Programme of the Year Award

Programme of the Year Award

The winner for this category has now been announced. Congratulations to all our finalists in this category.

The APM Body of Knowledge 7^th edition defines a programme as “a unique and transient strategic endeavour undertaken to achieve a beneficial change and incorporating a group of related projects and business-as-usual activities.” 

Our Programme of the Year Award is presented to the team that has achieved excellence in delivery of a programme which has achieved successful outcomes. Some or all of the benefits should be shown to have been achieved during the last year in order for the programme to be eligible for this award. 

We require entrants to these categories to produce a submission of 1,500-2,500 words (in English) based on the judging criteria for that category. Entrants may also submit up to four pieces of supporting evidence - images or graphics only (no text apart from captions). Evidence must support information already included in the submission and must not introduce additional elements. Please see further details on the ‘Supporting evidence’ tab of the Awards platform. Video and audio is not accepted as part of the submission. 

The Programme of the Year category is a two-stage judging category, the first stage being the written submission mentioned above and the second stage requires all finalists to present virtually to a panel of judges.

Judges will award the team whose programme has demonstrated the most effective use of programme management techniques, achieved the greatest results, and provided evidence of innovation and lessons learned for the profession. Programmes from all sectors, and from across the globe, may apply. 

In the wake of the 2017 Grenfell tragedy that took the lives of 72 residents, including 18 children, Dame Judith Hackitt’s report exposed how the regulatory system covering high-rise and complex buildings was not fit for purpose.

Following this, the Building Safety Act (2022) tasked HSE with establishing a major programme to design and deliver the new Building Safety Regulator. Collaborative working between 350+ FTEs across HSE, external partners and government departments led to a new regulatory organisation underpinned by 8 public-facing digital services to be successfully delivered to fixed legislative deadlines within two years.

BT Group plc is one of the oldest telecommunications companies in the world.

Over many years, its UK office network had grown into a vast estate comprising more than 900 buildings in around 440 locations. Around two-thirds of these buildings housed less than 10 individuals, with only 20% having more than 75 people.

Launched in 2019, The Better Workplace Programme (TBWP) was created to “bring people together in brilliant spaces that transform the way they work”.

Delivered over a five-year period, the vision was to give office workers the very best environments to connect, collaborate, create and innovate.

Launched in 2021, the Digital Planning Programme aims to modernise England’s planning system.

The programme is transitioning LPAs from a document-based to a data-driven system, enhancing efficiency and community engagement, seeking to reduce local plan creation time from seven years to 30 months, improve decision-making, and boost public involvement.

As the programme completes its first phase, its successes include a 20% reduction in planning application decision times and increased public participation. The programme remains on budget and ahead of forecasted adoption rates, playing a pivotal role in transforming planning services and fostering continuous innovation and improvement in the sector.

The RAF Valley Hawk team deployed Critical Chain PM methodology and behaviours; delivering a complex portfolio of Hawk Jet long-term maintenance projects faster and at a lower cost.

Critical Chain innovation focused on what is most important to service an aircraft more quickly; with shorter schedules, better understanding of scope, availability of parts, de-conflicting resources and daily recovery actions.

A new planning tool provided simple information to move resources if required. They embraced lessons from the Hawk-Australia team, US Air Force, Boeing and BAE Systems’ PM Function. By increasing throughput, capacity was freed-up to accommodate new work, significantly increasing profit.

There are approximately 4 million kilometres of underground pipes and cables nationally and a hole dug every 7 seconds installing and maintaining them.

Asset owners are legally required to share location data supporting ‘safe digging’, but with no standardised approach, organisations have to be contacted for every dig.

That’s why AtkinsRéalis were commissioned to build The National Underground Asset Register - a digital map of underground pipes and cables, that gives planners and excavators instant access to the data enabling them to work safely, reducing a 6.1 day process to 60 seconds, providing estimated economic benefits of £490m per year.

Sellafield Ltd’s Programme and Project Partners (PPP) model was mobilised in 2019 with the purpose of transforming major project delivery at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria.

The partnership brings together partners KBR, Jacobs, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, Altrad Babcock, Sellafield Ltd as the client, and a wider supply chain to deliver a 20-year pipeline of major infrastructure projects to support the site’s decommissioning and to create a clean and safe environment for future generations.

This infrastructure will allow Sellafield Ltd to empty its highest hazard buildings, process and manage legacy waste, and keep special nuclear materials safe.