Dear PPMA colleagues and friends

As we approach conference, our President Karen Grave shares her hopes and expectations for this year’s annual conference.

“Hi everyone, I’m so looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Birmingham. As ever in the run up to conference the team is both excited and anxious to make sure that we haven’t forgotten anything critical! Putting on annual conference is a huge undertaking and before I share my thoughts, I want to say an enormous thank you to Leatham, Kim, Grace and everyone else who makes it possible for us to put this event on. Our focus will be on making sure you have a fantastic conference experience!

I try to take stock of the progress we have made before each of our events. Last year in Newcastle was a real thrill and it was a very personal opportunity for me to return to the place I studied at Uni. This year, I’m looking forward to conference with the same enthusiasm but for a number of reasons:

• We’ve got a great theme ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ ,that always makes me smile just when I think about it. But there is a lot more to this than a happy slogan. We have a real opportunity to increase our learning about the impact of leadership, employee engagement, wellbeing and productivity on our workforce colleagues. I’m fascinated about this link because I think it we can collectively crack this with our colleagues, it will really help us harness all of the potential of our people. It’s good for them but more importantly it’s critical for the citizens we serve. Each year we see more and more external pressure on our ability to deliver services. Finances are a constant challenge. However in my view, there is an increasing and potentially more divisive threat. Our politics are increasingly fragile and it’s harder to see policy proposals being developed that help those of us in public services really address our most pressing challenges. So to overcome this, we need to take our destiny in our own hands – enabling and empowering our people isn’t just a nice to consider – it’s an imperative for all of us. I can’t wait to hear from John, Maria, Beverley, Jamil and Shonette and of course, all of our amazing fringe session speakers. We’re going to learn a lot.
• We’ll be welcoming existing and new members to conference. It’s fantastic to meet old friends again and find out what’s happened since we last met in Newcastle. But it’s always really brilliant to welcome new members to the PPMA family. We’ll be saying a big hello to all of them – but in particular, I’m really chuffed to welcome HR & OD colleagues from all Greater Manchester Local Authorities. They are going to add a fascinating dimension to our community and I hope we will learn a lot from their DevoManc experiences in particular.
• This is also our first national event since our restructure last year. We’ve come a long way since then and we now have appointments to all of our key posts. Our first Extended Board meeting at the end of March was so exciting. Our new Theme Leads and our Regional Chairs brought energy, new ideas and a commitment to our collective future that left me feeling really hopeful.  You will have the opportunity to meet Board colleagues over the 3 days, so please make sure you take the time to meet them. Every single Board member undertakes their role on a voluntary basis – that is a huge commitment but they do it because of a collective belief in the value of PPMA. If you are interested in getting involved in the running of the association please come and talk to one of us. Board members will have a different colour lanyard to conference attendees, so we will all be easy to spot!
• We’ll have plenty of exciting things to say about our membership offering too. I am very proud of the breadth and depth of our offering – it compares very well to other professional associations. Our ability to offering a compelling value proposition depends on the great support from our existing and new sponsors, the commitment of our Board members and all of your ongoing support. You should never underestimate the amount of work that goes into volunteering for Board roles, so I encourage all of you to take advantage of what we offer.
• And last but not least, we will be announcing the winners of our PPMA Excellence in People Management Awards programme. I love this part of Gala Dinner – it’s always brilliant to recognise the efforts of our winners and everyone who takes part. With the pressures of work, it’s sometimes easy to forget that there is a huge amount of innovative, creative and inspiring work being done day in and day out across public service HR & OD. Gala Dinner is our opportunity to reflect on that, enjoy good food and great company and kick back and have fun.

And talking about fun, we’re really looking forward to our Rock the Kasbah theme…….

I can’t wait to see you soon!”

Hello PPMA members and friends

The 2019 PPMA Apprentice of the Year competition was a fantastic event and showcased the amazing up and coming talent we are lucky enough to have in the public sector. We had an unprecedented number of applicants and the 16 brilliant finalists were invited to a 2 day event at Warwick Business School. The judging panel were unable to differentiate between 2 outstanding candidates, so the decision was made to select both as our winners…and we’d like to congratulate Daniel John representing South Gloucestershire Council and Kirsten Moore representing Central Bedfordshire Council.

