PHE7033 Leadership Skills and Project Management for Health and Healthcare Assessment Brief | BCU

PHE7033 Assessment 1 

Written Essay, 3000 words and covers all 4 Learning Outcomes as outlined below:

Module Learning Outcomes of PHE7033

• Critically appraise and examine theories, concepts and processes of leadership, with application to today’s challenges in an ever-changing health and healthcare environment.
• Explore theories and types of change and explain the social, political and economic factors that may influence the process and speed of a pragmatic change, including key ethical and legal issues within the student’s area of study.
• Demonstrate an understanding and rigorous application of skills, techniques and planning tools required in working through the steps and phases of project management.
• Demonstrate abilities and competencies in creating appropriate and unique solutions while managing and working with the challenges of project delivery.     

Weight: 100%

Submission Date: Tuesday, 13 May 2025, before 15:00

Assessment Title: Summative Assessment: 3,000-word Essay 

Assessment Task of PHE7033

Each student enrolled in this module is required to develop and submit a project management proposal primarily addressing a service improvement, resource development, policy change, capacity building or health improvement concerning leadership practical skills and competencies. This proposal will ultimately prepare the student within his/her study area to progress to undertaking a Project Management for an MSc Dissertation whilst providing practical change management and leadership skills to inform professional development.

You are asked to identify a Challenge that you will work on throughout the module toward the summative assessment. A Challenge is an event or situation in a workplace or a catchment area (e.g., community, borough, and constituency) that adversely affects service delivery, patient care, community health and wellbeing or the safety of a vulnerable population. Your Challenge should be derived from your discipline or area of study (Public Health). Your Challenge may be an event or situation in which you were/are involved, one that you witnessed, or one that you have not experienced but which is important to you. However, the scope of the selected Challenge must be clear and manageable: its catchment area should be local (e.g., workplace, community, borough, or constituency) rather than global (e.g., nation, country, the world). Consider this Challenge as something you may be working to address in your professional life after graduation. 

Important note about confidentiality: this concerns students who will choose a challenge within their respective workplaces. It is critical NOT to divulge the name of the workplace, identify any of your colleagues or participants at work, or use any data that is not public. If you have any questions, please check with me and/or your line manager.   

The Assessment Task Must Include the Following 6 Sections: 

1. Introduction (10% - max. 250 words) 

This section must present a general outline of the proposed project and set the scene for the whole project. It should include, but is not limited to, the following elements: 

• A concise background explaining why the project (e.g., policy change, service improvement, resource development, health improvement, capacity building) should be carried out, including sources from the literature review setting the theoretical basis for undertaking the project
• Definition of the magnitude (severity) of the current problem (situation) and related consequences  
• Comparison of the status of the workplace or community problem to those of other similar workplaces or communities, city level, England, UK, or Global
• Focused Literature review to support consequences/impact  
• Description of how your proposed change relates to your area of study

2. Project Initiation (25% - max. 800 words) 

This is an important section in which you must define the scope of the project and build a business case demonstrating arguments and reasons for undertaking this project.  This should include information on the following: 

• Define the process undertaken to know whether to go or not to go with the project (decision-making project feasibility). In other words, complete a force field analysis identifying and assessing the impact of the forces or pressures for and against the project (change). 
• Describe the analysis undertaken to understand the possible root causes of one of the most critical restraining forces.
• State the project’s goal and objective.  It is essential to demonstrate the relationship between the project’s objective statement and the results of the analyses above.
• Describe the different stakeholders involved in the proposed project. Differentiate between those who are going to benefit from the project and those who are invested in the project. In addition, discuss anticipated conflicts and challenges among stakeholders. 

3. Project Planning & Feasibility (25% - max. 800 words)  

This section calls for the development of a feasible and realistic action plan delineating the major activities, thus providing the project with a high probability of meeting its objective. 

• Identify main activities designed to achieve the project’s objective:
• state major activities (work to be done) or evidence-based interventions required to achieve the project’s objective; and  
• Define expertise and resources required and the primary responsible party for each major activity.
• Develop a schedule (Gantt Chart) illustrating main activities and related milestones, and indicate the order of activities/tasks and their dependencies.
• Identify and analyse potential risks and develop risk reduction strategies
• Complete a stakeholders’ prioritisation analysis and delineate relevant communication strategies  
• Develop a communication and engagement plan, including what you would communicate about? When? How? with each stakeholder group

4. Project Implementation and Monitoring (15% - max. 450 words) 

This section includes two major components to ensure an effective and efficient implementation of the project. However, because of this phase of the project management, which generally may take longer than the module’s duration, the expectation for this assignment is for you to demonstrate the skills and abilities needed by discussing your ideas and actions you intend to take. To this end, your ideas and actions should be around the following: 

• Describe the transition phase from the planning phase to the implementation phase
• Discuss the implementation and monitoring process, considering the following scenarios:
• Select one of the major activities:
• What leadership style would you adopt during the implementation and monitoring of this major activity?
• Discuss briefly how you would use the Gantt chart and communication plan to monitor and report the progress of the selected major activity 
• Consider a scenario in which it will take more time and/or require additional resources to complete the selected activity above:  
• What would be the impact on the Gantt chart and the communication plan?
• Would you consider the need to alter your leadership style
• Consider a scenario in which one of the potential risks (as identified in the planning phase) occurred.  
• What would you do to address the situation in terms of leadership and communication skills? 

5. Project Evaluation (15% - max. 450 words)   

This section calls for an assessment of whether the objectives were met, and the project was completed within the set schedule and resources. Similarly to the implementation and monitoring phase, the expectation for this section is to discuss methods and skills to evaluate aspects of the project, emphasising the following: 

• Describe the purpose of the project evaluation 
• Data/information needed to assess whether the objective is met
• Data/information sources 
• Assessment of the effectiveness of your communications and leadership styles adopted throughout the change process  
• From whom and why?
• Describe briefly the limitations of the project

6. Conclusion (10% - max. 250 words) 

Discuss how you will transfer the lessons learnt from the project to your role and position, and how you will use this learning experience to help develop others to manage projects more effectively. Also discuss the project’s transferability to other areas of relevant practice.     

Submission Details

• No later than 3:00 pm on 13 May 2025 via Moodle site. See ‘Key Information’ regarding the late submissions  
• The word count is 3,000 words.    
• Essay should be 1.5-spaced and in Arial 12pt font.
• You should include a single reference list of all sources referred to in your essay. Please see the guidance on using the Harvard style of referencing. Full details of how to include a reference within your written work (a citation) and how to present a full reference list at the end of your work can be found in the faculty guide to Referencing available at Birmingham City University