About Paul
Because It Matters Ltd is a consultancy focused on getting the best from you and your organisation. It is built around the work of Paul Devlin, a skilled leader, facilitator, consultant and coach, and draws on his wide experience of working in and with a range of organisations.
Paul’s career has spanned the third sector (e.g. Age Concern and Action for Children) and the public sector (e.g. Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, both of which he chaired for six years each), and is complemented by his provision of consultancy services to many national, regional and local organisations, and by his one to one coaching support for leaders.
Paul is passionate about helping get the best from individuals and the organisations within which they work. He applies this passion in work on governance, leadership, involvement, strategy, and planning, whilst always focusing on service users, equality and diversity. His background as a trained facilitator and group worker combined with his career in leadership and strategic development brings breadth to his consultancy. This complements his attention to delivering the very best for those receiving services, which has driven his work in the NHS and with and for several charities.
Paul’s clients range from national bodies and organisations to small local groups. He has led workshops and been a keynote speaker at many events, including for NHS Providers, NHS Improvement, LHM Media, CharityWorks and NHS Leadership Academy.
A keen writer, Paul blogs about his perspectives on aspects of leadership, governance, and equality, as well as his interest in music and food! He has had pieces published by NHS Providers and the Health Service Journal, amongst others. You can follow him on Bluesky and LinkedIn.
Paul’s consultancy clients have included:
- CharityWorks – lecture module on managing equality in the third sector
- Eva Organisation for Women – support in strategic planning
- Hamaari – supporting project planning and delivery, and fundraising
- Healthwatch England – researching and writing a resource for consortia-led organisations
- Healthwatch Oxfordshire – Board development and planning
- Healthwatch Sandwell – strategic planning with the Board and staff team
- Healthwatch Shropshire – carrying out a Reflective Audit to demonstrate organisational impact
- Healthwatch Walsall – policy development and advising on governance and public engagement
- Healthwatch Warwickshire – building a two-year strategic plan with a parallel capacity and resource audit
- LHM Media – providing insights into the changing shape of healthcare
- National Association for Patient Participation – acting as lead officer enabling engagement with national stakeholders and leading commissioned projects to advance patient participation and involvement
- NHS Providers – facilitation for executive and non-executive directors on change management within transforming healthcare systems
- Scottish Refugee Council – facilitating annual Executive Team development and strategic planning
- Staffordshire Housing Association – advising on the changing shape of healthcare and its implications for the housing sector
- One to one coaching on leadership, planning, chairing skills, and career development, particularly with Chairs and Chief Executives
Paul has been confirmed for a second three-year term as Chair of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – a Trust providing a wide range of community, mental health, and learning disability services, including high secure forensic services at Rampton Hospital.
Prior to this, he was Chair of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust for six years, and a Specialist Adviser on Governance for the Care Quality Commission (CQC). He has previously been a lay member of NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence). Evidence summaries: unlicensed/off-label medicines Prioritisation Panel.
Paul’s consultancy is informed by his career, which included holding senior roles in Healthwatch Birmingham (Chief Executive), Action for Children (Head of Inclusion), Headway, the brain injury association (Director of Services), and Age Concern England (Head of the Federation Secretariat and National Training Manager).
Testimonials
Paul is undoubtedly one of the most dedicated, conscientious and effective leaders that I have had the pleasure to work with. He has extensive experience of working in executive and non-executive Board-level roles as well as in a consulting capacity, and has a track record of success in both leading and facilitating positive change. As a direct result of his expertise and accomplishments across healthcare organisations in particular, Paul is increasingly known as a thought leader at national level.
Paul’s passion and specialist expertise lie in cultural change, governance and the development of effective partnerships. He consistently takes a ‘systems’ approach to leadership, thinking strategically above and beyond immediate challenges to seek out and harness possible collaborations. This has enabled Paul to secure the achievement of both organisational and shared objectives in the long-term, and in so doing has raised the profile of those he works for. Paul’s style is engaging and people-centric; he is adept in working across the full spectrum of stakeholders to win hearts and minds, whilst ever remaining focused on the needs of the end user of services.
Jo Yeaman, MIH SolutionsPaul is a highly recommended leader and an expert in the field of Health and Social Care. Paul offers organisations and colleagues the opportunity to clearly understand the requirements and operations of providers both large and small, through to the needs of the public on a local and national level.
I have had the pleasure of working with Paul over a number of years, from building brands, developing systems, conference speaking through to community engagement and launching events. By working with Paul, LHM and I have gained a lot of new ideas from his approach and understanding of the health and care sectors and continue to do so.
Ian Hughes , LHM Media LtdPaul helped proof-read my second master’s thesis and was kind enough to look through the critical research and analysis thoroughly. He assisted me in the early stages of development of Hano Academy – the first Academic Progression and Polytechnic Academy in Somalia.
Paul has the experience and expertise needed for a wide range of fields. He has helped me time and time again, and gave a tremendous deal of effort to do so. I am grateful for Paul’s support.
Dr Sadiyo Siad, Dr Sadiyo SiadPaul presented a thought provoking and interesting practical exercise discussing the process of change within organisations which resonated with all delegates generating a good debate and resulting in practical advice that delegates planned to implement on return to their organisations.
Paul is an extremely experienced and easy to work with facilitator who we would have no hesitation in recommending.
NHS Providers, NHS ProvidersPaul provided some excellent senior management team development sessions over a couple of years. His work with the team and the individual members, at a time of transition for the organisation and the team itself with new members coming onboard, enabled us to progress and develop and become much more effective and focused.
Paul was diligent in his preparation, delivery and follow up and flexible in taking into account the different needs of team members. Paul is sensitive to dealing with the different needs of diverse teams both in terms of the membership of teams and the different experience that individual senior managers had.
His sessions always evaluated well and he was respected by team members.
John Wilkes, Equality and Human Rights Commission, ScotlandPaul supported our Trust with some progressive Board development activity over the last year through a period of transition as we onboarded new members. Paul was an excellent, experienced facilitator and very much a subject matter expert.
He was likeable, well-prepared, and tailored the sessions to our organisation, allowing for different levels of experience. Paul used practical exercises to generate healthy debate and challenges which have helped us to become more effective and purposeful in our engagements as a Board.
We would highly recommend Paul’s services to any provider organisation.