South East Wales branch
Annual Report 2014 - 2015
Introduction
We are pleased to present the annual report for the South East Wales branch for the period June
2014 to May 2015.
Our business plan set out our over-riding aim: to uphold the renewed purpose of the Institute to
champion better work and working lives by improving practices in people and development for the
benefit of individuals, economies and society.
We set out to develop upon existing local networks for practitioners and students, delivering CPD
events, building relationships with educational centres and local government, and collaborating with
other local/regional professional bodies.
Branch structure / committee report
Our Committee was shaped towards meeting constitutional obligations required by CIPD, as well as
ensuring effective succession planning and good governance.
19 volunteer members were elected at the branch annual meeting on 15 May 2014, and, once again,
we were fortunate to be able to combine a wealth of experience from existing members, with the
fresh insight and energy of four new members – Kate Ablett, Barbara Berger, Rachel Davies and
Sharon Wallace. We were also pleased to welcome Harry Barton back onto the team.
We recognise that one of the main challenges in delivering our business plan is our reliance on a
team of volunteers, many of whom balance their contribution to the branch with personal and work
commitments. This had a significant impact on us this year, and my thanks go to colleagues who
responded to my pleas for support throughout the year to ensure that we have been able to
continue with our plans. I'd like to thank Anna Denton-Jones who, whilst not a member of our
committee, might just as well have been - giving her time, insight and support to any project that we
throw her way.
We are sorry to lose Barbara Berger, who has returned to Poland for family reasons, Rachel Davies
and Nikki Harris from our team, and thank them all for their contribution.
Three team members are also taking a side-step - Kath Collis and Gill Parker will continue to support
us with membership and upgrading activity, while Wayne Vincent will provide some continuity in
terms of public sector engagement. We're sure that the three of them will be as pleased to be rid of
the trappings of committee membership, as we are to retain their expertise in a different way.
We're delighted to have received nominations from Sarah Maunder and Gareth Way - both of
whom we look forward to welcoming onto the team.
How did we do?
The branch accounting year (previously 31 March) was brought into line with the HQ accounting
year (30 June). We are therefore not able to provide a financial report at this time, but will provide
information on the website after the HQ year end accounts have been audited. That said, with just
over one month to go, we can confirm that we will be ending the year in the black! My thanks go to
Araf Haq who has had a particularly challenging year both personally and professionally, for
navigating us through the transition!
Our business plan, which was approved by CIPD headquarters, and reviewed locally throughout the
year, set out specific aims for 2014-2015 under seven categories.
1
Committee management and transparency
Annual business plan and budget approved by HQ
Deliver branch objectives within budget
Represent branch at formal and informal CIPD Council meetings
Committee meetings and sub-group meetings held and minuted
Ensure that committee members develop relationships with relevant HQ teams
Ensure development of committee members to encourage succession planning
Work with HQ finance team to ensure smooth transition to central function
Work with HQ to ensure development, implementation and launch of Wales region
2
Communication – to ensure that we communicate effectively with all sectors of our
membership on a timely and efficient basis
Produce and adhere to communications plan detailing what information will be
disseminated, when, to whom, and how
Produce four e-newsletters and fortnightly emailers
Ensure that our presence/profile on social media channels is relevant and up to date
Increase Twitter followers by 50%
Target = 525 / Actual = 597
Increase LinkedIn members by 50%
Target = 769 / Actual = 621
Increase Facebook followers by 50%
Target = 194 / Actual = 195
Ensure sustained press coverage around key events and policy issues
Increase branch member engagement in terms of general and policy consultation
Ensure that branch is "go to" network for comment on local, regional and national
(Wales) issues
3
Programme of events – to provide a programme of events covering generalist and specialist
topics relevant to all sectors of our membership
Deliver one mainstream event per month (Sept to May), plus three targeted events
Introduce quality control for event and speakers
Encourage members to book and cancel online in order to minimise excess catering costs
measured by decrease in "no-shows"
Secure support from local third parties to enable events to be offered FOC
Provide attendance certificates for delegates
Provide delegate name badges to facilitate networking
Sustained numbers of members attending each event
Increase in number of students attending events
Programme delivered within budget
Delegate feedback - minimum 4 out of 5
As usual, we delivered a programme of events between September and April, covering learning and
development, generalist and specialist HR issues, employment law updates, and special interest
presentations. We took the decision to remain at the Village Hotel in Coryton, which is a perfect
location in terms of the geographical spread of our branch. Yet again, the numbers of people
attending have exceeded previous figures.
Whilst the online booking system has helped us to plan, promote and deliver our events this year,
one of the downsides is that the number of no-shows remains high. We appreciate that plans
change, and are pleased that the number of people advising that they are unable to attend has
increased as we are able to factor even reasonably late notice into our catering (and therefore cost)
calculations.
Delivery of our programme depends on financial support from local organisations – the level of
which is not, understandably, guaranteed from year to year. As a committee, we have considered
alternatives which have been implemented by other branches, which would enable us to be less
reliant on “sponsorship”. These include:

