A former Chair of the Scottish JNC and APT&C, Vice Chair of the UK APT&C employers and a policy academic, Douglas was invited in 1989 to join the Scottish Local Authorities Management Centre (SLAMC) at Strathclyde University to undertake senior manager and member development and specialist advisory services to Scottish and UK Councils. His responsibilities at SLAMC 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 HR consultancy and advisory services to Scottish councils.

He has published many papers on local government personnel and organisational issues, including ‘best practice’ advice written on behalf of the AMA and LGMB. In his time with SLAMC he was also commissioned in a personal capacity to be an Advisor to the Personnel Committee of the AMA. He has contributed to many major professional conferences and seminars over the years, including those of COSLA, CIPFA, SODOPS and SOLACE. In 1993/94 Douglas designed and managed delivery of the English-language element of an EU PHARE programme to develop training and consultancy support to regional government in Romania, through the creation of five management centres and a programme to train senior Romanian regional government consultants at the University of Bucharest.

In late 1994 Douglas was invited to join Deloitte’s public sector consultancy as a Senior Consultant and was later promoted to Senior Manager. For over 9 years until late 2003 he managed many consultancy assignments on behalf of Deloitte for local government, executive agencies, government departments and universities in Scotland and the UK.

He established this independent consultancy in order to work flexibly with a range of colleagues (including Deloitte) and clients.

Douglas is now an established and effective strategic thinker with a very substantial track record of successful delivery of options appraisal, ministerial submissions, business cases, organisational development and performance improvement. He has strong personal skills in analysis, ICT, HR, manager and member development and mentoring, interpersonal communication and presentations and report writing, and has many letters of appreciation from local authority and agency chief executives, senior civil servants and university principals. He has briefed groups of senior civil servants and Ministers on several issues and occasions. His cross-sectoral experience is particularly useful in advice on partnerships. His proposal, report-writing, presentational and client relations skills are very strong.

Specialist skills:

Change Management
Performance Improvement
Options Appraisal (by Treasury ‘Green Book’)
Organizational Restructuring
Senior Manager Development
Elected Member Induction and Development
‘Best Value’ Reviews
Partnership Working

Summary of experience

Douglas has fifteen years experience of the successful management of major consultancy assignments for the public sector, delivered from SLAMC and Deloitte’s UK public sector consultancy. His consultancy work has throughout been informed by his earlier experiences as a prominent councilor and a policy academic. His background gives him particular strengths in policy and strategic advice to decision-makers at all levels and agencies and in cross-sectoral and partnership working.

Clients for whom he has led or managed assignments on behalf of Deloitte and SLAMC have included local authorities in England and Scotland, the LGMB, the British Library, the National Galleries of Scotland, the Scottish Executive, many universities and colleges and EU PHARE, for whom he led a programme to develop consultancy support for regional government in Romania in the democratic era.

His most recent work for UK local government has included an options appraisal for a transport authority for a consortium of local authorities in Scotland, preparation of a business case for submission to a Minister for the transfer of a regional airport to local authority control, process mapping and the creation of a leisure trust.

For government departments and executive agencies he has undertaken quinquennial and ‘best value’ reviews of several public bodies, reviews of funding issues, of communications and of partnership working as well as performance improvement.

Douglas is thoroughly versed in quality control, appraisal, programme and team management issues in consultancy from over nine years as a Senior Manager in Deloitte’s public sector practice. Whilst with Deloitte he led the development of what is now the standard one-week training course required for Deloitte staff anywhere in the world who undertake the management of consultancy teams – ‘Managing Excellence’ – encompassing programme management, team dynamics and appraisal and business development. He also assisted in the development of Deloitte’s own integrated HR and performance appraisal scheme, GEMs.

Douglas is well placed to bring the lessons of his experience of managing professional services in a prominent private-sector practice to local authorities. He is unusually well placed in understanding partnership and cross-sector working.

Key career achievements in local government-related work

Early achievements (up to 1990) were appointments to the Chair of the Scottish JNC and APT&C Councils, the Vice-Chair of the UK APT&C Council, and as a member of LACSAB and the Local Government Training Board for the UK. From 1990 until 1995 Douglas was an Advisor to the Personnel Committee of the AMA and wrote ‘best practice’ advice for the AMA and LGMB on personnel-related issues.

