United Kingdom’s Vaccine Taskforce and Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out

Assessment Case Study Overview

United Kingdom’s Vaccine Taskforce and Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out

VACCINE TASKFORCE (VTF)

• VaccineTaskForce(VTF):

· – SetupApril2020

· – VTFComprisedgovernmentofficials,industry,academics,fundingagencies, regulators, logistics and finance specialists

· – Required rapid decisions to be made

· – Acceleratevaccinedevelopment

· – Rollout the Covid-19 vaccine to the UK population once approved

• VaccineTaskForceObjectives(GOV,2021):

· – Secure access to promising COVID-19 vaccines for the UK as quickly as possible;

· – Make provision for international distribution of vaccines; and

· – Strengthen the UK’s onshoring capacity and capability in vaccine development, manufacturing and supply chain to provide future resilience for future pandemics.

COVID-19 VACCINE ROLL-OUT

· 2December2020,UKwasthefirstcountrytoapprovethe Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine

· Challengeforprojectmanagerswastheroll-out

– ‘how to get the vaccine out there and into peoples’ arms safely, successfully and at speed’ (Pells, 2021).

· NationalHealthServiceEnglandandNationalHealthService Improvement (NHSE&I) setup 3 main ways in which the population could access vaccines (NAO, 2022):

– General Practitioners and community pharmacies (assumed to provide 56% of vaccines);

– VaccinationCentres(assumedtoprovide41%vaccines);and – Hospitals (assumed to provide 3% vaccines).

9 PRIORITY GROUPS FOR ROLL-OUT

· TheUKGovernmentplanned9prioritygroupsforCovid-19 vaccines delivered from January 2021 onwards, as below (IOG, 2022):

· – Groups 1- 4: Care home residents and workers, 80+ years and health workers, 75-79 years, 70-74 and clinically extremely vulnerable (under 70 years)

· – Groups 5-9: 65-69 years, At risk (under 65 years), 55-59 years and 50- 54 years.

· – In September 2021 vaccinations for lower age groups and in particular 12-15 year olds were being offered.

· WithinthePortsmoutharea,Covid-10vaccinationcentres were launched across Hampshire and Isle of Wight starting with:

· – University Health Centre, Southampton

· – Eastleigh Health Centre and Southsea Medical Centre

· – Portsmouth;

· – locations included St James Hospital, Portsmouth, Bassingstoke Fire Station and The Riverside Centre, Isle of Wight (NHS Portsmouth, 2022).

Project Management Challenges…

• According to Rachael Pells (2021):

· – “Project Managers across multiple industries face their biggest challenge: how to get the vaccine out there and into peoples’ arms safely, successfully and at speed”

· – Supply Chain: ‘Point of Harvest to point of arm’ • Availability of supplies (vaccines, syringes, chairs etc) • Logistics and distribution (road, rail, air) to urban and rural centres • Storage – temperature controlled

· – People and Vaccination Centres: • Trained staff to deliver vaccine • Patients (wastage an issue for no shows) • Availability of Vaccination centres

· – IS/IT Systems: • Booking systems • Vaccine tracking systems (safety and prevent theft)

Project Management Challenges…

· Alam S et al (2021) identifies 15 challenges with the most critical 5 challenges from their research being:

– Limited number of vaccine manufacturing companies – Inappropriatecoordinationwithlocalorganizations – Lack of vaccine monitoring bodies – Difficulties in monitoring and controlling vaccine temperature – Vaccinationcostandlackoffinancialsupportforvaccinepurchase

· Mills and Salisbury (2021) state “Three things need to be in place:

· – vaccinesupplies(coldstorage,distribution,syringes,needles)

· – people to implement them (vaccinators, staff to document)

· – people to be vaccinated.

· – Mismatch, failure is inevitable.

· – ThepaceoftheCOVID-19campaignwillbedrivenbyvaccinesupplies,so implementation needs to be matched”.

Assignment Objectives (Your Task) – YOU MUST COMPLETE ALL SECTIONS:

· Critically examine the significance of culture in projects and how culture, using Hofstede’s Cultural dimensions framework, can be applied to facilitate the successful rollout of the Covid-19 Vaccine meeting the project’s aim. Justify your answer supported by evidence from the literature and linking to the case study (LO1).

· Critically examine project management leadership literature covering definitions of leadership using 2 project management leadership theories covered on the module and recommend a leadership style appropriate for rolling out the Covid-19 Vaccine (LO2). Please ensure you relate theory to the case study.

· Critically review and evaluate 2 managing change models (Kotter or Kübler-Ross or Lewin’s model) covered on the module and recommend one model that could be could be used or adapted as a suitable framework for rolling out the Covid-19 Vaccine thus improving people’s awareness and perception of the Covid-19 Vaccine and take-up. Justify your answer supported by the literature and link this to the case study (LO3).

Assignment Objectives (Your Task) – YOU MUST COMPLETE ALL SECTIONS:

Whilst the UK Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out encountered many well documented problems you are asked as a consultant to critically analyse lessons learned and the risks associated with the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out to develop a risk register in preparation for future vaccine rollouts. To meet this requirement, you will need to:

(i) Identify 10 risks

Review all the possible sources of risks related to the Covid-19 Vaccine roll-out. Making use of the vaccine roll-out objectives identify 10 risks, construct a risk register ( with headings in the risk register as covered on the module workshop ) making use of the risk meta language to describe the risks;

(ii) Analyse 10 risks

Qualitatively analyse the 10 risks in the risk register making use of the Probability*Impact scoring and show risks on a Probability*Impact Matrix

(iii) Respond to 10 risksFor the 10 risks develop risk mitigating strategies (threats and opportunities) for each of the risks and include whether approach a Threat or Opportunity and then a single sentence mitigation strategy alongside the risk contained within the register .

(IV) Summarised commentary – most significant risks

Provide a summarised commentary of around 400 words of the most significant risks on the project (LO4).

Useful Reports/Click Links Below

Rachael Pells (2021) ‘The Great Vaccine Roll-Out’, APM PROJECT SPRING 2021. IOG (2022) Caronavirus vaccine rollout, Institute for Government

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/coronavirus-vaccine-rollout

GOV (2021) VTF Objectives and Members of the Steering Group

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-vaccine-taskforce-objectives-and- membership-of-steering-group/vtf-objectives-and-membership-of-the-steering-group

NAO (2022) ‘The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination programme in England’, Session 2021-22, 25 February 2022, HC 1106.

The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination programme in England

NHS Portsmouth (2022) Covid-10 Vaccination Centres launch across Hampshire and Isle of Wight

https://www.portsmouthccg.nhs.uk/covid-19-vaccination-centres-launch-across- hampshire-and-isle-of-wight/

Useful Reports/Click Links Below

Pfizer (2022) Manufacturing and Distributing the COVID-19 Vaccine

https://www.pfizer.com/science/coronavirus/vaccine/manufacturing-and-distribution

Alam S et al (2021) Challenges to COVID-19 vaccine supply chain: Implications for sustainable development goals, International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 239.

Mills C and Salisbury D (2021) The challenges of distributing COVID-19 vaccinations, Volume 31, EclinicalMedicine.

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/eclinm/PIIS2589- 5370%2820%2930418-1.pdf

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589- 5370(20)30418-1/fulltext

Agile resilience in the UK: Lessons from COVID-19 for the ‘next normal’

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/agile-resilience-in-the-uk-lessons-from-covid-19-for-the-next-normal

United Kingdom’s Vaccine Taskforce and Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out

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