Hello  PPMA friends

I was delighted to attend the HPMA Annual Conference in Manchester last week. With a theme of Future Thinking, it was wonderful to spend time with our HPMA friends. It was a great opportunity to see the new Chief People Officer for NHS England and Improvement, Prerana Issar speak. She shared the key priorities from the Interim NHS People Plan that was recently issued.  Workforce issues are clearly at the heart of the overall NHS agenda – delivering great patient care is hugely dependent on the workforce – that’s not news to the rest of us working across public services.

A few things came to my mind – firstly, Prerana is the real deal. She brings strong public service experience (gained at the UN) with equally strong private sector experience. She spoke on Day 1 of conference and I found her very compelling, authentic and utterly inspirational. Secondly, she has been in post only 8 weeks but she has a deft grasp of the key issues. Thirdly – and most importantly to me – she made sure to credit the team who had developed the plan.  Dean Royles, the new HPMA President is also the real deal – he has had a stellar career in the NHS and he takes over from Deborah Tarrant who has taken HPMA through a significant journey and restructure as a Charity.

There were lots of interesting sessions and we had chance to share our key objectives from the MOU partnership with our HPMA colleagues. What is really clear to us is that we share common challenges, can learn from each other and frustratingly, that we are often reinventing the wheel across public services HR & OD. So, we continue to be committed to working with HPMA, UHR and CIPD to raise our collective voices, but just as critically share learning and promote good practice. We do not have the luxury in terms of money and resources to plough our own furrows; and if we want to provide opportunities for colleagues to work effectively across public services, then we must collaborate – we are much stronger together.

I also very much enjoyed the HPMA Awards evening – it was a wonderful evening and there were some fantastic winners. I was really pleased to see that our colleagues in Greater Manchester won an award for the Health and Social Care partnership. That was fantastic. James Devine won HPMA HRD of the Year – it was a hugely popular choice. James is from Medway NHS Foundation Trust. He has recently been appointed as Chief Executive which is a fantastic achievement and is another example that being a HRD is not a barrier to further success. Many of you won’t have heard of Jan Bloomfield, but she is this year’s HMPA President’s Award Winner. Jan has recently retired from the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (WSFT), where she served as Director of Workforce (and other portfolios) for 27 years. Jan seemed completely taken aback to receive a standing ovation but it was absolutely clear that her colleagues adore her. It is easy to become cynical – and we clearly know that there are people in senior leadership posts who aren’t admired or respected – but the level of emotion displayed towards Jan was deeply deeply moving.  It was an honour to witness it first-hand.

Sometimes the Universe conspires to send you messages about the path your are on. Our #outoftheshadows campaign isn’t the only time that bullying has made the headlines – and progress has certainly been made. We’ve had much publicity around individual NHS cases and indeed in Universities too. Conference Day 2 gave us the opportunity to hear from Helene Donnelly. This extraordinarily courageous and humble nurse was at the heart of the maelstrom of the Mid Staffordshire scandal. Helene described a number of incidents where her own physical safety was threatened – and for a period of time her husband and father would need to meet her at the front of the hospital to make sure she got home safely. She also told us of other incidents were colleagues threatened to manipulate medicine that she was due to give patients so that she would be blamed for harm that would come to those patients. You could have heard a pin drop. Even after all this time, her voice still breaks on telling her story. I don’t mind saying that her talk upset me greatly and enraged me deeply. On the one hand it was good that my drive home was so much longer than normal as it gave me time to reflect on how things have gone so wrong in our workforces where people who are genuinely wanting to help are being so badly treated.

Her comments about the lack of support she received from HR cut deeply. Helene described the expectation that all of our colleagues should rightly have of us – that we are guardians of values and behaviours and that we are a trusted friend when people need to come to us and tell us when things are going wrong. She was wholly let down by HR and that is a horrible realisation for those of us who should take our obligation to those in trouble so seriously. Brene Brown’s quote struck me deeply too. We must be the people who colleagues know will listen and respond with empathy and understanding. In this way, we can mitigate some of the terrible emotional consequences that people who have been bullied often feel.

