South Wales and West of England Project Management Challenge Finals and Awards

The Bristol Water ‘Helping Hands’ team has won the 2015 South Wales and West of England Project Management Challenge competition!
In a close run contest, the Bristol Water ‘Helping Hands’ team, who delivered a range of outputs and benefits to launch the One25 drop-in night shelter for vulnerable sex workers in Bristol, also took home the ‘Values and Behaviours’ award, sponsored by Group IT, Lloyds Banking Group, at the Awards and Finals Night in Bristol in April. Three other teams also competed in the competition; a combined team from Airbus and the University of the West of England who delivered a range of options for an improved inventory management system for St Peter’s Hospice in Bristol, General Dynamics UK Ltd in Blackwood South Wales who delivered laptops and software to Pontllanfraith school in Blackwood and a second team from Bristol Water who delivered a range of outputs to the Avon and Somerset Search and Rescue (ASSAR) service to improve its day to day operations.

Bruce Phillips, the SWWE Branch committee member who lead and managed the competition, said “The project board was unanimous in its praise for the significant effort shown by all entries in the SWWE Branch’s first PM Challenge competition. The overall standard was very high and the range of projects selected by the teams, based upon the theme of delivering benefits to deserving community services, was diverse. Every member of the teams should be justifiably proud of their achievements in delivering real benefit to the wider community and the development of their personal and professional competence.” The PM Challenge consisted of three key assessment stages:

• Provision of a business case in December 2014 that identified smart outputs and benefits to be delivered, associated resources, costs and key risks (5,000 word limit);
• Provision of a final report in March 2015 which demonstrated how the teams delivered the project outputs and benefits defined in the original business case using a range of competences defined in the APM BoK (8,000 word limit); and
• The delivery of a 15 minutes presentation at the Awards and Finals Night.

Each year, the Bristol charity One25 provides vital support to around 300 women who are vulnerable to, or trapped in street sex work. The ‘Helping Hands’ winning entry showed great enthusiasm and commitment to deliver support to the recruitment and training programme required for staff and volunteers, the initiation of a promotional and stakeholder campaign, a range of security upgrades to the drop-in shelter and raising of additional funding. The team of five (pictured above receiving the Winner’s award and certificate from Martin Gosden, the SWWE Branch Chair) are Rebekah Rice, Mark Conlan, Stephen Boyle, Ben Menear and Sophie Edwards. The night shelter was successfully opened for business on 10th April 2015.

The standard of entry in this year’s inaugural competition was universally high and clearly demonstrated the hard work put in by all of the teams. Details for next year’s competition will be issued very soon as, judging by the number of enquiries already received, the SWWE Branch anticipates an even bigger and more competitive event for next year.

The Helping Hands team are also pictured below receiving the ‘Values and Behaviours’ award from Alan Watson from Group IT, Lloyds Banking Group who supported the competition, as the team who most effectively demonstrated that they put the customer at the heart of everything they did.

If you would like additional information on the South Wales and West of England Branch Project Management Challenge regarding this year’s successful event or if you would like to participate in next year’s event please contact chairman@apm-swalesandwengland.org.uk