In 1992-5 Douglas advised ten councils in Scotland on Chief Officer pay levels and structures, successfully resolving in particular a difficult dispute between virtually all Chief Officers in the then Grampian Regional Council and their Members. This required sensitive presentation as both JNC appeal and legal action were threatened, which made it imperative that the advice given on the application of the JNC Scheme was accepted by all as soundly-based and impartial;
In 2000-1 Douglas managed a Deloitte commission to investigate and advise a consortium of six councils, the enterprise agency and the Scottish Executive on options for a regional transport authority, as then proposed by Ministers. Based on extensive consultation with public and private stakeholders and benchmarking of potential models in the UK and elsewhere, his team persuaded the then Minister, following direct briefings by Douglas, to accept that there should be no removal of powers from the constituent authorities and that the future arrangements should be based on voluntary partnerships. That principle is now embodied in the June 2004 Scottish White Paper ‘Our Transport Futures’. (See below for reference to report.);
Following that review Douglas was appointed to lead Deloitte’s assistance to Shetland Island Council in compiling a Business Case to put to the Minister to allow the authority greater influence in planning and operational matters in relation to Sumburgh Airport, a crucial facility for the islands. The case was submitted to the Minister in September 2001 and, though not achieving the most ambitious outcome of a transfer of ownership and control, succeeded in its realistic aim of allowing the Council greater influence over this vital gateway;

Also in September 2001 a team led and managed by Douglas successfully completed the post-McCrone Review of Initial Teacher Education in Scotland for the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED). This review had an unusually wide remit, including partnerships with Education Authorities, but a very tight timescale of just seven weeks from start to completion. The two-volume report is available on line (see reference below) and was well received by the many stakeholder bodies. Douglas was subsequently invited to brief the then Scottish Education Minister on the recommendations, which were implemented in the phased action plan which underpinned the ‘National Debate on Education’. (This review built on an earlier review in 1999 of the Costs of Partnership in Teacher Education – for Education Authorities, schools and TEIs – commissioned by the then Scottish Office.)
More recently, in 2003 Douglas managed a team which reviewed the financial processes in Scottish Borders Council. Following controversy over substantial and unexpected deficits in the budget of this department Deloitte was asked to map all current financial process, identify weaknesses and propose measures for improvement to allow SBC to work towards quality accreditation in this aspect of its services. The report produced by the team allowed SBC to demonstrate to the Accounts Commission and a wider critical public - that it had identified the problems and was implementing remedial measures.