I’m pleased to say that I’ll be continuing my conversations with HPMA and UHR about #outoftheshadows and whilst there are details to sort out, I am in no doubt that our friends are bought into this very important campaign. One of our primary drivers behind our MOU was to raise our collective voice – and I feel ever more strongly that we are going to achieve that for #outoftheshadows.

Wherever you are this week, I hope it is kind to you.

Karen

Hello PPMA members and friends

We’re absolutely delighted to announce the following:

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Health People Managers Association (HPMA), Public Services People Managers Association (PPMA) and Universities HR (UHR) has today announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a collective voice for HR across public service.

The memorandum outlines how the four organisations intend to collaborate to promote the development of workforce strategies, policy, talent management programmes, research, thought leadership that will enable the delivery of 21st Century public service workforces.

Thousands of highly committed HR & OD professionals will benefit from the collective efforts of the four membership bodies. The arrangement confirms each organisation’s commitment to building strong, diverse, high performing HR & OD communities that can best support the millions of people employed in public service and the Third Sector. The MoU, which runs from 2018 to 2023 will enable this by agreeing that all parties will work together to:

• Collaborate on a range of activities and issues to ensure they enhance the collective voice or their professions on a broad range of workforce issues
• Identify areas where they can work together to deliver cross-sector talent development opportunities to their members, more effective workforce solutions and services for public service employers and ultimately deliver the most effective services to the public
• Where appropriate, open up each organisation’s regional events to offer members maximum opportunities to network across sectors
• Support each other’s conferences, regional events and research programmes to showcase and share good practice
• As needed, develop joint responses to consultations and issues of the day to ensure that a cross-public service position is presented

Peter Cheese, Chief Executive for the CIPD, said: “The role that the HR and OD function plays and the value it brings has never been more important in the context of the many changes we are seeing in the world of work, from the changing nature of the workforce, to the impact of technology. Public service organisations collectively are the largest employer in the country and, through its employees, play a vital role in all our lives in the delivery of the many public services we engage with. The CIPD is delighted to be working with HPMA, PPMA and UHR to further develop professional skills and competencies, and we share the vision of building a strong, confident, and professional HR function playing its part in the development of public services for the future.”

Karen Grave, President PPMA 2018/19 said: “This MOU is a critical recognition of the fact that HR & OD professionals are stronger when we work together. The world of public service workforces is broad ranging, challenging, complex, frustrating at times, but ultimately deeply rewarding. Increasingly the boundaries across our organisations are blurred and for many of our members, working in partnership with private sector organisations is also common. This presents deep opportunities to learn from each other and enhance the entirety of our workforces. PPMA believes that it has a profound duty to work together with colleagues from other public service associations and our professional body CIPD, to develop a passionate, highly skilled, committed, diverse, professional and high performing HR & OD community. PPMA is totally committed to supporting this agreement.”

Sandra Heidinger, Chair of UHR, said: “Collaboration, knowledge sharing, networking, development of excellent practice and ongoing development of HR & OD professionals is critical to mission of UHR. We are proud to assist HR practitioners within the university sector as they deliver world class people management to support higher education staff in delivering excellence in research, teaching and in knowledge exchange. In common with our colleagues in PPMA, HPMA and CIPD, we believe that a healthy, committed and productive workforce drives organisational success with resulting societal impact. This collaborative opportunity allows these key HR and OD professional associations to support and learn from each other for our mutual benefit. UHR is delighted to be a part of this new collaboration and we look forward to being an active participant in our common cause.”

Deborah Tarrant, President of HPMA said: “HPMA fundamentally believes that every health and care organisation should excel in the way that they manage and care for their people. Great people management leads to improved health outcomes and quality of care, resulting in a healthier and more cared for nation. HR & OD professionals are at centre stage in the development of world class people management. Collaboration with CIPD, PPMA and UHR represents an exciting opportunity for HR & OD professionals to work in partnership across the whole public service system delivering the very best across the public service sector.”

