CMI Level 5 and Level 7 · EPA Live Assessment
Assessment Day Hub
David Agyei · Shropshire Council
Everything you need in one place. Open your three reference files from Quick Launch, then work through the day.
Assessment: 18 June 2026, 14:00
Quick Launch (Section 1) opens each reference file in a new tab. Keep this hub open behind them so you can return to it between sections.
Golden Thread (Section 2) is the one sentence that anchors every answer. Return to it whenever you feel a question pulling you away from the core narrative.
Theory Names (Section 3) gives you the seven frameworks to name. Use these whenever the assessor asks which models or frameworks you used.
Governance Gaps (Section 4) holds your prepared answers for the two most dangerous open questions: the strategic owner TBC and the referral position (13 outstanding for Shropshire Mental Health as of 2 June; confirm on 18 June).
Distinction Reminders (Section 5) tells you the exact verbal behaviour that separates Distinction from Pass. Read it before you start.
Assessment Day Checklist (Section 6) tracks your progress through the day. Tick each item as you go.
Practice and Prep
Assessor Q&A Practice
22 assessor questions with model answers. Audio playback with pause and resume. Listen on the go at any speed.
↗AM1 and AM2
Evidence Locator: Annotated
Use during Q&A and Professional Discussion. Ctrl+F any KSB. Read the bullet points column first.
↗Quick Reference
Management Reference Guide
Live search across jargon and theories. Click any theory to expand. Filter instantly with the page search bar.
↗What You Did and What Changed
My Star Achievements
12 SAO achievement cards. 6 Pass+Distinction KSBs first, then leadership moments from testimonies. Read the Outcome line first if under pressure.
↗Assessment Day
Performance Scaffolding
Panic card, theory quick map and distinction language guide. Open if your mind goes blank during the assessment.
↗AM2 Q&A and AM1
Theory Map and Assessor Q&A
Use for framework questions and the eight dangerous questions. Contains Pass and Distinction answers for each.
↗AM1 Professional Discussion
Witness Testimonies Reference
Use when the assessor asks about your witnesses. Find the name, read the bullet points, tell the story.
↗Submitted Documents
Full Proposal
Project Proposal (4,000 words)
Complete submitted proposal: executive summary, project plan, financial analysis, options appraisal, appendices. Audio enabled.
↗RAID Log | R_001-R_008 | A_001-A_015
Project Tracker
Full RAID log: 8 risks, 2 issues, 6 assumptions, 15 actions, 4 dependencies, 8 decisions. Key evidence for governance, risk management and decision-making KSBs.
↗ToR | Cost Avoidance | Success Outcome | KSB Map
Submitted Governance Documents
All four submitted documents in one file. Actual submitted KSB mapping across 3 groups and 25 KSBs with Pass and Pass+Distinction grades.
↗13 Slides
Submitted Presentation
Full slide-by-slide content with audio. Use to rehearse delivery and hear your own evidence read back to you.
↗Before the session starts: open all seven prep links above and the four submitted document links below so they are ready in separate tabs. Test Google Meet screen sharing with your slides before 14:00.
Your anchor sentence
"The SWANN Phase 2 project directly addresses Shropshire Council's financial recovery mandate by building the data infrastructure needed to demonstrate cost avoidance on escalations: a quantifiable return on investment in early intervention that was previously impossible to evidence."
£121m financial emergency → Phase 1 failed to create data infrastructure → Phase 2 designed to fix governance before technology → £390k illustrative annual saving once data infrastructure is in place → Shropshire Plan 2022 to 2025 outcome alignment.