Below, Kirsten Moore shares with us her experiences from the event and legacy she aims to leave behind:

“I went into the competition not knowing what to expect. I had already felt challenged by the application questions but was excited to see what the activities and assessments would bring. The two days took us back to basics, focusing on self-confidence and presentation skills, as well as working under pressure and group coordination. The judges, coaches and other apprentices created such a safe environment, allowing all of us to try new things and push ourselves. There was so much support from everyone that we forgot that it was a competition! The other apprentices had such interesting, and often moving, stories and great passion for the sector they are working in.

After an intense first day, I stopped just focusing on the competition and instead set personal goals for the experience, ensuring I took all I could from my time with PPMA – and I am so pleased I did, as I feel this is what might have helped me to become joint winner.

Presenting my personal legacy allowed me to reflect on how beneficial undertaking an apprenticeship has been for all areas of my life. Professionally, I am completing a transferable qualification, where I can help to direct my personal development and training opportunities, whilst working. Personally, the security and my enjoyment of the role now allows me to focus time on my legacy: fundraising for Parkinson’s UK, which is a cause very close to me.

It has been great to challenge myself and I have learnt so much about myself, personally and professionally. The biggest thing I am taking away from the competition is self-confidence and the courage to push myself forward more in my development. ”

Kirsten Moore, PPMA Joint Apprentice of the Year 2019

We hope that Kirsten has an amazing year and we look forward to celebrating with her and all of our other talent programme winners at this year’s PPMA Conference, which will be held at The Hilton Metropole Birmingham, on 14^th to 16^th May. If you’d like to join us, then book your place here.

This year we entered into a new venture with our events app, which has been marked a huge success with take -up being 61% against an average of 48% for first time app users with unique hits over the 2 days reaching 19.2k! With 63.46% of you rating the use of the app as excellent or very good. – “Really loving the new app – it’s bossy and fun!”

The app doesn’t end with conference, so please keep hold of it as we will be using it to promote our latest blog posts and keep you informed with up coming event information. It will also be used during the Northern Forum in October so stay tuned!

We have received such positive feedback when it comes to Conference this year Excellent and Fantastic are just a few words quoted with 63.79% of you rating #PPMAHR18 as excellent or very good and it really means a lot to us that our members and colleagues get the most out of the event and find it valuable and enjoyable…

“Fantastic event thoroughly enjoyed it! The pre-conference event worked really well as allowed introductions to be done on an informal basis which paved the way for the rest of conference”

“This was my first event and I’ve really enjoyed it and found everyone so welcoming. T have found some of the speakers really engaging and inspiring and I feel more motivated to move forward with my career.”

We look forward to taking on board your comments of improvement including experimenting with session formats and including more information about the shortlisted award entries in the lead up to the gala dinner awards evening to ensure next year’s conference is even better and really hope we see you all there.

You can find the full pack of the survey results here.

Dear PPMA colleagues and friends.  It’s only 4 working days to go #PPMAHR18 and today we’re going to hear today from our conference team on what they are really looking forward to:

First is Steve Davies our Honorary Treasurer and Secretary and Regional Chair London/South East and he tells us “I’m looking forward to seeing Karen’s investiture as president, acknowledgement of Caroline’s great year as President, thought provoking presentations and catching up with colleagues from other organisations.

Next we hear from Leatham Green who is our Interim Executive Director who tells us “I am so looking forward to be able to show case the brilliant talent that we worked with at this year’s Apprentice of the Year, The One to Watch, and HR Rising Stars. The events were brimming with exceptional future leaders and this will be the first year that we have incorporated a conference slot so that the conference delegates get a chance to see them in action.  I know it will be truly inspirational. It is always great to have the opportunity to catch up with friends old and new and this year we have created much interest in the Masquerade Ball so I am looking forward to seeing the amazing masks on parade!!”

