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Government

We have worked with the Cabinet Office, GO-Science and HMG central departments; agencies; Local Government, NDPBs, police forces and security agencies, universities and charities. We have delivered over 250 foresight and strategy projects in 21 countries in the UK, EC, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean. 

About Us

The world is changing – Fast. Decisions taken today have implications for both the short and the long-term. This means you need to develop policies and strategies that are resilient to many possible futures, and build an organisation that is agile enough to respond to them.

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We have 30 years’ experience of working with HMG on futures projects. We understand the specific needs of Government in formulating and reaching decisions at both the policy and delivery levels.

SAMI is on the Government Office for Science Futures Framework Contract. 

  • SAMI Consulting is internationally recognised as a leading authority on foresight. Our consultants have delivered projects for UK government departments and agencies, the European Commission (EC), and other UK and international public sector clients.

  • Futures thinking is in our DNA.  SAMI was created as the ‘St Andrews Management Institute’ in 1989, as a joint venture between Shell, the pioneers in scenario planning, and St Andrews University.  That strand – the powerful mix of academic rigour and practical delivery – continues in our people today:  Experienced practitioners, world-renowned futures authors, and consultants with first-hand experience of the public sector and the challenges facing it.

We work with you using a wide range of foresight tools including scenario planning. We identify major drivers of change impacting your organisation, develop different futures and test alternative strategies and policies. This participative approach builds capability in your team, enabling them to become more innovative and more able to react rapidly to unexpected change. 

Our Fellows and Principals undertake the research and publish the books used as ‘textbooks’ by other consultancies and on degree programmes.  SAMI is also fully familiar with the Futures Toolkit – we wrote one of the first versions – and our continuing research and innovative work means we can offer adaptive and flexible approaches to delivering the outcomes you need. For instance, our work for a European body has involved the development of a novel, swift and interactive method of iterating and exploring scenarios for complex global issues.

What We Do

We offer the full range of Futures capability from gathering intelligence,  making sense of it,  testing and developing your strategy, to making decisions and taking action. 

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Specifically, we can help you to:

  • Futures thinking is our core skill – you will be working with experienced specialists in futures thinking and practice

  • We have no landmark London offices or expensive partnership structure, which means we can offer our experience without charging ‘Big 4’ rates

  1. Use systems, trend and driver analysis in your policy area to understand what is happening and why; identify the major opportunities and challenges, and highlight related risks and uncertainties;

  2. Describe what the future might be like – possible, desirable and adverse;

  3. Develop and test your policies, strategic objectives and plans for resilience, including the management of risk, how to build innovation into your organisation and communicate your vision;

  4. Develop your Futures capability through training, coaching and mentoring your people with the tools and techniques you need – from the Futures Toolkit and beyond; and

  5. Research and report on insights into specific policy area

We also use a number of Futures tools and databases such as our own Megatrends knowledge base, Shaping Tomorrow, and FutureScaper. This means we can deliver a faster, tailored and more sophisticated response to your needs and avoid ‘reinventing the wheel.’

Who We Are

As well as our Core Team members, we have a wide network of futurists, modellers, systems dynamics practitioners, synthetic environment designers and research associates to support your work.

Richard Walsh

has been an expert in scenario planning and futures thinking for over 20 years and was instrumental in introducing it in the Department of Health. Currently his work addresses welfare reform, digitalisation of medical records, big data and external impacts on devolution strategy. He co-chairs the Building Resilient Households Group and is an Executive Member of the Income Protection Task force.

Jane Dowsett

is an Innovation Consultant who has worked with private sector and UK government clients on future strategy and policy. For 10 years Jane worked with BEIS, delivering services in Innovation, including the Mary Portas Review of the High Street; the Industrial Growth Strategy and Social Enterprise UK.

Martin Duckworth

is a strategist. His projects have included work for the National Trust at Avebury, future proofing CSR for BNFL, for the Environment Agency on emerging themes, and creating scenarios for the Health and Safety Executive.

