Consulting

Drawing upon its series of major research projects and expertise on governance, the Institute has been involved in a number of prestigious consultancies.

The first of these was a report on Business and the Scottish Parliament (1999) funded by the Royal Bank of Scotland, and Scottish Power, and carried out by the founders of the Institute, Alice Brown (who went on to become Public Services Ombudsman for Scotland), and David McCrone. A follow-up study (2003) was funded by the Boots Group, and directed by David McCrone.  

The Boots Group had previously commissioned (2002) an evaluation of its ‘Storysacks’ project in Edinburgh and Airdrie, a project aimed at improving literacy among young children and increasing involvement by parents and the community in the social and development of young people. The consultancy was led by Eberhard Bort, the Institute’s academic coordinator.  

The Institute also provided professional consultancy for Scottish Civic Forum in 2003 in its audit of democratic participation and its survey of members of the Forum.  This work was carried out by David McCrone, who also carried out consultancy for the Law Society of Scotland in 2006 in an analysis of the governance of the legal profession.  This was a comparative piece of analysis looking at the regulation of lawyers in the context of regulations in place for other professions in Scotland, notably accountants, teachers and doctors.