Paula is a very experienced public sector consultant who
specialises in financial, governance and social care issues. She
trained as a local authority accountant before moving into
consultancy in 1989, initially with Coopers & Lybrand, where she
was responsible for developing and managing the firm's local
government consultancy work in Scotland. She is an active member
of CIPFA and was closely involved with recent developments in
costing and accounting for Best Value, including writing “Fair
Shares?”: Guidance on the apportionment of overheads in
accordance with CIPFA’s Best Value Accounting Code of Practice.
She is also Chairman of Turning Point Scotland.
Costing
Investigating the amount spent on dealing with offending
by young people and how this has changed over the last five
years
Identifying amounts being spent by local authorities in
implementing the various aspects of the McCrone agreement
Estimating the additional costs incurred by local
authorities as a result of their supersparse geography, high
levels of deprivation and/or their small size
Analysing the costs of the Scottish Prisons Service,
specifically the costs associated with activities intended
to reduce re-offending
Project Manager for a community budgeting exercise
considering services for vulnerable young people
Assessing how the costs of meeting Special Educational
Needs would be affected by the greater integration of pupils
with SEN in mainstream schools
Funding
o Identifying the range of funding streams from the
Scottish Executive to community planning partners which are
available for partnership working
Mapping the funding of local authorities in Scotland and
analysing trends in the nature and scale of local government
expenditure
Developing a needs based formula to underpin the Grant
Aided Expenditure assessments for the eight police forces in
Scotland
Advising the Scottish Executive on a range of issues
concerned with the development of the Special Islands Needs
Allowance
Governance & Risk Management
Preparing guidance about governance, infrastructure and
related issues for Community Justice Authorities
Advising on linkages between a local authority’s risk
management strategy and its business planning process
Professional adviser to a Council’s Audit and Governance
Panel o Contributor to “Audit Committee Principles in Local
Authorities in Scotland” published by CIPFA Directors of
Finance section
Development of a training programme and associated
materials for use in the training of current or potential
members of Audit Committees
Advice in the development of a risk management strategy
for a local authority and in its implementation
Shared Services & Efficient Government
Providing advice on the relative costs of different
approaches to sharing support services between two
institutions
Considering alternative approaches to funding and
monitoring community planning which would free up capacity
in line with thinking on efficient government
Working with a group of newly appointed business
managers to develop the optimum structure for the delivery
of administrative support services
Social Care Services
Supporting a review of a local authority’s charging
policy for housing support and community social care
services
Advising a local authority on the updating of its
strategy for Supporting People
Working with a local authority to develop a new customer
services approach for social services and their joint
working partners
Appraisal of the options available for the procurement
of 240 care home places in an area to assist in the process
of discharging elderly people from hospital
