ABOUT
OPEN VOICE LAB

CONTINUOUS LISTENING. MEANINGFUL CHANGE.

We are a digital engagement consultancy for public sector organisations.

With over 35 years’ combined experience across health and public services, we specialise in digital engagement and continuous listening.

We help you build inclusive, evidence-led, digitally enabled engagement systems that turn community voice into better services, long before formal consultation is required.

We work at both strategic and delivery level, from architecture and governance through to hands-on digital and community engagement.

Why we believe in continuous engagement matters

Engagement too often happens late.

Consultation becomes reactive and reductive.

Digital channels are underused.

Communities are asked for feedback, but insight is not embedded into decision-making.

We help organisations move from one-off engagement activity to structured, continuous listening.

Not last-minute consultation fixes.

Not isolated surveys.

But sustainable systems, relationships and digital infrastructure that ensure people are heard consistently, credibly and inclusively.

Alexia
Mitton

Director
alexia@openvoicelab.co.uk

Alexia smiling at the camera in a yellow sweater wearing slightly tinted glasses

Rachel Richardson

Director
rachel@openvoicelab.co.uk

Alexia is a senior communications and engagement leader specialising in guiding complex health and care systems through transformational change, but also has significant wider public and private sector experience over nearly 20 years.

Her expertise spans strategic communications, public and community engagement, consultation, organisational change, and crisis response, with a particular strength in helping Boards and executives make confident, evidence‑based decisions in politically sensitive environments.

She is known for building high‑performing, multidisciplinary teams and creating supportive, accountable cultures where people thrive. Her leadership consistently brings clarity to ambiguity, structure to complexity, and momentum to large‑scale programmes of work. Whether shaping major service reconfigurations, designing governance for consultation, or uniting disparate teams across multiple organisations, she brings a calm, strategic presence that enables progress.

A core part of Alexia’s skillset is developing outcome‑led, evidence‑based approaches to communications and involvement. She designs processes that are targeted, efficient, and measurable — ensuring that engagement is not only inclusive and accessible, but also meaningful and impactful. Her work includes developing system‑wide participation strategies, creating tools for consistent consultation decision‑making, and embedding new standards that raise the quality and reach of engagement across diverse communities. She has significant experience of working with leaders and Boards to understand risk appetite and create appropriate governance processes.

She is a trusted advisor on high‑profile and controversial change, offering clear, confident guidance to senior leaders and Boards. Her experience includes navigating NHS England assurance, managing reputation and media strategy, and leading crisis communications during fast‑moving and high‑stakes situations. She is equally strong in internal communications, supporting organisations through significant workforce change, cultural development, and digital transformation. Her commitment to staff wellbeing was recognised with the Greater Manchester Wellbeing Champion Award in 2023.

Alexia’s career is marked by a series of achievements that demonstrate her ability to turn strategy into delivery. She has led major consultations reaching tens of thousands of people, created new digital platforms for emerging organisations, and designed large‑scale volunteer and staff engagement programmes. During the COVID‑19 pandemic, she played a pivotal role in operationalising vaccination sites in just 8 weeks. Earlier in her career, Alexia delivered a North of England dementia services website for the North of England that was launched by the Secretary of State for Health and highlighted nationally as best practice.

Across every role, Alexia brings a blend of strategic insight, operational discipline, and human‑centred leadership. She is known for her calm, confident approach to high‑stakes issues; her ability to guide senior leaders through complex decisions; and her commitment to ensuring that communication and engagement genuinely shape the services people rely on.

Rachel brings 18 years of experience working across health and public services, including senior roles in secondary care, primary care and commissioning. She began her career in patient access and experience before moving into community engagement, developing a deep understanding of how organisations connect, and sometimes struggle to connect, with the people they exist to serve.

Throughout her career, Rachel has led complex consultations and large-scale engagement programmes while building long-term relationships with community groups, volunteers and VCSE organisations. She understands the importance of working alongside communities rather than simply consulting them, and has supported partnerships that create genuine influence and shared ownership.

Alongside her engagement expertise, Rachel has developed a strong specialism in communications and digital transformation. She has led digital communications strategies and platform development programmes, applying marketing principles and user insight to extend reach and strengthen impact. Her work bridges the relational and the technical, combining trust-building with a deep understanding of digital infrastructure, content strategy, analytics and user journey design.

Rachel has delivered high-performing digital campaigns and infrastructure at scale, leading the development of SEO-optimised websites, searchable service tools and integrated campaign hubs achieving tens of thousands of organic visits. She has transformed underperforming social media channels, and improved cost per result on paid social through insight-led targeting. Her digital leadership spans behaviour change campaigns, crisis communications and system-wide engagement activity, consistently demonstrating strong value for money and measurable public impact.

Rachel specialises in helping organisations move from reactive consultation activity to continuous, structured engagement. She designs the systems, processes and digital foundations that enable ongoing listening and embed community insight into everyday decision-making.

She has developed participation models that combine strong digital infrastructure with meaningful in-person engagement, widening access while protecting capacity to work directly with diverse and underrepresented communities. Her approach consistently centres equity, accessibility and inclusion, shaped by first-hand experience of the barriers communities face when services and communications are not designed with them in mind.

Rachel is also passionate about developing people and building capability. She has designed and delivered training programmes on community engagement, volunteering and digital communications, supporting teams to grow in confidence, skill and strategic understanding. She believes sustainable change happens when organisations invest in both systems and the people who deliver them.

Rachel combines strategic thinking with hands-on delivery. She understands governance, operational realities and digital systems, and how to align communications, engagement and technology to create measurable, community-led service improvement.

ABOUT OPEN VOICE LAB

CONTINUOUS LISTENING. MEANINGFUL CHANGE.

Why we believe in continuous engagement matters

Alexia Mitton

Rachel Richardson

ABOUT
OPEN VOICE LAB

Alexia
Mitton