| Figure | What it means | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| 12.5 to 14 FTE | Social worker equivalent of that meeting cost. Makes the human cost tangible. | As-Is Meetings Analysis Report |
| 15 coachees | West Midlands Coaching Pool. 2 returned from burnout. 6 received promotions. | Coaching Testimonials 2025; ELD K4.2 |
| 31 → 13 referrals | 31 outstanding (27 May); 13 remaining for Shropshire Mental Health as of 2 June. Live Well Shropshire cleared. 10 June update: confirmed not requiring further action from Customer Services; 13 pending Shropshire Mental Health provider responses to residents. Confirm final count on 18 June. | SWANN updates 2 June; RAID log; Kate Hobbs |
| 73+ staff | Number engaged in the As-Is Meetings Mapping data collection. | Charlotte Saywell testimony; ELD K5.1 |
| £121m | Financial emergency declared by Shropshire Council, 2024. Context for the whole project. | Executive Summary; Proposal Section 1 |
| £390k | Illustrative annual cost avoidance from SWANN Phase 2. Calculation: 200 referrals/yr x 20% deflection = 40 escalations avoided. 40 x £750 assessment cost = £30k; 24 care packages avoided x £15k = £360k. Total: £390k. All inputs are ADASS/PSSRU proxies, labelled as such, not confirmed figures. | Cost Avoidance v0.1; Proposal Section 6 |
| £770k to £851k | Annual meeting costs identified across Children's Services in the As-Is Meetings Mapping project. | FFP Comms Update (Evidence 9); ELD K1.3 |
The question: "Which models or frameworks informed your approach?" Do not answer with tools (RAID log, sprint board). Answer with named theories. Then critique them.
| Decision Area | Theory to Name | One-line limitation to add |
|---|---|---|
| Change management | Lewin (unfreeze/change/refreeze) and Kotter (creating urgency, guiding coalition) | Both assume organisational control; real change in multi-agency context is messier than either model suggests. |
| Coaching | GROW model; non-directive, person-centred approach | Non-directive only works when coachee has sufficient readiness; had to shift to more directive scaffolding in burnout cases. |
| Financial analysis | Proxy costing with ADASS/PSSRU benchmarks | National averages, not Shropshire-specific; the model is illustrative until Phase 2 creates actuals. |
| Leadership | Situational Leadership (Hersey and Blanchard) | Assumes leader has authority to direct; in cross-functional work without line authority, requires influence to substitute for direction. |
| Options appraisal | Cost-benefit analysis with do-nothing baseline (Green Book) | Proportionate not exhaustive; no risk-adjusted cost estimates for each option. |
| Project management | Agile/Scrum: empirical process control (inspect and adapt) | Public sector procurement cycles do not align with sprint cadence; required adaptation not pure Scrum. |
| Stakeholder management | Mendelow's Power/Interest Matrix | Does not capture emotional investment or relationship history; supplemented with trust-building. |
Full detail cards with prepared sentences are in the Theory Map and Q&A file.
If asked "take me through your slide on the three decisions": use this table. Decision made, alternative rejected, why. That structure is itself a distinction answer.
| Decision area | Choice made | Alternative rejected | Why this choice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery method | Agile/sprint approach | Waterfall/traditional project plan | Requirements were emergent: the team could not specify the data governance model until they started mapping it. Agile allowed adaptation. Waterfall would have locked in the wrong solution early. |
| Referral channel | Microsoft Dynamics portal | Standalone form or spreadsheet | Dynamics integrates with existing council infrastructure so data flows rather than being re-entered. A standalone form would have replicated the Phase 1 problem: data captured but not connected to anything trackable. |
| Workstream structure | Concurrent workstreams | Sequential (one after another) | Sequential would have added 6 to 8 weeks. Concurrent required dependency management but delivered faster and allowed early learning from each stream to inform the others. |
Risk: The SWANN SPoR ToR v1.0 lists the Strategic Owner as TBC with a target confirmation date of 30 May 2026. The assessor has read this document. This question will be asked.
Risk: Confirmed at the 27 May SWANN partnership meeting. An assessor who has read the full portfolio may ask what is happening to those families right now.
