BRIEF CV (EDUCATION)

NAME: DOUGLAS WYNN

POSITIONS HELD:

Director of Wynn Consulting, an independent consultancy.Until late 2003 Douglas was a Senior Manager in Deloitte’s public sector team and its lead consultant for education.

YEAR OF BIRTH: 1947

QUALIFICATIONS: BSc II1 Hons. in Industrial & Political Sociology, LondonMSc(Econ) in Politics, London School of EconomicsMember of the Institute of Personnel and Development (MIPD)Qualified as an Examiner for Investors in People

CAREER EXPERIENCE

Douglas was an academic specialist in public policy who taught in two departments of Stirling University over a total of fourteen years. During this time at Stirling he had responsibility for admissions to all social sciences departments and was elected as the non-professorial member of a University Working Party on UGC restructuring proposals. In five years in a subsequent post at the (self-financing) Scottish Local Authorities Management Centre at Strathclyde University’s Business School, his responsibilities included:

• co-ordinating the main one-week residential course programme (‘The Manager in Local Government’) which SLAMC provided for senior officers of Strathclyde Regional Council;
• lead responsibility for the design and delivery of ‘bespoke’ management development courses to middle and senior rank officers in Scottish local authorities; and
• lead responsibility for SLAMC’s consultancy and advisory services to Scottish councils.
  

He has published many papers on public sector personnel and organisational issues, and has designed and led many seminars for departmental and corporate management teams in the UK.

In 1993/94, on behalf of Strathclyde University, Douglas designed and led delivery of the English-language element of an EU PHARE programme to develop training and consultancy support to regional public management in Romania, through the creation of five management centres and a programme to train senior Romanian consultants at the University of Bucharest.

In October 1994 Douglas was invited to join Deloitte & Touche as a Senior Consultant to lead its Scottish public sector consultancy practice in education and local government, and was subsequently appointed Managing Consultant and then Senior Manager in the practice. Relevant assignments in which he led and managed Deloitte teams are noted below.
Douglas left Deloitte’s employment at the end of November 2003, after nine years, in order to establish his independent practice, Wynn Consulting, which undertakes both independent education consultancy and continuing sub-contracted work for Deloitte throughout the UK.

POLICY-MAKING EXPERIENCE

Until 1990 Douglas was Deputy Leader of Central Regional Council and held a number of related posts in Education, including:

• Chairman of that Education Authority’s Further Education Committee;
• Chairman of COSLA’s Scottish Local Authorities Staff Development Committee;
• Governor of Dollar Academy;
• Chairman of the Board of Governors of Clackmannan College of Further Education; and
• Vice-Chairman of the Board of Governors of Falkirk College of Further Education.
  During this period Douglas held several senior positions on national employer bodies including:
• Employers' Chairman for white collar staff in Scottish local government (the NJC APT&C)
• Employers' Chairman for Chief Officials in Scottish local government (the JNC);
• Chairman of the UK Employers London Weighting Committee;
• Employers' Vice-Chairman for white collar (APT&C staff) in U.K. local government;
• Board Member of the U.K. local authorities' employers organisation (LACSAB);
• Member of two U.K. Local Government Training Board (LGTB) Committees.

MAIN EDUCATION ASSIGNMENTS AT DELOITTE & TOUCHE

The most relevant assignments which Douglas managed and/or led for Deloitte & Touche from 1994 to late 2003 are listed below.

