Preparing your organisation today for the opportunities and threats of tomorrow
We are a futures and forecasting consultancy. We are data, digital and policy experts. We are trusted and approved suppliers to both the public and private sector.
Our Future.Ctrl product allows you to take command of your future. It is our end to end solution that delivers the change necessary to succeed in a changing world.
Let’s forge new fronts. Together.
LEVEL UP
LEVEL UP
We embrace the future possibilities of localism, devolution and increased remits for local areas while understanding the challenges this brings. We have deep experience working on the UK Government’s levelling up agenda and EU’s Structural and Investment Funds. Helping local, regional and state authorities access funding, regenerate their areas, review spending projects and deliver more with less. Increased autonomy for the sub-national level is a global trend being embraced by central administrations worldwide. Global bodies are increasingly understanding that solutions must start from the ground up too. Our futures work, and subsequent strategy and policy implementation, is designed as close as possible to the individuals impacted by trends and events. We are embedded and delivering in these diverse communities. Proudly founded in Bristol, UK, but with a network of global colleagues and suppliers.
LEGACY
We have built a unique proposition based on our deep experience as civil servants that helps us achieve this. We call this delivery.ctrl. It’s about identifying specific points for meaningful intervention and bringing you along with us throughout the project’s journey. Recognising throughout that our recommendations are only achievable if they can be sustainably actioned by you long after we have gone. This work is informed by our assessment of and experience working with other consultancies in Government. Our relationship is based on forging new fronts together.
We are an approved supplier of Government as part of the Low Value Purchase System (LVPS), allowing the public sector access to our research and insights and contingency labour services for below threshold values. More information about the LVPM can be found here.
DATA
Specialists in data visualisation and feedback loops. Our work is always bespoke, targeted, trackable and measurable. All ForgeFront colleagues have data expertise and are Azure and Power BI qualified. We work in collaboration with the best data faculties at leading universities to remain on the cutting edge. We have a deep understanding of existing data lakes and can help you to fill in the gaps we identify.
DIGITAL
Our policy and project professionals have worked on some of the Government’s biggest digital challenges. We have worked for the Government Digital Service (GDS) on projects including One Login for Government and the transformation of the Government’s Top 75 digital services.
We are digital natives utilising new tools that have a transformational impact on our proposals and your organisation. We partner with industry leading suppliers who understand the power of our proposition.
FUTURES
We partner with leading international organisations, including Good Judgement Inc, to deliver an end-to-end futures service. Implementing the policies now that mitigate against the threats and realise the opportunities on the horizon. We call this Future.Ctrl. It’s about taking an academic and methodological approach to an often nebulous discipline. Providing accurate forecasts with probability scores. Providing workshop training to help your colleagues engage with the latest thinking. Stress testing your organisation to ensure you and your stakeholders are prepared. Engaging with leadership to deliver a focus on the things you should and should not be prioritising.
We are an approved supplier of Government as part of the new Futures Procurement Framework which runs until June 2026. More information about our work can be found on Gov.uk here, in our Delivery.Ctrl Framework Prospectus here, and in our June 2023 announcement here.
Who we are
ForgeFront is a team of experienced policy and futures experts founded by Sam Douglas-Bate and Aaron Yamoah. Aaron and Sam’s paths first crossed in 2018 as two of the forming members of the Cabinet Office’s Priority Projects Unit—dealing with the department’s most important and high-profile policy and project challenges. ForgeFront’s new proposition is based on their experience working with consultancies while in Government.
Who we are
ForgeFront is a team of experienced policy and futures experts founded by Sam Douglas-Bate and Aaron Yamoah. Aaron and Sam were two of the forming members of the Cabinet Office’s Priority Projects Unit—dealing with the department’s most important and high-profile policy and project challenges. Future.Ctrl is based on their experience working in a range of UK Government departments, for the European Union and with a number of large organisations in the private and third sector.
Sam
Douglas-Bate
Aaron
Yamoah
Gavin
Moore
Dashiell
Shaw
Managing Director and Co-Founder
Sam is a policy and government affairs leader who has worked for the European Union and the UK’s Cabinet Office, Brexit Department and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. He has spent time in the House of Commons, led high profile accounts for a leading public affairs firm and was in the last tranche of British EU Civil Servants working for the institutions in Brussels. During his career he has delivered policy and project work for a range of public and private sector clients including the Government Digital Service (GDS), the Cabinet Secretariat, Members of both the UK and European Parliaments, NATO and companies including Siemens, Zurich, Arla Foods and Laing O’Rourke. Sam is an accredited Microsoft data analyst and holds a degree in politics from the University of Bristol.
Director
Our funding specialist, Gavin was the lead adviser for over 70 Members of the European Parliament on the EU’s budget. More recently he led teams at HM Treasury on tariff and trade legislation following Brexit as well as delivering the transfer of EU financial services under the Smarter Regulatory Framework with the Financial Conduct Authority. Gavin has a deep understanding of EU funding mechanisms and has advised on parliamentary and budgetary procedure to MEPs, Lords, Ministers and colleagues. He has an extensive stakeholder network in Brussels and Whitehall, and previously worked for an MEP and as an Assistant Assembly Clerk in the Northern Ireland Assembly, scrutinising the Department of Finance. He holds a BA in International Politics, MAs in Comparative Ethnic Conflict and Legislative Studies from Queen’s University Belfast, with published works in academic journals and the Northern Ireland Assembly library.
Partner and Co-Founder
Aaron’s background was in economics and actuarial science, before he turned to public policy in HM Treasury where he spent several years leading public policy projects, advising ministers and providing direct strategic advice to the executive management board. He later led teams across a broad portfolio of critical policies in the Department for Exiting the EU and the Cabinet Office. Over his career he has worked in an MP’s office, led a number of successful public affairs campaigns in the infrastructure, energy and third sectors, and has worked as a consultant on a range of high priority delivery projects in the Department for Environment Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Aaron holds a degree in economics and actuarial science from the University of Southampton, and PRINCE II and Agile Project Management qualifications.
Manager
Dashiell is a local government policy expert with deep experience working across future funding, risk and strategy problems within the sector. He completed the Civil Service Fast Stream in 2019 and has led projects at UK Government departments including the Department for Exiting the European Union, the Department for Work and Pensions and most recently the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. During his career he has steered high priority projects on the levelling up, regeneration and devolution agendas including delivering Investment Zones and the Getting Building Fund and most recently innovative land capture policies such as Community Land Auctions. Dashiell holds a Degree in History and Politics from the University of Oxford and a Master’s in Economic Analysis from King’s College, London.
Our partners’ experience
Let’s forge new fronts. Together.