For more information on this fantastic collaboration contact Karen Grave – president@ppma.org.uk or Grace Davies – admin@ppma.org.uk

– ENDS –

Dear PPMA colleagues and friends.

It’s a belated New Year from me and all of us at PPMA.  We’ve all been incredibly busy here in January already and it sadly feels like Christmas and the New Year was an awfully long time ago.  I hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends.  My husband Kevin and I spent a few days over the holidays in beautiful Gloucester.  It was a wonderful opportunity to relax and reflect on what we have been doing since last April.

Time passes so quickly, but I feel very strongly that we have made some real progress with our Agenda and I’m looking forward to the rest of my term.  Since you last heard from me, I have visited colleagues in Northern Ireland, Scotland (our SPDS colleagues) and down in the South West, where our Regional Chair Julie Biggs and her colleagues put on a fantastic event focused on Wellbeing.

I also had the opportunity to talk at the HPMA conference in Leeds in November.  We’ve made some really positive and sustainable progress in building our relationships with other groups this year and it’s a constant inspiration to me to see the passion, commitment and energy of like-minded professionals up close.  I increasingly worry about our ability to keep abreast of change so it’s always refreshing to be with highly committed colleagues.

There is a key area though where I’m not sure that we are keeping up.  And that is the critical issue of our own professional development.  We heard from one of our Sponsors, Osborne Thomas at our October Northern Forum about research they had done with the LGA.  This showed that HR and OD professionals just aren’t focusing on their own development.  No I know we are busy BUT it’s critical we keep up with our own CPD.

I’m really pleased to say that Rising Stars and Apprentice of the Year 2018 programmes are underway.  Leatham Green is leading on this and I know he’s excited about entrants so far, but it’s critical we all continue to push these very important programmes.  Given the research I just mentioned, we can’t be satisfied until we have an overwhelming response to these programmes.

Turning my eye to this next few months, we’re obviously focusing on this years awards and of course Annual Conference in April.  Karen will be updating you more on this over the next few weeks, but don’t forget conference booking has been open for several months.  We’ve been using our social media channels heavily.

Talk of social media, this is one area that our new PPMA Business Admin and Marketing Support Officer will be working with us and TenHorizon on.  We failed to find a snappy title for our new full time role, but we absolutely succeeded in finding the right person for the role.  My final note for this blog is to introduce you to Grace Davies.  Grace has been with us since the beginning of January and she has already made herself a critical part of our team.  Grace has put together a short film below – go and make a cuppa and then listen to what she has to say.

Until next time and with very best wishes

Hello PPMA members and friends

Our President, Caroline Nugent has been developing our strategic relationships further with Health. Together with our VP Karen Grave and Past President Sue Evans, the ‘Past, Present and Future’ Presidents, attended the HPMA Annual Awards dinner near Tower Bridge in June. It was a really great opportunity to support our sister organisation and hear about some of the fantastic work our colleagues in Health are doing.

A lovely feature of the night was the opportunity to meet with some former PPMA colleagues including Raffaela Goodby and Caroline commented on how great it was to see her receive an award for the great work going on at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals Trust. We also saw some of our own sponsors – Neyber and TMP. It just shows how closely health and broader public services work together.

We were also fortunate to see Stephen Moir, also a PPMA Past President on what was his last, HPMA event as Chief People Officer at NHS England. For those of you who may not know, Stephen has returned to Local Government as Executive Director of Resources at Edinburgh City Council. We are delighted to welcome him back to our PPMA community and looking forward to working with our colleagues in the SPDS organisation.

PPMA is in the process of developing joint HPMA & PPMA events across the country. We’ll keep you posted, so make sure you keep coming back to the website and our other social media channels, to keep up with what we’re doing.