Emma Browes  is HR Service Manager at Leeds City Council and has been a big part of the conference team and she says “This really has been an exciting 12 months of involvement with the PPMA. I’ve been proud to be part of the Northern HR Summit – bringing people together from all over the country, not just the north. It was also a huge privilege to meet & coach the Rising Stars this year.  Their energy, enthusiasm and growth over the two days was inspiring. I can’t wait to catch up with old friends and meet new at this years annual seminar.”

One of the longest serving members of the PPMA team is Finance Manager, Kim Mckinery and she’s “Looking forward to catching up with so many people who I don’t see very often and working with some of the nicest people I know.  I cannot wait for the Gala Dinner as I know with all the effort Karen has put in to make this absolutely special and fantastic, it will be an utterly amazing night.  The location of this year’s Conference is in a  wonderful Town and in the iconic venue, The Sage on the banks of the River Tyne, will surly make it one to remember.”

Finally we hear from the newest member of our team, Grace Davies who joined us in January as Support and Marketing Coordinator it’s her first PPMA conference and she tells us “Being a new member to the PPMA team at the beginning of this year I wasn’t sure what to expect with regards to what would be involved with organising conference. I can safely say that my first 4 months have flown by and although it has been extremely busy at times it has been a very enjoyable experience and truly amazing to see just how much time and effort goes into the event from all that are involved. I am looking forward to seeing and enjoying the results of our hard work and meeting up with everyone that has participated to the journey so far.”

All of the PPMA team are really looking forward to seeing you in Newcastle Gateshead and wish you a fabulous experience.

Dear PPMA colleagues and friends.

It’s only 11 working days to go #PPMAHR18 Tomorrow’s Talent event.

As well as our Tomorrow’s Talent events with Manpower, this year’s Peer into the Future cohort are undertaking their final module at Hilton Bottlebank.  This year’s programme has been another huge success and we are looking forward to finding our who this years ‘Peer of the Year’ at our Annual Gala Dinner.  We thank Penna again for their huge contribution in delivering this key PPMA Talent Development programme.

We’re also welcoming all of our delegates to our pre-conference social at Lanes7 in Newcastle.  If you are a delegate and have not yet received your invitation from the Guardian Events team, please let us know on conference2018@ppma.org.uk and we will follow up for you.

Come back each day to our conference countdown to find out more about our plans.

We’re so excited about our agenda this year.  Fab speakers, sponsors and a humanoid to look forward to…

Hello PPMA Members and friends

Our Annual Conference is just around the corner and we’re delighted to share with you the latest press release all about an exciting event to be held there called Tomorrow’s Talent.

“In advance of the Public Services People Managers Association (PPMA) conference which is being held for the first time in Newcastle-Gateshead on 19th and 20th April 2018, PPMA and key partners are delighted to announce a special pre-conference employability event for local college students on Wednesday 18th April.

PPMA is the first choice association for HR & OD professionals across Public Services. A key focus for the association is the development of young talent. We recognise that, in spite of current perceptions about careers in public service, the reality is these careers have the capacity to be varied, challenging, interesting and profoundly fulfilling.  Public perceptions of what it is like to be a public servant remain very different from the reality.

PPMA has teamed with a long-standing sponsor and supporter, ManpowerGroup to bring an inspiring event to the region, that provides young people with the opportunity to participate in a range of career-focused activities. Called ‘Tomorrow’s Talent’, two half day workshops will involve talking to young people about what they want from careers; hear from employers about what they can offer; participating in interview panels and receiving interview coaching.  Employer representatives from across the region and wider public service sector, will also learn from working with and hearing from young people about their hopes as they ready themselves their employment journey

Karen Grave, PPMA Vice President 2017/18 and President Elect 2018/19 says “We should all be concerned with things don’t go well in public sector.  However in my experience, there are some incredible people working in really challenging circumstances who demonstrate the best of us.  They are creative, committed, passionate, innovative, focused and care deeply about delivering services that make our country a better place.  Young people have a profound contribution to make to public service and as incoming President I am deeply committed to doing what I can to promote and encourage their interest in a career in public service”.

Nick Heckscher, ManpowerGroup Operations Director says, “We are excited to be bringing Tomorrow’s Talent to Newcastle and Gateshead Colleges. We know how important it is for students to explore the world of work in advance of commencing their job search. We have also learned that our Tomorrow’s Talent format gives them a unique insight into both interviewing and being interviewed! We are committed to maximising the chances of young people to develop into the public-sector leaders of tomorrow and working with employers in this sector to better understand how to unleash the talent of the next generation.”