Selected Local Authority-related assignments managed for Deloitte

In March 1999, advice to North Ayrshire Council on options appraisal for the creation of a Leisure Trust, subsequently extended to include advice on implementation, including Memoranda and Articles, finance, support services, staffing structures and TUPE transfers;
Also in 1999, consultation and review for the Scottish Office of the real costs of initial teacher education to the colleges, the schools where new teachers are placed, and to the education authorities, involving a large sample questionnaire survey of 1,000 teachers, an interview programme with agency representatives and intensive analysis of documents and evidence;
in 2000, preparation of business plans for the Cleansing, Ground Maintenance, transport and Roads DLOs in North Ayrshire Council, for submission to the Scottish Executive and Accounts Commission for Best Value Audit purposes;
· Subsequently, advice to the Assistant Chief Executive (Personnel) of North Ayrshire Council on the consolidation of bonus and other plussages for building trades and other workers into an upstanding salary;
In 2000-1 consultation and review of the options for a possible Integrated Transport Authority for the north of Scotland for a consortium of local authorities, using a web questionnaire to consult stakeholders. Douglas was invited to brief the Transport Minister and two senior colleague MSPs on the outcomes of this review, which the Executive has published (in two volumes – see www.Scotland.gov.uk.library3/transport/mrvo.pdf) and implemented;
· In 2001 a Business Case for Shetland Islands Council to submit to the Scottish Executive in order to achieve greater influence in the operations of Sumburgh Airport;
· in late 2001, consultation and review of the pattern and key issues in Initial Teacher Education in Scotland for the Scottish Executive, including forms of partnership with Education Authorities, published in two volumes on the Executive website at www.Scotland.gov.uk.library3/education/tefs-00.asp and leading to a request to brief the Education Minister directly.
in 2002, advice on a joint appointment of a senior staff member by Highland Council and a major local public agency;
In 2003, two assignments for Scottish Borders Council - a review of finance procedures in the Department of Education and Life-Long Learning, and advice on the creation of a leisure trust to operate its sports and leisure facilities;
· Also in 2003, Monitor of the postal voting pilot in Sunderland on behalf of the Electoral Commission.
For executive agencies and government Douglas has:
completed quinquennial and ‘best value’ reviews of three major agencies including the National Galleries of Scotland and the General Teaching Council for Scotland;
advised Scottish Natural Heritage inter alia on communications strategy, culture change and best practice in partnership working;
led a large performance improvement assignment for the British Library at St Pancras;
completed two major reviews of funding for the Scottish Arts Council; and
gave specialist support to Deloitte MCS England in a study 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.
For the tertiary education sector Douglas has managed many ‘strategic change’ reviews and options appraisals, including that which led to the merger of the University of Glasgow with St Andrew’s College, so creating significant economies of scale, and has written many reports to Ministers and funding bodies on behalf of universities and colleges. He was for 8 years Professional Advisor to the Millennium Commission on the development of the UHI MI Project, signing-off a total of £34.4m against project milestones. He has also undertaken two reviews of initial teacher education for the Scottish Office and Executive. He has recently completed three major reports for the Scottish Agricultural College within its Strategic Change Review and is currently co-ordinating the internal inputs for Dumfries & Galloway College in its project to relocate to the Crichton Academic Campus to develop partnership working with the universities there.
For Deloitte’s internal procedures Douglas:
was the lead author of the ‘Managing Excellence’ programme for all 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;
assisted in the development of Deloitte’s integrated performance appraisal and career development system, the Global Excellence Model or GEMs.

Publications

Douglas was invited by SOLACE Scotland in 2002 to contribute written comments on a draft of its publication ‘Toward Delivery: Establishing a Best Value Culture in Scottish Governance’;
Most of Douglas’s work has been – by its nature – confidential except where the client has chosen to make consultancy reports widely available, for example:

three substantial reports 2002-2003 on the reorganisation of a college, at www.sac.ac.uk;
· main report and two annexes of process mapping on teacher education 2001 at www.Scotland.gov.uk.library3/education/tefs-00.asp; and
two-volume report 2001 for a consortium of local authorities and government at www.Scotland.gov.uk.library3/transport/mrvo.pdf)
Earlier, whilst at the Scottish Local Authorities Management Centre until 1994 Douglas was free to publish and did so, inter alia:
'The Reorganisation of Scottish Local Government'. SLAMC Local Government Papers 1994.
‘Harmonisation of Working Time’ - LGMB July 1993 - a ‘best practice’ advisory guide to local bargaining over efficiency improvements, with case studies of four authorities; and
‘Local Government in the United Kingdom’ - in ‘Guinness UK Databook’ 1992.
Response to the Government’s Consultation Paper ‘Competing for Quality: Competition in the Provision of Local Services’ SLAMC joint submission, January 1992.
‘Harmonisation’ - An Advisory guide to local efficiency negotiation for manual workers, Association of Metropolitan Authorities (AMA) January 1992.
'Local Services in Scotland’ in ‘Public Domain: The Public Services Yearbook 1991’ Public Finance Foundation 1991, Edited by Professors Peter Jackson and Francis Terry.
'Going by the Board: Scotland and the UK Manpower Bodies' - Municipal Journal (Scotland) April 1990.
'Competitive Tendering: The Transition to Contracted Service Provision in Scottish Local Authorities' - Joint Paper, 1990. (SLAMC Papers in Local Government 1/90)
'Structures for Pay' - Article in the Local Government Chronicle, March 1990.

Personal details

Nationality British

Douglas is married with three grown-up children, and now lives in Edinburgh. His hobbies are photography, travel and fly-fishing. He holds a full driving licence.

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