In Person Event: Annual Showstopper Event - HPMA Midlands & East of England

PLEASE NOTE this is for HPMA members only

This session is for those in People Profession roles

Summary: Monday 19th January 205 is typically known as ‘Blue Monday’, seen to be the most depressing day of the year – we are going to change all that! We are putting on an Annual Showstopper event that will give the day new meaning – it is Blue Monday for the NHS, and we want to help reinvigorate our people professionals and set them up well for the year ahead – both in terms of the professional challenges they will navigate, but also the professional potential that exists to take our impact to new levels.

Aim: Areas being covered are:

• Horizon scanning (what is coming down the line in terms of future work e.g. TUPE, Industrial Action, Redesign, Management of Change ++ & how do we as a profession prepare for this with support from our legal partners)
• Panel discussion/Q&A - Chief Officer attendance from across the business functions e.g. CEO, CPO, CFO, CMO, CNO ++ to describe from their perspective what does the People Profession need to consider to meet their needs now and in the future
• Focus on self-care, wellbeing, resilience, protecting yourself to be able to stay well and navigate a fast changing landscape (noting corporate headcount reduction impact/challenge but to maintain productivity too (working smarter not harder)
• Re-professionalising the People Team roles e.g. Moving away from administration support and transactional work to support building manager capability to and allow the professional role/functional areas to move back to what the profession is about e.g. added value, complex case management, transformation, service/pathway redesign ++ legal side – avoiding pitfalls of HR moving outside its guardrails
• Considering Trauma informed interviewing/framework/approach and avoiding harm (e.g. Noting HR professionals and others exposed to significant cases aligned to sexual safety, violence and aggression, racism etc. how do we build a framework for people teams to debrief similar to how we do in patient space but more aligned to our profession/supervision)
• Building risk confidence (what does this spectrum look like) move away from risk avoidance to controlled risk assessment / taking managed risk safely
• Time to network
• Understanding the benefit of working in a multidisciplinary team approach - All People functions working collaboratively (how do we move to this) e.g. OH, HR, L&D, ++.

Facilitator: We will be joined by a range of speakers working within and outside the NHS including from partner organisations such as Mills and Reeve, Brownejacobson, Bevan Brittan, Capsticks and others thought leaders.

Date: Monday 19th January 2026

Time: 9:30am-4:30pm

By booking on this event, you are indicating that have read and agree to our event booking terms and conditions.

In the event that you’re not able to attend, please let us know within 5 working days of the event so that we might fill your place in the event. Place are limited and non-attendance prevents other colleagues from gaining from this opportunity.

We may take pictures or record our events to use in publicising our events programme including on our social media platforms. By booking on this event, you are giving consent to this unless you let us know otherwise. Any questions, please email eventsteam@hpma.org.uk in advance of the event.