Hub makes it simple & easy to buy the services much needed from niche suppliers like us".

Public sector buyers can purchase 27C’s services via Bramble Hub.

The following are testimonials from public sector clients:

“Thanks to 27C. You, as a whole have been exceptional throughout this process, I have never had such a positive recruitment experience, what a credit to your hard work.”
“Thank you for your support in the application process. If only all recruitment leads were as helpful and made the process as easy as you have made it. Please feel free to pass this feedback on to NHSBT.”
“Thank you for all your support. The team at 27C has been fantastic. It’s one of the most positive recruitment experiences I’ve had and I will be recommending you highly.”
“Many thanks to 27C for all of the support / guidance, this feels like a much more targeted approach and I’m sure that we’ll recruit the candidates we need. ”
“27C has been an absolute pleasure to work with. Their understanding of the recruitment market is second to none and they bring a wealth of talent under their networks of both expats and UK based candidates. They have given us fantastic support with finding Diverse candidates in a competitive market and I would highly recommend them to anyone needing to find talent for their business.”
“Throughout the whole process for my recent role change 27C were hugely supportive. I was constantly communicated with and kept up to date with the progress. From the initial contact to my start date there was a steady stream of calls and emails to deal with the process and just check that everything was going smoothly & if there were any questions. The whole transition was made a lot easier thanks to 27 Consulting. I personally believe that it was 27C’s support that made the success of this application to this new role.”
“27C has provided me with excellent service both as a candidate and as a client. As a candidate, they were clear and quick with communications so I was clear on what was happening at all stages. As a client, they have supported us through all parts of the recruitment process and made it seamless and hassle free. They have found very strong candidates, understood our needs in shortlisting and managed the interview process very effectively – we have been able to completely rely on 27 consulting for the recruitment process.”