• a major options appraisal for the Faculty of Medicine at Glasgow University, following health service reorganisation proposals and the new medical curriculum in ‘Tomorrow’s Doctors. The assignment used full Treasury ‘Green Book’ option appraisal methodology and SHEFC guidance to evaluate relocation options for the 31 Departments and ancillary units of the Faculty of Medicine, taking account of strategic requirements in ‘weighting and scoring’ by Heads of Department, and incorporating net present cost calculations (1996 - 1997);
• advice separately to The University of Glasgow and St Andrew’s College on options for a strategic alliance, again using Treasury and SHEFC-compatible methodologies for financial and non-financial appraisal of merger possibilities. Working closely with the Management Team of the College and the Vice-Principal of the University, this sensitive assignment inter alia reviewed the institutions’ plans to derive additional SHEFC revenue from enhanced RAE performance, and led to the decision of the two institutions to proceed to a merger (August ‘97-January ‘98);
• Project Assessor and then designated Professional Adviser to the Millennium Commission in respect of its £33.4m grant to establish a digital University of the Highlands and Islands, monitoring progress on estates, ICT and academic development on 18 UHI sites across 13 Colleges, the largest of which were Perth, Moray, Inverness and North Highland Colleges of Further Education. This assignment had an increasing emphasis on the practical implementation of e-learning to integrate further and higher education (1995 – 2003);
• support to the management of Glasgow University’s Faculty of Medicine in a management review and restructuring of academic departments, aimed at achieving greater effectiveness in teaching and research. This assignment required close collaboration with the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and his senior academic and administrative colleagues (1997 – 1998);
• Full ‘Green Book’ financial and non-financial option appraisal for the future configuration of Queen Margaret College as it developed a digital outreach programme and worked towards University status, requiring a sensitivity to current policy and funding for HEIs and advice on ‘best practice’ in higher education accommodation and management. The report of this options appraisal was commended by SHEFC;
• a review for the Scottish Office of the real costs of initial teacher education to the providing colleges, the schools where they are placed, and to the education authorities, involving a major consultation programme and intensive analysis of documents and evidence;
• a review of the viability of a proposal to create a new Further Education College in Ayrshire, including an examination of financial and economic impacts on other providers, and a follow-up study to address options for the accommodation requirements of Ayr College;
• a Quinquennial Review of the efficiency and potential additional functions of the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), on behalf of the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department;
• a SHEFC-funded strategic review of academic, ICT and support operations of The School of Fine Art of Duncan of Jordanston College, a Faculty of the University of Dundee, aimed at integrating academic research, teaching and marketing, and aimed at making optimum use of resources for its future operation and digital outreach;
• a review of the Scottish Council for Research in Education, identifying its strengths and weaknesses in addressing the increasingly de-regulated market for educational research and the potential removal of its guaranteed funding;
• a review of corporate ICT strategy at Heriot-Watt University, with recommendations for options for improvement and procurement in light of the University’s research, teaching, digital outreach and development plans;
• a review of the most efficient forms of research contract in higher education for the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council;
• final reporting and editing of a review of the Scottish Qualifications Authority on behalf of the Scottish Executive. This review covered the SQA's management and organisation, processes and systems, and required consultation of the organisation's stakeholders, providers and recipients of information and suppliers to the education sector;
• a focused review of the structure and key aspects of Initial Teacher Education for the Scottish Executive, by process-mapping present programme structures and examining seven pressing topic areas in ITE, including the use of ICT in teacher education, and making practical recommendations for improvement. This report was published in two volumes by the Executive in July 2001. Douglas was then invited to brief the Minister personally;
• review of HR systems at Edinburgh College of Art, with specific focus on implementing the new 2002 ‘Universities Scotland’ advice on best practice in the appraisal of academics; a major strategy and options appraisal for the Scottish Agricultural College (a specialist provider of bio-science research and advisory services which spans further and higher education in its taught courses). Douglas produced three separate reports for SAC:

1. a review of markets, services and objectives on the basis of a comprehensive consultation with stakeholders (using a web questionnaire, interviews and focus groups);
2. a Green Book options appraisal for the future configuration of SAC’s activities and campuses; and
3. advice to SAC on responses to specific further questions and issues raised by the Minister.

• This work for SAC continued with a separate commission to Wynn Consulting to assist SAC in producing a full Business Case for restructuring for the Minister by writing chapters on Strategic Context and Educational Partnerships with HEIs and FECs;
• an Options Appraisal and Business Case for the reconfiguration of the campuses of the University College of Wales, Newport, as the specialist education sub-contractor to Deloitte MCS Wales; and
• ongoing work as the specialist education sub-contractor to Deloitte MCS England for a major options appraisal and institutional design for a National Centre for Skills Development for Sustainable Communities, commissioned jointly by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, English Partnerships and the Commission on the Built Environment.

RELEVANT WORK FOR NON-EDUCATION PROVIDERS

Douglas also managed a number of large projects on behalf of Deloitte in which there was substantial educational content, but where the clients were not direct providers of education. These included:

• for Deloitte itself, Douglas was the lead author of the ‘Managing Excellence’ programme for staff who aspire to become Managing Consultants. This one-week programme is a core element of the company’s core global staff development curriculum, mapped on to a competence framework, and is delivered digitally on the company’s intranet learning zone;
• for the British Library, Douglas was lead consultant for a performance improvement programme in the Readers’ Services Division, based at St Pancras;
• for the National Galleries of Scotland, Douglas led and managed a substantial recent Best Value Review of configuration and operations.
  Extracts from letters of appreciation from clients for many education and related assignments can be viewed at www.wynnconsulting.co.uk.