The single most important distinction behaviour
After every answer, add one evaluative sentence: "What this showed me was..." or "The limitation of that approach was..." or "If I were doing this again, the thing I would change is..." That sentence is what separates a reflective practitioner from a competent one.
| When asked about... | Pass does this | Distinction does this |
|---|---|---|
| A decision | Describes what was decided and why | Names the criteria used, describes the alternatives rejected, identifies the cost accepted |
| A gap or weakness | Acknowledges it honestly | Acknowledges it, explains why it was accepted, describes the mitigation, names the residual risk |
| A piece of evidence | Describes what the document shows | Tells the story: context, action, outcome, learning |
| A theory or model | Names it and describes use | Names it, describes use, then critiques its limitation in this specific context |
| Own development | Identifies a learning or gap | Identifies the learning, describes how practice changed, provides external evidence the change was observable |
| Stakeholder challenge | Describes the stakeholder and the challenge | Describes the power dynamic, the emotional component, the approach and why that approach, the outcome, and what would be done differently |
When asked about coaching (K4.2, S4.2): 15 coachees, West Midlands Coaching Pool, 5+ years voluntary, 2 returned from burnout, 6 promotions. External validation from Shanda Reid (independent of Shropshire Council). Level 5 coaching qualification. CPD: systemic coaching, wellbeing, career transitions. Theory used: GROW model, non-directive, person-centred.
FFP Comms Update (Evidence 9): Director Shaw committed to reviewing his own meeting attendance. HWBB adopted the methodology cross-organisationally. Charlotte Saywell: "Great piece of work David." No line authority over Director, AD or Programme Manager. Data did the influencing, not seniority.
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| All three reference files open in browser tabs | Evidence Locator, Witness Testimonies, Theory Map and Q&A |
| EPA presentation slides open and presenting ready | Presenter view on if using two screens; notes visible to you only |
| Google Meet tested; screen sharing confirmed working | Test with slides on one screen, reference files on the other if two screens available |
| Governance gap answers filled in | Strategic owner confirmed name and date; referral count confirmed with Kate Hobbs (was 13 for Shropshire Mental Health as of 2 June) |
| Lisa Middleton confirmation status checked | Know the current status of the five outstanding questions for the cost avoidance model |
In-session confirmations below. Tick each item after you have done it, not before. These are retrospective checks, not preparation tasks.
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Opened with the Golden Thread sentence | Say it in the first two minutes. It anchors everything that follows. |
| Named at least two management theories during the presentation | Mendelow, Agile/Scrum, situational leadership, Lewin/Kotter: name them, don't just describe the behaviour |
| Covered Slide 3 (three decisions) with rationale for each choice | Concurrent vs sequential, sprint vs waterfall, Dynamics portal vs standalone form. This is your strongest slide. |
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Wrote keywords for each question before answering | Matt Newton's tip: jot the keywords, find the KSB in the ELD, then speak |
| Named at least one theory per answer | If no obvious theory, name the decision criteria used instead |
| Added an evaluation sentence after each answer | "What this showed me was..." or "The limitation of that approach was..." |
| Used confirmed figures confidently (£770k to £851k, £390k, 15 coachees) | Acknowledged proxy nature of £390k; did not present it as a confirmed forecast |
| Answered the strategic owner and referral position questions with current data | Used the prepared answer frameworks from Section 4 of this hub |
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Referenced ELD KSB groups as a navigation framework for answers | KSB codes give structure to your answers; use them explicitly |
| Named witness testimonies individually by person and context | Not "my witnesses said..." but "Charlotte Saywell, in her October 2025 testimony on the Community and Family Hub programme, specifically noted..." |
| Surfaced the FFP Comms Update as the influencing without authority example | Evidence 9. Director Shaw's commitment. No line authority. Data did the influencing. |
| Used coaching outcomes with specific numbers when asked about K4.2/S4.2 | 15 coachees, 2 burnout returns, 6 promotions. Shanda Reid as external witness. |
| Closed with a reflection on own development journey | Steve Humphrey quote: "moving from operational to strategic viewpoint." Anti-racism forum as values-in-action. |