Dr Paul Walley

Professional biography

Dr Paul Walley joined the faculty of Open University in September 2015.  Up to September 2011 Paul worked at Warwick University as an Associate Professor in Operations Management.  At Warwick he was Academic Director for their Distance Learning MBA programme, where he also obtained his PhD in 2012.  He then took time away from academic life to work as a hospital senior manager in the Middle East.

Paul worked as Director of Learning for the Centre for Policing Research and Learning from September 2017 to July 2025.  In this role he worked with police forces and at a national level to develop learning content for policing CPD.

Paul has worked as a specialist in Operations Management for over 25 years, with expertise in areas such as lean thinking, quality management, capacity planning and capacity management in both manufacturing and service settings.

Research interests

Paul is particularly interested in the transfer of contemporary operations management practices, such as lean thinking, from the private sector into public sector organisations.  He is widely known for his research into healthcare management, publishing a number of influential reports into the design and improvement of healthcare systems. His work is now being extended to working with police services across the UK.  The current focus of his work is to study the ways in which police services manage demand and capacity.  He has worked with Gloucestershire Constabulary on an in-depth study of demand had how the service meets that demand.  He is also studying the ways in which work is prioritised, using the "Nationals Decision Model" and methods such as THRIVE+.  More recently he was part of the team that worked on Operation Soteria, improving the ways in which rape investigation is conducted.  He used his specialist knowledge to provide guidance on the demand patterns and relevant capacity strategies that would provide an improved service to victims. 

Up to September 2024 Paul was a team member of the ICTA project, studying the quality of care for transgender adults.  His work raised questions about the effective capacity in the system to diagnose those seeking support and accessing transgender services.  He now serves on the steering group for the NHS England programme tasking with reducing waiting times and improving care

Teaching interests

Paul is a highly respected trainer and facilitator in lean thinking and quality management approaches to continuous improvement.  He has used his skills to train managers and healthcare professionals all over the world, including Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Italy and the US.  He has worked on a number of highly successful collaborative system improvement programmes with organisations worldwide using an action-learning approach.  Paul likes to use games and simulations as part of his teaching.  Paul is also particularly experienced in the development of online learning, having successfully developed modules in three UK Business Schools.  Paul is currently working on the development of new material for the Open Univeristies MBA programme.

Impact and engagement

Paul is most defintely an impact researcher who focuses on applied research that can help understand practical operational problems, diagnose solutions and help implement change.  In his first large programme he was part of a team that improved the performance of NHS A&E departments in England ans Wales.  The work continued in other countries including Italy, Scotland and Canada.

The work he conducted with Gloucestershire Constabulary from late 2017 to reduce non-urgent demand entering into the police response system had a huge impact on both performance and costs.  This formed part of an Impact Case Study for the most recent REF assessment.  Since then he has conducted other impact research programmes in policing including reducing demand from children that go missing.  His latest work assesses the effectiveness of the use of Artificial Intelligence as a productivity tool in the public sector.