who are we

Our expertise is in making change happen whether through commissioning, better service design, competing services or collaboration.

We can advise and support outsourcing companies or voluntary sector organisations on growth strategies in the public sector, to compete for major tendering rounds, commissioners to design services and service providers to design better services. We have worked extensively with central and local government departments around new forms of public and private partnership ranging across a broad range of services.

We are always looking to grow our team and associate network. For more information, click here.

Jo Blundell

Director

Jo has spent over 30 years working around public service delivery and development as a public servant, consultant and business leader.

Her interest is in service innovation and design around public services, creating better social impact and a better quality of experience and engagement with service users.

She has expertise in public service commissioning, service design and business development in key sectors: health, welfare to work, local government, support services and adult social care.

Most recently, she has been involved with:

managing performance reporting for a Social Impact Bond
improving the patient discharge experience for a large NHS Foundation Trust
an innovation project on the future of the audit profession
strategic re-design of community transport services
developing a new ‘21st century almshouse’ concept for a group of older women.

Jo is currently completing a Masters in Service Design the Royal College of Art.

Jen Byrne

Director

Jen is a senior Strategy and Development professional, with 15 years experience of delivering over £500m of growth for public service delivery organisations.

Her interest is in tackling big social problems and finding space to deliver new services in emerging markets where the challenge is to shape the proposition, create the capacity and quality of solutions to deliver change, and align the commercial framework to create a sustainable platform for commissioners and providers.

Jen's areas of expertise include: justice, employment and skills, collaborative contracting structures, payment-by-results, co-production, partnership development, stakeholder engagement and strategic bid leadership.

She believes that the key to driving innovation and improved outcomes lies in creating channels that put service users and practitioners at the heart of public service design and delivery.

Over recent months, Jen has been leading our co-design work around adoption services with After Adoption and Manchester City Council.

Will Mercer

Commercial Finance Associate

Will is a self confessed ‘spreadsheet geek’. He has a finance background, having spent five years as a turnaround specialist at Lloyds Bank. He graduated from the University of Reading in 2007 with a MSc in Physics. He is a certified project manager with the APMP and holds a Diploma in Financial Services and Organisational Management from the Institute of Financial Services.

Will has worked in a range of roles in social purpose organisations and founded a social enterprise for refugee children in Reading. He specialised in taking strategies from a conversation over coffee into a solid proposal with a firm underlying financial model. His passion lies in social innovation and helping great ideas get off the ground.

Since joining Future Public, Will has focused on our Social Impact Bonds activity, providing ongoing operational and performance management support and building reporting capability to improve Board and investor scrutiny over impact.

Niall Morahan

Service Design Associate

Niall is a service design 'mongrel' who combines elements from psychology, social entrepreneurship and advertising in his approach.

Before joining Jo and Sebastian at the Royal College of Art's Service Design MA course, he completed his BA in Psychology and English at Trinity College Dublin, worked with Ashoka on fostering social innovation in Ireland and joined the the London office of global communications agency, J Walter Thompson.

Whilst at the RCA, he worked on complex social challenges as diverse as youth re-offending, education for the 21st century and tackling domestic energy consumption. He also built up a freelance practice working with early to mid-stage startups.

As well as working for Future Public, Niall is also building his own social enterprise: Peckham Pieces, which grew out of his final project at the RCA with Holly May Mahoney.

Sebastian Nause-Blueml

Service Design Associate

Sebastian studied at the Royal College of Art in London, graduating with an MA in Service Design. He also holds a BA in Industrial Design from the University of Applied Sciences Schwaebisch Gmuend in Germany.

During his studies at the Royal College of Art, he worked with a range of clients including the Ministry of Justice, Sainsbury’s and the Design Museum. After graduating in 2014, he joined Smart Design, a global design consultancy.

Sebastian works as an independent Service Designer for various clients across private, public and third sectors.

In February 2015, Sebastian was named as one of the Design Council’s ‘Ones to Watch’, which showcases up-and-coming design talent in the UK. One of Sebastian’s current projects involves co-founding a start-up, Lift, which seeks to radically change the way home care is delivered in the UK.

Jenni Parker

Design and Innovation Associate

Jenni is a designer interested in pushing the boundaries of 'design'. She is particularly passionate about design for social impact and the positive role design can play in different contexts.

Jenni graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2008 with a BSc in Product Design and Innovation, and then completed her MSc in Product Service System Design in Milan, Italy.

Now working as a design and social innovation consultant, Jenni collaborates with organisations with a social focus to develop solutions through co-creation with users and other stakeholders, while injecting fresh new ways of working into organisational culture.

Jenni's clients range from local to international, including Barnet Council, the Ministry of Justice, BBC Media Action (the BBC’s international development charity), the Nike Foundation (founder of the Girl Effect, which is dedicated to improving the lives of adolescent girls living in poverty), and UNHCR.