Patrick O'Connell has more than 30 years' experience managing complex, large-scale, multibillion pound efforts in both government and industry in the IT, health, telecommunications, aerospace, defence, NATO and pension sectors in the US, the UK and European companies. He has successfully led over 20 major programmes.

Patrick's previous position was President, Major Programmes Division, British Telecom (2005-2011), headquartered in London, where he turned around £8bn in contracts in the defence, health and pension sectors. Prior to that, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Command Systems International (1999-2005), where he started up a multinational joint venture headquartered in Paris, and contracted by NATO to deliver its largest ever Air Command and Control programme across 15 nations. Previous positions include President of Hughes Civil Systems, Vice President and General Manager of Raytheon Information Systems, Director of Space Research and Development for the Department of the US Navy, Director of the US Government's classified Low Earth Orbit Systems, and Programme Manager for systems such as the next generation TOMAHAWK, the first generation medium range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and tactical aircraft. Patrick has also taught how to better manage mega-systems at the graduate level in multiple universities.

Patrick is presently the Chairman of the Board and Practitioner Director, Major Programme Management, Saïd Business School, Oxford University, where he was instrumental in founding and starting up its new Master's of Science degree in Major Programme Management and the Centre for Major Programme Management. He also lectures at the UK Cabinet Office sponsored Major Projects Leadership Academy. He has a PhD in Information Technology (IT).

Patrick has lived and conducted business in the USA, Japan, Italy, Spain, France and the UK.



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Since joining the Association for Project Management (APM) as Chief Executive in 2004, Andrew Bragg has taken a leading role in the extensive organisational change programme that has prepared APM to seek chartered status on behalf of the profession. His particular interest in the pan-sector nature of project management reflects the range of sectors in which he has worked – for the last 20 years as chief executive and, prior to that, as marketing specialist.
As well as contributing to Re-inventing Influence, a winner of the Management Consultancies Association best management book of the year, he co-authored Developing New Business Ideas, published by Pearson.

Presentation: Keeping contemporary: innovative management practices

Management as a discipline must be innovative and adaptable; this is especially important in times of extensive reform, transition and transformation such as that which the public sector is currently undergoing. Successful execution of programmes and projects relies on identifying contemporary influences and establishing new ideas, perspectives and ways of working; challenging practices that are often entrenched in the culture of an organisation and identifying threats alongside opportunities.
What can be learned from the leading edge of modern programme and project management and how can this approach be suitably applied within public sector settings?

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Steve Mitchell has worked as a director, client and consultant in the UK, Europe and USA in the fields of construction, business change, organisational development and in a broad range of management consultancy assignments.
As a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and professional Project Manager, he spent 25 years in private sector roles including BAA, Coopers and Lybrand and The Nichols Group, working with blue chip clients including Norwich Union, Railtrack, British Airways and Laura Ashley. Steve joined The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) in 2003 to develop an internal consultancy group to support OGC's wide range of high profile and sensitive project related work, and in particular to meet the growing demand for senior talent to intervene and influence at the highest levels in Whitehall.
Steve's role has since developed in the field of major projects, where he has worked to establish increased visibility of the Government's investment portfolio and stronger and more integrated scrutiny and assurance methodologies, building on the highly successful Gateway process and HM Treasury's Major Projects Review Group.
As Deputy Head of the recently established Major Projects Authority (MPA) within Cabinet Office, Steve is charged with delivering improved understanding and performance across the government's portfolio of 200+ major investments, in accordance with a mandate issued by the Prime Minister. In exercising this mandate, MPA is empowered to offer support, directly intervene, re-scope or stop projects and programmes in difficulty or with no proven and realistic chance of success.



Presentation: Establishing assurance and safeguarding measures within change initiatives

An effective system that gives assurance over the progress of transformational projects and programmes is critical for facilitating prompt interventions where necessary, thereby minimising excess costs and increasing the probability of successful outcomes. It was revealed this May in a National Audit Office report that, of 205 major projects currently being undertaken at a cost of £376bn across government, nearly a fifth have a high or fairly high risk of failure.
How can we successfully implement Gateway Reviews and other measures to manage assurance of change initiatives on a variety of scales across the public sector, and what steps can be taken to promptly safeguard those that are not performing as predicted?

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Jackie Lynton has worked in the Public Sector for 31 years predominantly in the NHS and 8 of those years for Social Care. Previous positions have included clinical, operational, strategic Health Authority and commissioning roles. Jackie is currently working with the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement on designing and developing the NHS Change Model a framework for improvement for large scale change and a member of the 'Thought Leadership' team bringing the application of 'Call to Action' methodology in 'Engagement to Mobilise' to bear on the work.
Jackie's experience has been managing programmes for improvement in Mental Health, recovery programmes, supporting Mid Staffordshire Hospital quality assurance process and commissioning. Jackie's energy lies with understanding the behaviours, partnership relationships and building engagement for commitment to promote successful change. The best training ground for this is from bringing up 3 girls aged 26, 22 and 12!

