Kim McLaren - CV

With ten years experience in Scotland’s public sector, my work is currently focussed on higher education governance and workforce.Through 2022 and 2023, I led work to develop a set of purpose and principles for post school education, research and skills development in Scotland. Follwing publication of these principles I then developed policy options for the simplification of the post school funding landscape, which has recently been out for public consultation.My public sector experience has largely focussed on policy development alongside programme delivery with a digital focus, employing systems thinking, user centred research and design. I also have experience in marketing and content creation both in government, but also in B2C from previous roles. I have a strong interest in financial policy with experience working in strategic financial policy to support operational and legislative establishment of Social Security Scotland.

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT 2017 - PRESENTUniversity Governance Team Leader, November 2024 - Present- Policy lead for higher education workforce and governance for Scottish institutions
- Managing team responsible for briefing, correspondence, speeches, FOI's and parliamentary engagementPost School Education Reform Strategic Project Lead (Team Leader), April 2022 - November 2024- Strategic Project Lead for development of the Purpose and Principles for Post-School Education, Research and Skills - published June 2023
- Stakeholder engagement to support user centred policy design with focus on universities, colleges and learners
- Developing policy options to support long term education reform, working with officials across the span of lifelong education to map and consider different user journeys and user needsTeam Leader - Trade Policy for Climate and Sustainability, April 2021 - April 2022- Policy Lead for trade and its interactions with human rights and international development, working across portfolios on the delivery of Scottish Government objectives
- Capability Lead for the International Trade Profession, working with other staff across UK Government Departments to coordinate work streams and support best practice
- Organise and coordinate trade specific learning for staff in the Directorate for International Trade and Investment and wider Scottish GovernmentConnecting Scotland Policy Lead, September 2020 - April 2021- Policy Lead for the £43m Connecting Scotland programme - set up to tackle digital exclusion during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Producing briefing, correspondence and speeches for Scottish Government Ministers in relation to the programme and digital exclusion.
- Create business case for Phase 3 of the programme, which brought online an additional 18,000 individuals and expanded data provision from 12 months to 24 months.
- Line management of the Connecting Scotland Programme Delivery Manager.Prostitution Policy Lead, August 2019 - September 2020- Wrote and launched the consultation on Challenging Men’s Demand for Prostitution in Scotland.
- Producing briefing, correspondence and speeches for Scottish Government Ministers in relation to prostitution policy and violence against women and girls.
- Lead FOI casehandler for the Violence Against Women and Girls Unit.
- Managed Covid-19 response to support stakeholders, including securing additional emergency funding of £70,000.Senior Comms Officer, February  2019 - August 2019- Managed website updates, including over 80 pages of technical guidance in relation to the upgrade to the Scottish Electronic Tax System (SETS).
- Created learning materials to upskill all operational and support staff on the new system.
- Managed Go-Live comms, including messaging for telephone advisors and managing email channels.
- Created YouTube videos for the Revenue Scotland YouTube channel to provide additional support to end users. To date, the videos have had 2,000 views.
- Line management of Comms Officer.Trade Policy Officer, September 2018 - February 2019- Sat on Get Set for Brexit subgroup to evaluate and manage learning and development needs of skills and enterprise agencies in the lead up to Brexit.
- Producing briefing, correspondence and speeches for Scottish Government Ministers on trade implications of Brexit in Scotland.
- Manage learning and development for a directorate of over 40 staff, including creating a learning index and building relationships with Trade Profession officials in the Directorate for Investment and Trade in Whitehall.Strategic Finance Policy Officer, February 2018 - September 2018- Producing briefing, correspondence and speeches for Scottish Government Ministers on finances relating to set up of Social Security Scotland.
- Drafting policy associated with secondary legislation of the Social Security Scotland Act (2018).
- Working with colleagues from DWP on operationalising the Fiscal Framework of the Scotland Act (2016).Digital Transformation Officer, August 2017 - February 2018- Working as part of an Agile Development Team at SEPA on the development of a digital licensing platform.
- Offering support to SEPA colleagues in engagement and adoption of UK Government reusable digital components e.g, Gov.UK Notify and Gov.UK Pay.
- Supporting User Researcher with user research interviews and intelligence gathering.
- Supporting business analysts in mapping current services.Skills Development Scotland - Employer Services Intern, 2015-2017- Researching companies and creating a “Top 500” list of companies for proactive engagement across regions and key sectors in Scotland.
- Creating and managing an interim CRM solution using Microsoft Power BI.
- Researching the impact of the Apprenticeship Levy, with a focus on the Public Sector in Scotland and sharing this data with the Scottish Government.