Working with colleagues at Gateshead and Newcastle Colleges, PPMA and ManpowerGroup will host a morning and afternoon session.  In total we are thrilled to be welcoming 50 students from the colleges and 20 employer representatives – some of whom are local, some of whom are travelling from across the country to be at the event and conference.

In addition to ‘Tomorrow’s Talent’, other students from the colleges will take part in project-based work designed to support the conference while maximising employment opportunities.

Nadine Hudspeth, Director Marketing & Communications at Gateshead College says “Giving our students the employment edge and a head start in the jobs market is our number one priority. We are really grateful for this brilliant opportunity from PPMA and Manpower which will give our students really valuable experience of the interview and recruitment process and will also inspire them to think about the huge range of job opportunities which exist in the public sector.”

Lisa Hoseason, Director of School – Health, Childcare, Business and Science at Newcastle College, says “Providing our learners with opportunities to work with and learn from local employers to develop their skills and knowledge is key to unlocking their potential. It helps to ensure they develop the work-ready skills required to progress into employment and raise their aspirations. We are delighted to be able to participate in this fantastic event”.

PPMA will be producing a series of blogs about this event and will be publishing them on our website www.ppma.org.uk post conference.  If you would like any additional information about the event please contact admin@ppma.org.uk in the first instance.”

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

Dear PPMA members and friends

You may have already seen through your twitter feeds that PPMA is again supporting the Public Sector Show (PSS).  We will be in Manchester on November 21^st supporting the workforce, recruitment and skills theme.  I will be participating in a main stage panel discussion on Fostering talent, expertise and leadership across the public sector workforce.  Additionally I will be chairing a further 2 sessions, one on Public sector leadership in challenging times and the other on Public sector recruitment and retention: opportunities and things to consider.  I am really pleased to say that PPMA stalwarts, Joanne Hyde, Justine Brooksbank and Sue Dunkley will be supporting these discussions.

Our involvement with Public Sector Show is really bearing fruit for us.  It is a very welcome opportunity to talk to professionals across Local, Central Government and 3^rd Sector.  We supported events in November 2016, in London earlier this June and we are already signed up to support our PSS colleagues throughout 2018.  PSS is free to delegates.  If you are interested in networking more widely across Public Service the show is well worth a visit.

For the first time this year we will have an exhibition stand as well as running the 3 sessions.  Member colleagues from Leeds and Trafford will be help us support that, but if you want to help too, we would be delighted to hear from you.  You can let us know on admin@ppma.org.uk.  Please put PSS Manchester in the subject line of your email.

Unfortunately, Caroline is unable to attend the Manchester event so I am afraid you are stuck with me!  However, please come along, I’d be delighted to see you.  In the meantime, you can read a Q & A spot here.  I’d also recommend that you download the PSS Report on the State of  the Public Sector 2017 here:  http://www.psshowmcr.co.uk/public-sector-show-insights-report/.

You can follow the show on twitter at #PSSMCR and on the web at http://www.psshowmcr.co.uk/.  @PPMA_HR will be tweeting in the run up to the event and on the day too, so keep an eye on our feed.

Best

Hello PPMA colleagues and friends

This week’s blog post is an update on our 2 day PPMA Policy Board meeting,held last week. Long-time PPMA members will know that PPMA Policy Board always takes the opportunity to make one of the quarterly board meetings a 2 day event to give us a longer opportunity to get together and look at how well we are doing against our business plan and to start thinking through some of the emerging themes that our members need to be aware of.

I’ve been reflecting on the event and cannot believe how quickly the first few months of my Presidential term has gone! In many respects it’s been a whirlwind but I’m very pleased about the progress we have been making. Board meetings are always important events in any President’s year – it’s an opportunity to make sure we are on track with our key themes for the year, but also to think strategically about our business plan and make sure that we are comfortable it is fit for purpose. I thoroughly enjoyed the 2 day event. Taking that amount of time out of the office is a big commitment, but it’s time very well spent. You might remember that a previous Past President, Angela O’Connor said at this year’s conference, that one of the key things leaders need to do is to take time out to reflect, talk, share and discuss. I’m a great advocate of this anyway, but doing this role as well as may day job has made me value thinking space all the more.

