Surrey County Council serves more than 1.2 million residents and businesses in Surrey. The Council’s work is guided by its strategic framework, known as ‘The Surrey Way’.  The Surrey Way explains the way the Council does things. It breaks down the Council’s ambitions and objectives and provides a more transparent, more joined-up picture of what ways of working should be across three key areas, referred to as ‘Our Purpose, Our Organisation, and Our People’.

The portfolio of projects and programmes is at the heart of delivering against the Council’s strategic priorities and outcomes. The Transformation PMO has worked closely with Wellingtone to design a bespoke training programme that is fully customised to The Surrey Way and the council’s ‘PPM Academy’ methodology. The programme consists of a two-day course on ‘Delivering Successful Projects and Programmes’, plus a half-day masterclass for SROs and sponsors on ‘Sponsoring Successful Projects and Programmes’. Samantha Cunningham, Consultancy Team Leader and Melissa McGill, Transformation PMO Lead, reflect on Wellingtone’s value as a training provider, the objectives and impact of the training, and the success of the rollout across Surrey’s staff and leadership.

Overview

Customer

Surrey County Council

What did we do?

We delivered a customised project management training program.

Key Highlights

• A fully bespoke programme aligned to APM standards, the Council’s PPM Academy, and The Surrey Way
• Two courses customised to suit the needs of project and programme managers, plus SROs and sponsors.
• More than 450 stakeholders have been trained, with eight more courses scheduled in 2024.
• Positive delegate feedback, confirming the training’s value across all levels of delivery and seniority.

“In 2021, we conducted an internal review of our project and programme maturity,” Melissa recalls. “The Transformation PMO was originally set up in 2018 and had already done considerable work to rationalise and prioritise the change portfolio. However, the internal review confirmed that we lacked a consistent approach to initiating, managing, and delivering projects and programmes. We have successful PMOs and project teams working across the council. Still, they were each using a range of methodologies and tools, meaning that programmes were not always managed with a consistent mindset, culture and standards.”

To tackle this situation and drive a level of PPM maturity, the Transformation PMO established Surrey County Council’s PPM Academy alongside the Community of Practice, which included colleagues from across the Council. “The Academy provides a methodology and structure for how we want to select, initiate, deliver and sponsor projects, in alignment with best practice, APM, and Prince2® methodologies and The Surrey Way, to ensure we are doing the right programmes and projects, as well as doing them in the right way,” Sam explains. “It was a big step in maturing our PPM approach. So, of course, we needed to ensure that people were trained to support the change further. While we wanted the training to align with recognised best practices, it was also vital. The agenda was bespoke to Surrey to guide our staff in real-world project delivery and give sponsors the support they need to steer projects, programmes, and portfolios. Understanding The Surrey Way is particularly significant for those working and supporting our key programmes and projects, as it is important for us as a Council to ensure that our limited resources are focused on the right things.   Through a competitive tender process, we chose Wellingtone as their response conveyed a flexible mindset. They were willing to adapt their approach to our needs so that we could deliver appropriate and meaningful training not just to The Surrey Way but also for the different levels of seniority we needed to engage with, from project and programme managers to SROs and sponsors.”

Customised Course Content, Flexed to Meet the Needs of Different Delegates

Wellingtone began the work by conducting a P3M3 assessment and establishing a baseline to inform activities moving forward. They then worked collaboratively with the Transformation PMO to customise the two courses for project managers and sponsors before piloting each. “Wellingtone’s lead consultant was fantastic to work with,” says Melissa. “At every step, she was practical, accommodating and adaptable, but also willing to push back positively when she felt what we were trying to do wasn’t quite right. She fully understood The Surrey Way and its importance to our roadmap. The pilot sessions were extremely helpful in collecting feedback from a cross-section of delegates to refine the content and ensure it was right.”

The full training programme began in June 2023 and was delivered by Wellingtone’s lead consultant and a small team of trainers. So far, 304 project and programme managers have undergone the delivery training, while 159 SROs and sponsors have attended the masterclass. Samantha says that both offerings have proved extremely popular. “Wellingtone’s team handled the training skillfully, adapting to the broad cross-section of delegates they were engaging with,” says Samantha. “They brought the subject matter to life, using an informal, approachable style to ensure that everyone felt included in the delivery training, plus the right level of knowledge and gravitas to resonate with our SRO and sponsor audience in the masterclass sessions. The feedback has been highly positive. Delegates have commented on the trainers’ fast-paced, engaging approaches, their ability to bring examples to life in the context of Surrey County Council, and their level of expert project management knowledge.

Regarding The Surrey Way, Wellingtone’s lead consultant spent a lot of time exploring how we prioritise and deliver our portfolio to ensure that every project and programme, and their benefits and outcomes, align with our overarching vision that no one in Surrey should be left behind. In terms of SROs and sponsors, she was articulate in illustrating exactly where key responsibilities lie and demonstrating credibility and value with our senior managerial and C-suite audience. Many trainers just come in and work to a script, but Welingtone’s lead consultant and training team were ready and able to adapt effectively to the needs of whoever was in the session at any time.”

Melissa agrees. “The success of both training programmes is evident in the high level of uptake and excellent feedback we continue to see. We have already trained more than 450 people, and in 2024, we announced eight courses to meet continuing demand. From a PMO perspective, although it is too early to quantify fully measurable benefits and outcomes, we certainly see a positive impact. People are engaging with the PPM Academy, applying what they have learned to their work, and using the appropriate frameworks, documentation and templates. SROs and sponsors tell us that the masterclass has equipped them to execute their roles better.

Most importantly, the training will support us in doing suitable projects correctly and delivering our vision to benefit Surrey’s residents and businesses. We have achieved an enormous amount over the past five years, but we don’t want to stop there. We’re embarking on an ambitious roadmap to transform our future operating models – for instance, across our core functions. The skills and knowledge we are embedding will support our transformation and maturity journey. Wellingtone went above and beyond to give us a bespoke training programme that adds genuine value to how we lead and run our projects and programmes to ensure that we deliver for the people of Surrey.”