WIREDGOV

Many organisations simply don’t have the need for a dedicated project manager and, more often than not, will appoint someone from within the business to run projects on a case-by-case basis.

Selection is usually made on the grounds of how close these individuals are to the product or the process being implemented, rather than the skillset required to manage a project.  That could mean that people whose core expertise is actually HR, marketing or something else are given project management responsibility.

But around 60% of projects fail – and this is largely associated with a lack of understanding of effective governance.

That’s not to say this situation can’t work out favourably, though a successful outcome is much more likely – and easier for the person given this new responsibility – if they have a toolkit to work from.  This will provide much-needed guidance on how to approach the task from a project management perspective.

Project management is a complex topic but for those with no formal training, it essentially comes down to four guiding principles:

• Develop an unblinking focus on time management
• Create a project plan
• Engage with your team
• Make use of available tools and methodologies

NHS England is calling on the best innovators from across the world to apply to join 2 schemes that aim to ensure NHS patients benefit from new technology faster.

Through the Innovation Technology Payment NHS England can directly fund a small group of proven innovations to help spread them at scale across the NHS.  Over 7,000 patients have already benefitted from innovations that joined the programme this year, with a further 95,000 patients benefitting from the previous version of the programme.  

Individual innovators are the focus of the NHS Innovation Accelerator, where they are provided with bespoke support such as mentoring to help spread their innovations across the NHS.  Since it launched in 2015, 36 innovators representing 37 innovations have been supported with an additional 1,423 NHS sites using their innovations.

The Innovation Technology Payment (ITP) removes some of the financial & procurement barriers preventing successful innovations from being adopted into the NHS.  For innovations to be eligible they have to be in use in at least 3 NHS sites and must be able to demonstrate the potential for a return on investment within a year of implementation.

PM Theresa May hosted a roundtable with supply chain companies at the UK's first Zero Emissions Vehicle Summit.

A plan to link together technology hotspots has taken a step closer to fruition as Roads Minister Jesse Norman announced the chosen central corridor for the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway.

After detailed scrutiny & review by Highways England, of the 3 options A, B and C, Corridor B was judged to offer greater benefits to the region – outperforming the other options by providing better links to jobs, education, leisure and health services.

The expressway, with options to pass either west or east of Oxford, is also expected to take up to 40 minutes off the journey between the A34 south of Oxford and the M1.

On 12 September 2018, on the occasion of his State of the Union Address, President Jean-Claude Juncker said:  "We must improve our ability to speak with one voice when it comes to our foreign policy. This is why today the Commission is proposing to move to qualified majority voting in specific areas of our external relations.  Not in all but in specific areas: human rights issues and civilian missions included.  This is possible on the basis of the current Treaties and I believe the time has come to make use of the passerelle clause which allows us to move to qualified majority voting – the "lost treasure" clause of the Lisbon Treaty."

The EU we decided to ‘leave’ with Article 50. no longer exists and the process for creating the United States of Europe is progressing at full speed (at least in Brussels), but we hear nothing from the Remainers on this topic (and even less from that bastion of national democracy & defender of our Constitution – the House of Lords).

One wonders why the mainly pro-remain mainstream media has not even mentioned the future ‘elephant in the room’ of the UK’s & France’s permanent seats at the UN Security Council, as just one potential example of a natural consequence of these ‘new’ interpretations of EU treaties!

If we stayed in the EU one could foresee a time when the EC would demand that its representative at the EU be given a permanent seat, while perhaps ‘offering up’ the second seat for allocation to India for example, to ‘better represent the new World Order’.  Majority voting on Foreign Affairs could over-rule the UK’s and France’s objections to this.

With the UK about to leave the EU, one wonders how President Macron will be able to justify France retaining its seat when majority voting decides the foreign policy of the EU, especially as Germany seems likely to increase its influence over the next 2 decades (BfB:  Was Margaret Thatcher Right After All? Dangers of a Resurgent Germany by Adrian Hill).

Other proposals are highlighted in Open Europe’s article and have two common elements:

• Greater centralisation of power to Brussels for better (but more remote from voters) decision making
• The requirement for additional funds (est. of €12bn for expansion of border force alone)

EC proposes changes to decision-making in Common Foreign & Security Policy

Open Europe:  Europe reacts to Juncker’s “The Hour of European Sovereignty” speech

Website on the 2018 State of the Union

State of the Union 2018: EC proposes to put an end to seasonal clock changes

State of the Union 2018: New EC proposal for a reinforced EU Asylum Agency

State of the Union 2018: EC proposes new rules to get terrorist content off the web

Regarding Mr Juncker ‘ridiculing’ Theresa May’s threat that Britain could build a rival satellite to the EU’s Galileo navigation system after Brexit, he would do well to consider the UK’s role in building that system.

The International Trade Secretary said recently:  “It is a remarkable if little known fact that 40% of all small satellites in orbit are manufactured in the UK, providing everyone from academic institutions to nation states with ready-made space capability.  We also punch above our weight in the satcomms sector – being responsible for a truly impressive 20% share of all global satcomms and 25% share of the world’s telecommunications satellites”

3, 2, 1 .. Lift Off for a bright economic future

Space sector to benefit from multi-£m work on UK alternative to Galileo

UK poised for take-off on ambitious Defence Space Strategy with personnel boost

Brexit in Space: Will the UK have Access to the Galileo Satellite Network?