Melanie Blagg

Experience

• 

  London Borough of Ealing

  Oct 2000 - Jun 2001

  Duties included: setting up the centre; helping vulnerable young people at the centre with their problems and their homework; promotion of the centre; helping with activities such as 'cooking night'; day-to-day management of the admin of the centre Duties included: providing admin support for a team of 12; handling records and invoicing on a budget of £3 million; arranging large events for children in care; publicity and promotion; basic IT training for staff; interviews and training

  • Admin Manager, The Drop In Centre

    Jan 2001 - Jun 2001

  • Admin Assistant, Quality Protects Team

    Oct 2000 - Jun 2001
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  London Borough of Ealing

  Jan 2003 - Sept 2004

  Deputy Admin Manager, Acton Children's Services

  Duties included: Arranging and providing services for 100 employees; monthly accounts/ledger on Quickbooks, budget management and budgetary projections/reports; acting as health & safety rep; appraisals/supervisions; project working; invoicing/purchase orders and finance; creation and maintenance of HR records; working in a high pressure environmentKey Achievements:Managed a large team of staff, with excellent feedbackDevised and implemented a new MI systemControlled the section's accounts and put budgets and reconciliations back on trackNegotiated favourable new contractsJan 2003-May 2003 Fostering and Adoption Project Worker Senior admin role. Duties included handling large and small projects, liaising with managers, ensuring the smooth running of the admin team, debt recovery Show less

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  Government Office of the East Midlands

  Aug 2005 - Apr 2007

  Positive Activities Regional Programme Manager, Youth Policy

  • Duties included: Influencing national policy, interpreting and disseminating it; extensive report writing; data analysis; support/challenge to DfES, Local Authorities, Voluntary Sector and partners; programme and project managementKey Achievements:• Championing youth participation at GOEM events• Led on key DfES initiatives, including Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital Fund; co-ordinating promotion and activity across the region• Developed new performance management and data analysis processes for the team• Established sound relationships and reputation with key regional/national organisations• Performance management for a variety of different frontline youth projects• Successfully managing the transition for numerous youth projects across the region whose funding was pooled into Local Area Agreements• Approved grant bids and improved voluntary organisations’ capacity to secure funding• Planning and delivering high profile and successful events Show less

• 

  CFE

  Aug 2007 - Feb 2010

  Programme Manager

  Duties included: programme and project management on a national, high profile Learning and Skills Council project (the Training Quality Standard); daily contact with a range of colleges and private training providers, including providing guidance and support to them; collaboration with an extensive range of stakeholders; marketing, promotion and training; bid writing; website production and maintenance; transition management; MI and project reporting and data analysisKey Achievements:• Ran a successful pilot project on behalf of the LSC with 30 small training providers to provide additional support for that market• Delivering a high profile website with interactive pages and 200 pages of content• Providing a comprehensive set of reports and guidance on the Standard for a range of key organisations• Managing a successful knowledge transfer to operational agencies at project end, including detailed process mapping Show less

• 

  Forensic Science Service

  May 2010 - Sept 2012

  Business Transformation - Project Support and Programme Management Office Lead

  Continuous Improvement and Programme Management Support• Duties included: Leading on key deliverables for a multi-million pound internal transformation programme; developing and monitoring risk and issue management processes; benefit mapping and tracking; dashboard reporting to senior management including analysis; programme timeline management; project planning.Key Achievements:• Producing a comprehensive handover document ensuring a smooth transition to the new company structure• Developing a prioritisation matrix to help the organisation to effectively prioritise resource and finances based on a project’s business value• Developing an improvement idea capture mechanism and assessment process• Creating a new efficient and effective change control process. Show less

• 

  Boots Opticians

  Mar 2013 - May 2015

  - Duties included: PMO duties and communications lead for a multi-million pound IT project; assisting with set up of project governance; risk, issue and dependency management; set up of communications tools such as Sharepoint; creation of tailored communications about the project to stakeholders and the wider business; ongoing stakeholder engagement; programme planning; completing and analysing project reports for the Operating Committee. Key achievements: - Production of a communications strategy for a major project which has been held up as a great example in terms of structure and content for project communications - Production of several communications briefings, FAQs and videos for the business - Creation of numerous presentations for high profile internal events such as the Franchise Forum - Implementing new management tools such as PACE (a form of RACI) - Creating a project toolkit and using it to coach project leads - Acting as a Forum representative for my team at the national Employee Forum. Show less

  • User Acceptance Testing Manager

    Jan 2015 - May 2015

  • Programme Management Officer

    Mar 2013 - Dec 2014
• 

  Experian

  Oct 2015 - Oct 2020

  Senior PMO Analyst and Programme Support Specialist

  Duties included: Governance tailoring for projects and programmes, critical assessments of project and programme health including flagging of early warning indicators, coaching and guidance for PMs on good practice in project and programme management processes, portfolio and resource management, implementation of controls on large transformational programmes, production of bespoke MI and value-add portfolio level reporting.Key achievements:Development of effective lessons learned standards to drive forward continuous improvement across the businessSuccessfully coached Project and Programme Managers on a range of good practice areas with extremely positive feedbackProvided governance and controls tailoring advice on a range of projects/programmes to minimise risk to delivery but maximise efficiencyCreating and managing a team of Senior Programme Support specialistsFacilitation of leadership-level strategic planning sessionsProduction of a key portfolio planning tool for easy review of upcoming critical milestones across 100+ projects and programmes Show less

• 

  Walgreens Boots Alliance

  May 2021 - Sept 2021

  Project Manager

  Duties included: Delivering a shared service set up project within a large transformational finance programme; risk management and issue resolution; reporting and senior stakeholder management; design of operational governance; project planning; design and implementation of a continuous improvement & change process

• 

  CALYX

  Oct 2021 - Dec 2022

  Senior Change Analyst

  Duties include: Determining and implementing appropriate governance for the department; identifying and delivering opportunities for improvementKey achievements:Devised and launched a new Continuous Improvement framework including set up of a central capture and tracking mechanism with automated triggersProduced and implemented departmental risk management processDesign and set up of operational processes to support a new requirements management tool

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  Experian

  Jan 2023 - now

  Strategic Transformation PMO Lead