Presentation: Managing large-scale change

The NHS is undergoing change at an unprecedented scale and rate. The Health and Social Care Act of this year heralds a number of large-scale transformations including the abolition of primary care trusts and strategic health authorities, the creation of an independent NHS board, the transfer of commissioning powers to clinical commissioning groups, and the transfer of public health powers from the NHS to local authorities.
How can we engage leaders and staff in delivering change to improve patient care and ensuring sustainable, successful outcomes?
This presentation will share what we know about the factors that predict successful change outcomes and the behaviours and approach from leaders and managers.

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Brian Wernham has more than 30 years' experience in adaptive project leadership. He has extensive international experience, having worked in the USA, UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany and on offshore development in Bangalore. Brian's first book Agile Project Management for Government was recently published by Maitland and Strong.
By the time that the term 'agile' was first coined, Brian had already been successfully leading iterative, adaptive projects for over 10 years on both sides of the Atlantic. He works as a hands-on programme manager and has real-world implementation expertise together with a comprehensive understanding of the related international research. Brian has consulted for major strategic international organisations such as Gartner Group, the National Audit Office in London and Seer Technologies in North Carolina. His comprehensive public sector experience includes the Department for International Development, the World Bank, the United Nations (Geneva), and local government authorities.
Brian is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management, a Fellow of the BCS and has a MBA from Henley Management College. He applies adaptive planning approaches as an offshore yachtmaster and as a keen off-piste skier. He is currently consulting for the UK government in London.

Presentation: What is this thing called Agile?

Agile connotes a process that is low-ceremony, flexible, responsive and fast. It is also one that is driven more by the process workers than by a set of documented standards. For these reasons, Agile is arguably one of the management processes most ideally suited to the challenge of change and its many surprise elements that cannot always be accurately planned for at the outset.

What are the barriers to achieving an agile approach to change within public sector settings, and how can they be mitigated?

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Ben had a successful career at Andersen/Deloitte spanning Media, Telecom and Public Sector before moving to qedis as a Director to start their Public Sector practice. In that time he has helped grow the business from 20 to 175 people.Throughout his career he has successfully delivered in roles from programmer, through technical architect, programme manager to CIO and executive advisory and coaching. He has helped many public and private sector organisations transform the way they deliver change and retain the skills to do so.
He spent three years as an IT Director in the Senior Civil Service where he set up and embedded a internal consultancy home for people who delivered change. In this role he also sat on the board for many of Governments most transformational IT programmes, where he interacted with many of the largest suppliers to Government.
Ben's ambitions are to change the way business and IT interact and to change the way the world thinks about consulting.


Presentation: Enabling sustainable and continual change in the public sector

Ben has been a programme Director and served on the board of many large change programmes in the public and private sector, some having full life costs of billions of pounds. We are all aware that many of these are restructured several times during their life, take much longer than originally forecast and deliver less than originally envisaged. Yet the current vision for government services represents an unprecedented amount of change and with good reason. What got us here won't get us there, so what do we need to do differently?
In this talk he will pick out a couple of major barriers to change he's observed, explain the effect they have and propose solutions.

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Richard Heaton CB is Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office. Richard is also First Parliamentary Counsel, responsible for drafting statutes and delivering the Government's business in Parliament.
Richard joined the civil service in 1991, holding various legal posts in the Home Office, Attorney General's Office and the Lord Chancellor's Department. He became head of the legal team at the Department for Constitutional Affairs in 2004, then Director General for law and governance at Department for Work and Pensions and Department of Health in 2007. In 2009, he moved from legal to policy work, becoming Director General for Pensions at DWP. He was appointed First Parliamentary Counsel in February 2012 and Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary in August.


Presentation: Navigating change within the public sector

Navigating change successfully, on time and within budget, is essential in a climate of extensive public sector reform and limited finances. What skills are needed from managers, and what measures can be taken to maximise the success of change initiatives across central and local government?
This talk will offer insights from the current civil service reforms, and how new ways of working are being developed.

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Jil Matheson
Jil Matheson was appointed National Statistician, Head of the Government Statistical Service and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority in September 2009.
Her career in statistics began in 1975 at the then Office for Population Census and Surveys. Jil subsequently worked as a researcher, analyst and project manager for a number of different social surveys. In 1998 she became a Deputy Director in the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
In 2001 Jil was elected as a fellow of the Academy of Learned Societies in Social Science.
In 2002 she took the lead in the introduction of the National Statistics Code of Practice, and in 2003 moved to run the ONS Census Division. In 2004 Jil was appointed Executive Director of Census, Demographic and Regional Statistics, and in 2008 became Director General for Statistics Delivery at ONS.

