Distinction Grade case study Vaccine Taskforce and COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-out University of Portsmouth, 3500 words
United Kingdom’s Vaccine Taskforce and COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-out
This is a single assessment. It is based on the following case study The Vaccine Taskforce (VTF) setup
in April 2020 by the United Kingdom (UK) Government to rollout the Covid-19 Vaccine. The VTF
brought together government officials, industry, academics, funding agencies, regulators, logistics
and finance specialists to enable rapid decisions to be made allowing the UK to be in a position to
accelerate vaccine development and rollout the Covid-19 vaccine vaccinate to the UK population
once approved. Therefore, the objectives of the VTF were threefold (GOV, 2021):
1. Secure access to promising COVID-19 vaccines for the UK as quickly as possible;
2. Make provision for international distribution of vaccines; and
3. Strengthen the UK’s onshoring capacity and capability in vaccine development, manufacturing
and supply chain to provide future resilience for future pandemics.
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The Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out
On 2 December 2020 the UK was the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine however
whilst this was excellent news it was the start of the journey to escape the Covid-19 pandemic. The
challenge for project managers was the roll-out, that is ‘how to get the vaccine out there and into
peoples’ arms safely, successfully and at speed’ (Pells, 2021).
National Health Service England and National Health Service 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);
• Vaccination Centres (assumed to provide 41% vaccines); and
• Hospitals (assumed to provide 3% vaccines).
Within the Portsmouth area, Covid-10 vaccination centres were launched across Hampshire and Isle of
Wight starting with: University Health Centre, Southampton, Eastleigh Health Centre and Southsea
Medical Centre, Portsmouth; and then after this, locations included St James Hospital, Portsmouth,
Bassingstoke Fire Station and The Riverside Centre, Isle of Wight (NHS Portsmouth, 2022).
The UK Government planned 9 priority groups for Covid-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.
The focus of this assignment is the people management and risk management of the Covid-19
vaccine rollout. Reading to support this assignment is provided below for reference and on Moodle.
IOG (2022) Caronavirus vaccine rollout, Institute for Government
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/coronavirus-vaccine-rollout
Date Accessed: 2 October 2022
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
Date Accessed: 2 October 2022
Rachael Pells (2021) ‘The Great Vaccine Roll-Out’, APM PROJECT SPRING 2021.
NAO (2022) ‘The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination programme in England’, Session 2021-22, 25
February 2022, HC 1106.
(NAO, 2022)
Date Accessed: 2 October 2022
NHS Portsmouth (2022) Covid-10 Vaccination Centres launch across Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Date accessed 2 October 2022.
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Whilst links to this project are included within this document and on Moodle to help develop your
assignment knowledge, you will also need to engage with further research and reading on the project
for further context. You will have the opportunity to critique current practice in project management
drawing on any of the concepts from this module to provide justification for your answers for this
assessment which must be supported by evidence from the literature (academic books and journal
articles). You may also cite from professional bodies and Institute websites e.g. Association of Project
Management (APM), Project Management Institute (PMI), Chartered Management Institute (CMI),
Government and Industry websites but there must be a balance with the use of academic references.
Limited use of website material from a recognised authority such as Geert Hofstede, is acceptable.
However, use of ‘wikis’ is to be avoided.
3. This assignment covers all learning outcomes (LOs) for this Module which are:
1. Promoting and enabling the development of an organisational culture conducive to the successful
management of a projects (domestically and globally) and developing the organisation and team
to attain a project’s vision and goals.
2. Critically examine leadership theories for a range of projects
3. Managing a sustainable change initiative.
4. Formulate appropriate Risk Management Strategies and develop effective project risk models,
mitigation and contingency plans for appropriate action.
4. Assignment Objectives (Your Task) – YOU MUST COMPLETE ALL SECTIONS:
1. 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).
2. 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.
3. 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).
4. 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:
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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) Response to 10 risks
For 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).
5. Assignment format:
Discussion paper of 3,500 words (excluding diagrams, references and appendices). Use a report
structure with a contents page, headings, sub-headings, page numbers, an introduction, main
body of the work covering objectives 1, 2, 3 and 4, conclusion, list of References and Appendices.