Cathy Dunn

specialises in horizon scanning, 3 Horizons and futures techniques-based workshops. Client work includes an enhanced technology watch, scanning input to support strategy development, and scenarios and knowledge transfer. Clients include DfT, Defra, Grant Thornton International, a major UK charity and CITB.

Giorgos Georgopoulos

is an international technologist. He is the CEO of Elemendar, a cybersecurity AI he co-founded from the UK’s first GCHQ / NCSC Accelerator. Giorgos was Managing Director of Futurescaper, a foresight software platform used by the UN, World Bank, OECD, and governments in UK, UAE and Canada.

Joe Ravetz

is Co-Director of the Centre for Urban Resilience at the University of Manchester, leading on futures and foresight. He developed the Synergistics method applying ‘collective intelligence’ to complex policy applications. Publications include City-Region 2020, and the forthcoming Deeper City: collective intelligence and the pathways from smart to wise.

  • SAMI has delivered over 250 foresight and strategy projects in 21 countries. We have experience of working with public sector bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We also have significant experience of international bodies across Europe and beyond.

  • Every engagement listed below has been delivered by one or more members of our HMG team.

  • We balance our detailed knowledge of public sector outcomes with experience of stakeholders affected, ranging from banking and insurance to regulators and professional bodies, to manufacturing firms, charities and sports clubs.

Our Experience of Futures Work within Government

Central and Local Government Departments and Agencies, NDBPs 

  • Cabinet Office

  • Government Office for Science

  • FCO

  • Home Office

  • MOD

  • HMRC

  • Department of Education

  • Department of Health

  • Defra

  • DFID

  • Department for Transport

  • Scottish Government

  • Welsh Government/Welsh Assembly

  • Northern Ireland Government

  • Horizon Scanning Centre

  • Surrey Strategic Partnership

  • The Environment Agency

  • Valuation Agency

  • The Pensions Regulator

  • Natural England

  • Food Standards Agency 

Housing Associations & Professional Bodies

  • Sovereign Housing Association

  • GreenSquare Housing Association

  • The Law Society

  • Institute of Engineering

  • Institute of Occupational Safety & Health

  • Solicitors Regulation Authority

  • Health and Safety Commission

  • General Medical Council

  • Rail Safety & Standards Board (RSSB)

  • Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

  • Royal Institute of International Affairs

  • ATI-Aerospace Technology Institute

  • Construction Industry Training Board

Police Forces & Security Agencies 

  • Metropolitan Police

  • Herts Constabulary

  • College of Policing

  • Greater Manchester Police

  • ACPO/NPCC

  • UK CT and Security agencies

  • A Caribbean police & security agency

NHS Bodies 

  • West Midlands NHS SHA

  • North East NHS and local authority

  • NHS Providers

Research Councils & Universities 

  • NERC

  • Universities UK

  • University of Manchester

  • Scottish Science Advisory Council

  • UK Energy Research Centre

Third Sector

  • National Trust

  • Christian Aid

  • Social Housing Think Tank

  • Arts Marketing Association

International Bodies

  • EC Research and Innovation Directorate

  • EU OSHA;  Joint Research Council

  • OECD

  • NATO, UN, US Department of Defense

  • World Bank, African Development Bank, EBRD

  • International Energy Agency, International Institute of Sustainable Development, International Renewable Energy Agency

  • European Trade Union Institute

Case Studies – A Small Selection Of Our Work

Defra Partnership

Developed “Strategic Evidence of Future Change” to stimulate strategic thinking. Horizon Scanning to provide foresight and insight to identify potential threats, risks and opportunities

A Caribbean police and security agency

Training in Futures and Horizon Scanning, geopolitical scenarios and risk management

Christian Aid

SAMI Consulting helped the charity to develop a set of drivers and initiate high level discussion of their future

Environment Agency

Provided scenarios in support of planning for flooding and coastal risk management over the next 50 years

Sovereign Housing Association

Two strategic reviews: firstly after a major merger, then looking at the impact of the changing environment for social housing

ACPO (now NPCC)

Development of the Counter Terrorism Policing Strategy for the UK

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