We covered a lot last week. I’ve spoken before about the relationships we are building with other partners – we continue to make great progress here. That will continue and I’m grateful for the support of my colleagues in this important endeavour. To give you a taster of what we covered last week, we:

• finalised a new sponsor structure which will make our sponsorship opportunities more transparent and we’re going to be launching this for new sponsors in time for 2018 conference
• agreed which Board members are going to sponsor our research topics
• talked about the progress we’re making on phase 2 website development, which are planned to go live at the end of October
• had a lot of discussion about how best to run our national and regional events, especially as we’re talking to HPMA, Civil Service and CIPD about opening up these events to all of our respective members.

On a final note for this blog, I wanted to give you a heads up that we will be launching conference 2018 booking and our 2018 Awards in October.  We’re doing this a bit earlier this year based on feedback we had from you last year. For a range of reasons last year was very very busy and we want to give you a little bit more planning time this year, particularly around getting award submissions ready.

As ever, I encourage you to keep up to speed with our weekly blogs and the website.  f you have any thoughts, comments or would like to share the great work you are doing you can contact us on president@ppma.org.uk, vicepresident@ppma.org.uk and admin@ppma.org.uk.

Hello PPMA members and friends

We’ve had a busy time in June supporting a range of events and we thought it would be good to share the highlights from these key events with you.

Firstly, our V.P. Karen Grave, attended an HR open day for colleagues in HM Prisons and Probations and this was a great opportunity for her to talk about the excellent work PPMA does with potential new members. This is part of our overall strategy to further cement the work Caroline Nugent is doing in building relationships with Civil Service. To add to this, Karen also has an opportunity to go and meet with HMP Business Partners in September for further discussions, and with Caroline, is looking forward to meeting Cabinet Office colleagues in September…all exciting stuff and we will of course keep you updated on the outcomes of these meetings.

On the 27th June, Caroline attended the Public Sector Show (PSS) with other PPMA colleagues. She was part of the main Workforce Panel, who talked about the implications of Brexit for public sector workforces. After the event, Adam Bergin, Head of Programmes with organisers GovNet said the Brexit panel was a great highlight of the day, and Caroline’s words on workforce played a huge part in making this such a popular session.

In addition to the Workforce Panel, Karen chaired 3 Open Theatres along with colleagues who had won PPMA awards. Jan Douglas, Deputy Director of HR&OD at oneSource talked about Productivity, Wellbeing and the role of HR & OD.  Jan said the event was really engaging – the session had a great buzz about it and it also showed that we all share the same issues regardless of organisation or sector.

Next, Neil Keeler, Group People and OD Manager at Southend on Sea Borough Council, who won two PPMA awards, spoke on Workforce Transformation. He told the audience that organisational culture is critical, ideas, thoughts and innovations can be quashed before they have even been vocalised and no organisation can afford that.

And finally, Sue Dunkley, Director of Human Resources at the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council and winner of the PPMA Public Sector HRD of the year, spoke about Leadership. Sue and Bradford (and all of our award winners) certainly have a great story to share. Sue felt that the session further emphasised the need for greater collaborative working, as we are all facing more or less the same workforce issues.

All 3 of the PPMA Open Theatres were packed and it was fantastic to see that there was standing room only. The vast majority of the audiences weren’t HR&OD professionals, so it was encouraging that we were able to attract such a broad range of people. Both Caroline and Karen were delighted with how well our award winners supported the day and as always, felt privileged to represent PPMA.

These events are part of our overall marketing strategy to ensure that we have a much more visible presence across the whole of public sector. We are delighted to say that we will be supporting the PSS event in Manchester in November. Additionally, participation of PPMA Award winners will benefit them and their organisations. We hope activity like this will inspire you and other organisations to enter in the 2018 PPMA Excellence in People Management Awards, so keep your eye on our website, because we’ll be announcing those in the not too distant future.