Get support

Why Diversiast

The Research

Get support

Serious failures rarely happen without warning.

Across major public inquiries, a recurring pattern emerges.

  • Concerns were raised.
  • People experienced problems.
  • Information existed.
  • Questions were asked.
  • Reputation management dominated.

Yet the warning signs did not always lead to effective action.

The result was often the same: problems persisted, harm was repeated, opportunities to intervene were lost and eventually the scale of the failure became impossible to ignore.

We see this time and time again

Ockenden Review

The Ockenden Review into maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford found repeated failures to listen to families, investigate incidents properly and learn from what had happened. The review concluded that lessons were not learned, mistakes in care were repeated and opportunities to improve services earlier were lost.

Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Inquiry

The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Inquiry found numerous warning signs that should have alerted the wider system to serious problems in patient care. Concerns from patients, relatives and staff were not given sufficient weight, while organisational priorities, positive information and performance measures obscured what was happening to patients. The Inquiry highlighted failures of leadership, accountability and listening.

The Hillsborough 
Disaster

The Hillsborough disaster exposed profound failures in the way the experiences and concerns of victims’ families were treated by public authorities. For decades, families had to fight to have their accounts recognised, while the original narrative about what had happened was allowed to persist. Institutions become more focused on defending established positions than openly confronting contradictory evidence and listening to those directly affected.

Post Office Horizon scandal


With the Post Office Horizon scandal, sub-postmasters repeatedly challenged the accuracy of Horizon and raised concerns, yet serious problems persisted for years. The statutory Inquiry has examined not only the technology but also dispute management, whistleblowing, governance, stakeholder engagement and oversight, highlighting that major failures can emerge when concerns are not effectively heard, challenged and acted upon.

These are different events, organisations and circumstances. But they point towards a common challenge:

The information needed to recognise and address problems can exist without being effectively connected to understanding, accountability and action.

Diversiast wants to intervene earlier.

We believe there is an opportunity to do things differently before problems become crises and before another inquiry is needed to tell us what went wrong.

Lived experience

So that the reality of decisions and services is understood by those affected by them.

Evidece and insight

So that individual experiences can be considered alongside wider information, patterns and context.

Independent challenge

So that assumptions can be tested and difficult questions can be asked without simply taking one side.

People with the power to act

So that concerns and insights have a meaningful route into decisions, accountability and change.

Our aim is not simply to help people identify what went wrong after the event.

It is to help create the conditions in which people can:

  • See what they may otherwise miss.
  • Understand different perspectives.
  • Challenge assumptions and accepted ways of thinking.
  • Act when warning signs emerge.
  • Learn before the same problems happen again

We cannot change what has already happened. But we can help change what happens next.

Explore how we help