Craig Kilford
I had no idea statistics could be so exciting, that was until I had a chat with the Director General of the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Before I started at the ONS, we agreed a Portfolio Management Value Experience Plan that highlighted the value that ONS would feel during a high-energy 100 day implementation of portfolio management. I also told him we would have to make some painful decisions about project investments; he told me he was ready for that because he saw portfolio management as the syringe containing the medicine that would help cure the pains of business change. I thought that was an enlightened analogy.
Over the last decade I've helped executives adopt portfolio management within banking, insurance, policing, health, central and local government. These are very different worlds, but the question is always the same: 'How can we invest in the right projects, do them the right way with the right people?'
I am co-author of the Cabinet Office's best practice 'Management of Portfolios' and Think P3O. I also write about my meandering portfolio management thoughts three times a month on mrportfoliomanagement.com. My particular interest is how creativity can harness organisation energy and fuel the successful delivery of portfolios of business change.

Presentation: 100 days to boost portfolio management capability and drive business change success

With an introduction by:
Jil Matheson
National Statistician and Permanent Secretary, UK Statistics Authority / Office for National Statistics

The Office for National Statistics produces a wide range of information about the state of the nation, including GDP, Census, National Accounts and Retail Price Index. This information is used by government for social and economic policymaking as well as painting a portrait of the country as its population evolves over time. Early in 2012, Jil Matheson, Permanent Secretary, and ONS' Executive Leadership Team recognised the critical need to adopt portfolio management and increase assurance that ONS invests in the right changes, delivers those changes in the right way with the right people – every time.
In April 2012, ONS embarked on a high-energy 100 day plan to implement portfolio management across the organisation. This presentation tells the story of how this was achieved in such a short timeframe, together with the challenges and successes that continue to be experienced.

Click to view presentation

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A fascination with change has shaped Nick's career over the past thirty years. Arriving, like so many people, in project management by mistake, the realisation that the only 'game in town' was achieving lasting change soon followed. The logical step was to focus on the engine of change; the people and their mind-sets. Working in a wide variety of projects and programmes in both public and private sectors, Nick has been particularly successful in changing people's behaviour at all organisational levels.

Presentation: Making change real - or making real change?

When the repercussions of getting it wrong are just too high - when there is a possibly unrepeatable opportunity to make a real difference - change management must work.
This example describes how it was done in one public sector service organisation. It illustrates how the vision was achieved and how the potential resistance, even hostility, of the people affected was translated into forces that drove the transition. It demonstrates, ultimately, how genuine value was released into the community.

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After qualifying as a CIPFA accountant at Surrey County Council, Jane West moved to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea where she later set up the financial arrangements for the Tenant Management Organisation in 1996, later moving to Lambeth as Assistant Director for Housing Finance, and later Director of Finance.
Jane moved to Hammersmith and Fulham (H&F) in 2003 as the Director of Finance. Over the years her role has expanded and she is now Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Governance. Her responsibilities include driving the Medium Term Financial Strategy, which has seen reductions in H&F's Council Tax of 3% or more in five of the last six years, including the biggest cut in the country this year.
Jane is also responsible for coordinating the overall transformation agenda for the council, which includes programmes such as tri-borough collaborative working (with Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea), which will save £40m a year across the three areas from 2015/16, integrating health and social care commissioning, transforming family support, driving channel transfer, managing culture change at H&F through the Organisational Development Team and significantly reducing the council's use of office accommodation through smart working.
Jane has also been active in London's efficiency agenda for a number of years. She is a previous president of the Society of London Treasurers and is currently a representative of the Society on London's Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership, Capital Ambition.

Presentation: Developing a shared services approach

Councils across the country are considering or already beginning to share services with neighbouring authorities to protect frontline provisions in the face of tight budgets. However, there are also a range of other potential benefits such as lower council tax rates and improved services for residents, easier recruitment and retention of skilled staff, improved investment, opportunities for innovation, and having the scale needed to procure the best private contracts. The three London boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster are on track to save £40m a year by 2015 in their adoption of a shared framework.
This talk will assess the skills and processes necessary to broach a transition to shared services, how shared partnerships can be positive and sustainable, and how quality of services can thereby be not only preserved but improved.

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Aiden McManus is currently the Director of Corporate Services at Croydon Council. During his 12 years at Croydon he has held a variety of roles at director level both from a service and a corporate point of view.
In his current role Aiden has a range of responsibilities including IT and facilities management as well as delivery of a wide range of transformational projects including: clienting of purpose-built headquarters for the council and its partners, due to move in September 2013 (includes new ways of working and cultural shift for staff); reconfiguring of the council's ICT function through revised procurement arrangement; consolidation of the council's business support admin function.
Aiden is a Chartered Surveyor and has previously worked at a variety of London boroughs on major projects including Canary Wharf and the Bluewater shopping mall in Kent.

Presentation: Stimulating transformation through technology

Technology has greater power than ever to instigate and influence change, not only in the quality, cost and delivery of the nation's public services, but also in its culture and organisation. This has been recognised and captured in the government's ICT strategy, which has saved £490m in its first year. Information officers across the country are transcending IT roles and becoming established as leaders in local government.
Technology is proving critical to public sector change initiatives, in particular to Croydon Council, which is using greater flexibility in its ICT plans to drive cultural change within the workforce and within the borough itself.
This talk will offer insight into the successful management of change within public service ICT systems and insight into the users, with useful advice for others seeking transformation through technology within their own organisation.

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