Running fewer events

Charging a refundable booking fee, non-refundable in the case of no-shows

Charging a non-refundable booking fee

Reducing the level of catering – ie offering only tea/coffee/biscuits
For the time-being, we have decided to maintain the status quo and continue to encourage
members to let us know if they cannot attend, but for financial reasons, this is an area that is under
regular review.
We are grateful to our speakers, Amy Brann (Synaptic Potential), Emma Taylor and Jude Jennison
(The Bay Horse Speaks), Victoria Hall and team (Clarkslegal LLP), Alison Love (Alison Love Limited),
Derek Williams (The WOW Awards), Stuart Jones (OMNI RMS), Gill Mason and Lorna Wilson (ACAS),
the Tony Lewis Trio (Tony, Gareth Way and Kevin Brown), Ruth Cooper-Dickson (Equal Approach),
the Capital Law team, and Peter Cheese for delivering an outstanding series of events.
We are also very grateful for the generous support received from local organisations in delivering
the programme – Reed, Sainsburys, Clarkslegal LLP, Alison Love Limited, Hays, Morgan Denton
Jones, Human Resourcing, CPS Group, Capital Law and HR Spectrum.
4
Students – to continue to engage with students and educational centres
Induction presentations to be delivered within six weeks of start of academic year
Increase in number of student members attending events
Delivery of student-specific event
Appointment of student representatives
Presentation of student awards
Whilst we have racked up a big red cross against delivery of student inductions, all is not as bad as it
seems! This year, for the first time, HQ sent induction material out to each Centre, so that tutors
were able to make the information available during the initial induction period.
As has become our tradition, at our annual dinner, we will be recognising the achievements of
students who have been nominated by their course tutors to receive Branch Student of the Year
Awards. Our thanks go to Anna Denton-Jones of Refreshing Law Limited for her support of this
year’s prizes, and our congratulations to the winners on their achievement.
5
Membership/upgrading – to continue to increase awareness of upgrading and experience
assessment routes to membership
Manage smooth transition to new membership structure at branch level
Provide advice to members on all aspects of membership, upgrading and CPD
Deliver annual upgrading workshop
Sustain level of branch membership following change to structure and subscriptions
6
Policy – to continue to feed into policy development through engaging with members on
policy consultations
Increase engagement with members on HQ initiated consultations
Develop relationships with Welsh Government in order to raise CIPD's profile locally, and
ensure that local/regional issues are highlighted to HQ
This has always been a difficult area to exploit at branch level, and, for that reason, is an area that
we propose will fall under the Wales regional remit, in order to ensure a more sustained and
informed response.
7
Collaboration – to develop links and relationships with other professional bodies – where
appropriate, and where adding value - in order to maximise benefits/opportunities for all
sectors of our membership
Maintain links with local/regional professional networks
Continue efforts for better engagement with senior practitioners through closer
association with third party senior networks
We made a decision at the beginning of the year to maintain the links that we had made with other
professional networks in the area, but to hold off any further proactive strategic development or
implementation, pending the implementation of the new Wales structure.
In this context, we continued to be involved in a number of activities throughout the year:

We continued to represent CIPD at the Welsh Government Strategic Forum for Career
Development. Chaired by the Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology, the forum has been
set up to provide advice and facilitate a range of activities around the key themes of career
management skills, access to services, high quality delivery, demonstrable impact.

We are now part of Professions Group Wales, which is an umbrella body of professional
organisations operating in the public interest. Our remit includes raising the profile of the
professions within the public arena including interactions with business, politicians and civil
society, demonstrating and promoting the role of the professions in growing the Welsh
economy, highlighting the career opportunities presented by the various professions and
promoting the principles of diversity and social mobility within the professions in Wales

We partnered with other key business organisations including CMI, IOD, LMW, CIM and ILM
in delivering the annual Lead On Wales conference.

We continued to participate as a steering group member of the Going Home project whose
aim is to help women successfully make the transition from custody back into their
communities and to help challenge stereo-typical attitudes to women in the Criminal Justice
System.
When I took over as branch chair, I set out two main areas that I wanted to progress during my three
year term:
Firstly, I wanted to position us as an inclusive, connected and outward-looking branch - I suppose
that only our members can judge whether or not that's been achieved! I'm pleased to be handing
over to Nerissa who I know has the same passion for the Institute and profession as I do, and who I
know will take the branch forward in a similar vein. We've worked very closely together for many
years, which I'm sure will make for a seamless transition.
My second "ambition", for want of a better word, was to ensure that the Welsh agenda was kept at
the forefront of minds at headquarters, and I'm delighted to be involved in shaping and taking this
forward.
Finally - I'd like to record my thanks to the team at CIPD HQ for their encouragement, to our
members for their support, and to my own team for putting up with my nagging and relentless
emails, and for making our branch what it is.
Lesley Richards
Chair - South East Wales Branch
21.05.14