Hello PPMA members and friends

We’ve recently heard from Kirsten Moore and Daniel John our joint Apprentices of The Year about what it was like to enter the competition. This week, Steven Berry our ‘One to Watch’ winner tells us about his experience.

“When I was invited to attend the PPMA Rising Star / One to Watch competition I didn’t really know what to expect, although I knew it would be an opportunity to challenge myself and support my personal development.

The two day event started with a masterclass in techniques to support our success. There were then some quite daunting challenges, such as having to answer quick-fire moral dilemma questions in front of the panel of judges and fellow colleagues. However, there were also some fun team challenges that enabled us to get to know each other better and work together towards a common goal.

As the competition progressed, I was able to practice the techniques that we had been shown to help me to cope under pressure and perform better. The final challenge was to present our ‘personal legacy’ to the judges and the group. Considering my personal legacy really helped me to understand myself better. My legacy focused on the fact that I am naturally a quiet, introverted person, but how over time I have learned to push myself out of my comfort zone, which is when I find I perform at my best, and have the most positive impact on others. Speaking about something so personal in front of the rest of the group was surprisingly emotional but extremely rewarding. It was also great to hear everyone else’s legacies, which were equally personal and inspiring.

At the end of the competition I was shocked to be named the winner of the One to Watch category. What was more important though was the connections that I made and the increased confidence and belief in myself that I brought back with me.”

Steven is a HR/OD Specialist at Manchester City Council, leading on workforce health and wellbeing. He has worked within the HR/OD service at the CIty Council for 15 months, prior to which he worked within the voluntary sector in substance misuse services. He has supported with the development and ongoing implementation of the City Council’s Employee Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which aims to create an environment where employees are empowered to be their best selves at work.

We wish Steven an amazing year and you can meet him at the PPMA Conference, at The Hilton Metropole Birmingham, on 14^th to 16^th May, where we look forward to celebrating with him and all of our other talent programme winners. 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 that time of the year again when we start our run up to the first of the 2 annual Public Sector Shows and Leatham and I along with other guests, will be contributing to a number of PPMA specific sessions and broader panels.

The Public Sector Show is running four key themes this year, Digital and Technology, Finance & Corporate, Workforce & Leadership, and Estates & Infrastructure.  The breadth of that offering is a good opportunity for PPMA as we often get people coming to our sessions who aren’t HR & OD professionals. So it’s a good way of raising awareness of PPMA, but more broadly ensuring that we do our bit to explain why workforce issues matter to everyone in public service organisations.

We are running 2 panels – one on ‘Recruitment, retention and workforce in the context of Brexit’ and the other on ‘Delivering effective multigenerational working’. There will be a session on ‘Delivering organisational transformation’ with colleagues from SOLACE, Public Health England and NLGN.

The show is free for PPMA for people who work in the public sector and you can register to attend here and find out more about the panels and sessions we’re involved with on our website. Also keep an eye on our social media channels and www.psshow.co.uk for more updates.  We really hope to see you there!

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 –

Hello PPMA members and friends

Caroline Nugent writes her last blog post in her capacity as PPMA President and she shares with us the highlights from her brilliant year in office.

“My reflections

Well what a year! I cannot believe how fast this year has gone but I’m happy to leave the presidency in the capable hands of Karen Grave who will take over the reigns at the PPMA conference this month.

Well what do I think we have achieved this year? For a start there has been significant work going on behind the scenes to ensure the future sustainability of the PPMA with the world of Heads of HR, in the public sector in particular changing. More and more of us are working across more than one employer and although it’s great for our development and the development of our teams, it has meant that we needed to ensure a wider public services approach to the PPMA. With each shared service is one less Head of HR.  I am thrilled that we have increased civil service membership, including the Chief People Office for the whole of the Civil Service,  Rupert McNeil.  This has shown how we can engage and our reach is far wider.

We also have a number of Chief Executives as members and this shows how we have moved from a ‘Personnel’ approach to a full on Leadership, OD  and Workforce strategic approach. If your Chief Executive is not a PPMA member, ask why not!  It is vital we are given the space to look outside of our organisations in order to bring back the sharing and best practice that is out there.

I have been amazed whilst I have attended lots of events at how many people have said they struggled to be given the time to attend. Why aren’t they forward thinking like one of my chief executives who has made it mandatory for all senior leaders from whatever background, be it legal to planning to bereavement services, to attend external events and wherever possible to speak at them? It is all this learning which will move an organisation from good to great!

Our marketing and sponsorship arrangements have done us proud this year with an increase in the breadth of our sponsors which will enable our members to hear and learn from many great operators in their fields. This proves that we have a lot to offer sponsors and they in return have great knowledge and products we can utilise.

A peek behind the scenes again – we have been actively working with colleagues in CIPD, HPMA and UHR for the long term benefits of all of our respective members and during the next year you will start to see how you will have a greater interaction and opportunities which we have not had before.  Look out for that news!

We have recruited Grace who has proven to be a great admin and marketing resource for the organisation. Leatham and I interviewed Grace by Skype, as we wanted someone who is capable of working remotely who could actively engage with members and sponsors – she is certainly supporting us on a daily basis. As you know as Policy Board members, we are volunteers so having a solid back office is critical for us!

Also watch out for more from Leatham who has joined us as a time limited resource as Executive Director.  Many of you will know from the SOCPO days (and many of us are old enough to remember!) we used to have a resource and this year we have decided we are moving at such pace we need some extra oomph to help and Leatham is certainly that person! HPMA and UHR have this role as a standard part of their organisations and Karen and Leatham and Policy Board will be looking at how we make this happen for PPMA this year.

So finally, with apprenticeships, women in leadership and increased membership as my priorities for my term I am pleased to say that I have moved them all forward for those coming along after me to continue. I have loved being your El Presidente (as so many of you have called me) and I look forward to supporting the PPMA for years to come.”

In addition, Sarah France-Gorton from award winning North Yorkshire County Council shared her considerable experience in this area.  North Yorkshire have done some incredible work over the years to minimise the cost of agency resource in particular – so if you can, they are worth talking to.  You might find the following blog from Chris Grimes at Matrix interesting.  Additionally this whitepaper is also well worth a read.

Happy reading, there’s always something to learn about this topic.

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

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.

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.

This is the second video blog from Sue Evans and it comes fresh from her return from the SPDS Conference in Scotland. Sue talks about what she learnt at the event as well as sharing some of the latest PPMA news.