John Griffiths

I have spent most of my career in London.  I live in, have represented and written about the East End which has given me an appreciation of the challenges of effecting social change.  Since setting up Rocket Science’s London operation in 2001, I have had the privilege of working with some amazingly talented people and a wide array of clients across the public, private and voluntary sectors.  We have now extended the company’s research and consultancy services to encompass programme and grant management, developing long-term collaborations with different partners, including London Voluntary Service Council, the Black Training and Enterprise Group and Teachers’ Development Trust.

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Richard Scothorne

I have spent most of my professional life developing, designing, reviewing – and sometimes even implementing and managing – programmes and strategies to reduce unemployment. I have seen the impact that getting a job can have on people and their families and the wider community – I can’t think of anything more rewarding.

Recently my work has focused on responding to some worrying trends. The depth of the recession seems to have created a downward ratchet in some of more deprived areas – with a bigger gap opening up between their economic health and scale of unemployment and national trends. This is raising a set of new questions – for example, how to help young people broaden their horizons and gain the skills and confidence they need to thrive in places unfamiliar to them.

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Caroline Masundire

A fully fledged member of the Institute for Common Sense when it comes to developing strategies, reviewing policy, helping organisations with their business development strategies and evaluating impact and value (money and social).

Focused and practical I am passionate about improving the well-being of communities and individuals and know that you can create a win/win situation when it comes to designing and delivering services by helping to shift perspectives and drive social innovation.

I love to help people develop their own skills and capacity through training and facilitation so they can develop and own their solutions, as well as debunk theories and concepts to make them accessible to all. I do the odd bit of bid writing but enjoy wider business development and testing my own capacity for learning by taking the plunge into new technologies (not quite there yet)!
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James Turner

I like to think I’m an unusual blend of being good with numbers and good with words, too. What I’m really interested in is making sure information – whether it’s words or numbers – is set out in a way that’s easy to understand.

I am Rocket Science’s newest member of staff, having joined on 17 November 2014. My background has been developing and designing £100m+ funding programmes for the Big Lottery Fund (BLF). These programmes focused on issues such as community regeneration, reaching the hardest to reach and tackling disadvantage.

The areas that I’m most interested in are policy analysis; data analysis; working in partnership; design of / consultation on strategic level funding programmes; and making sure these funding programmes work in practice.

Outside of work, I’m a Trustee at the Toby Henderson Trust, a Northumberland charity for children with autism.

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Clare Hammond

I’m a problem solver at heart, I love the challenge of pulling apart an issue and putting it back together better than it was before. As an economist and public policy practitioner, I focus on the use of evidence when designing and evaluating policy, spending projects and agency performance management. I also have experience in how Business Cases can improve capital investment decisions.

I have a passion for the environment, particularly on how to make well informed decisions that balance the economy and environmental protection. I believe the key to improving both economic welfare and environmental quality is through innovating the way we use and protect the environment.

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Bill Rollo

As the sole member of the company support team, my role and goal is to service the wide ranging administration requirements of the business, offices and staff. By successfully doing so, management and staff should feel less distracted and inhibited and, therefore, better placed to deliver the high quality client service they’re expected to. My broad experience in many facets of business combined with a strict professional upbringing and training has served me well in this particular role.

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Clara Mascaro

I love the process of designing a bespoke research framework for each project and seeing it through the various stages of collecting data, analysing it and thinking about what the results mean. I enjoy being able to zoom out to see the wider picture and then delve deep into a problem. My background in economics and politics helps me to combine both quantitative and qualitative research skills and see the issues from a range of angles.

I’m committed to socially progressive research that enables or sustains positive change in public services. I’m also very interested in the third sector and the role this plays in promoting social justice.

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Hannah Rich

I have always been motivated by a desire to promote social justice. Through my work at Rocket Science I hope to make a difference, however small, to people’s lives. I believe that carrying out research into issues such as urban regeneration, employment and deprivation is a vital first step to influencing policy and delivering services that can better serve the needs of society. I am particularly interested in exploring the potential of service users playing a greater role in service re-design.

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Mark Barratt

At Rocket Science I work across many projects, primarily managing the day-to-day running of grant programmes. I like being part of a project’s evolution, working on its different stages and seeing how it progresses over time. I like getting things in order, making sure the projects are running smoothly and ensuring targets are met.

I have a strong interest in social justice and achieving true equality of opportunity, be it through local politics and democracy or grassroots campaigning. As a Rocket Scientist, I hope to learn more about this and incorporate it into my work.

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