I am an Assistant Professor in Public Management and Public Policy in the School of Government at the University of Birmingham. I hold a PhD in Political Science from University College London and a master's degree from the University of York. I completed my undergraduate studies at Cambridge University. My work has been published in Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory and I regularly write for popular outlets such as The Conversation.

My research focuses on the ways in which different methods of public service delivery affect the quality of public services and the nature of interactions between citizens and government. Prior to starting my academic career, I worked for six years in government and the public sector, including at the UK Government Digital Service. 

I have two ongoing research streams. The first, based on my doctoral research explores government-contractor relationships in outsourced public services and how they effect and are affected by market competition. I explore how more flexible contractual arrangements, based on trust and collaboration, are being used to manage the risk and uncertainty involved in outsourcing public services. I use online survey experiments and administrative datasets processed using machine learning to analyse the evolution of government contracting relationships over time. I examine the effects that these practices have on competition for public contracts and on the quality of services being provided.

The second research stream examines the impact of cross-sector collaborations . I am currently working, with colleagues from University College London, on a project investigating how collaborative community planning processes, involving community organisations, local government, and businesses, are changing relationships between public organisations and local people. I am also working on a survey experiment examining the effects of different contracted and partnership delivery models on support for and engagement with public services.

My wider research interests are in the politics and practice of public sector organisation design, particularly decisions about the boundaries between the public and private sectors and questions of public ownership. I am interested in the ways in which public management decisions can have wide-ranging consequences for people’s experience of government and the effects of public management reforms on the quality and responsiveness of public services.