Head of Human Resources and Business Services, South Wales Police.

WINNER: Team Leader.

South Wales Police is the largest force in Wales, with 5,000 staff serving a diverse community of over 1.5m people.

Amanda has been with South Wales police for over 25 years, starting out as an administrative assistant and working her way up to become head of her department, completing qualifications alongside full time work.

Amanda is an inspiration to members of staff new and old, she is a charismatic leader who ensures that her colleagues reach their full potential. A key part of her work ethic is to always treat people with the utmost respect and dignity and value every person?s contributions. Amanda puts this approach into practice by always finding time for people, no matter how busy she is.

After two key personnel left her department, Amanda stepped in and ensured the strategic direction of the department was maintained, whilst continuing a personal involvement with her staff and always supporting them.

Amanda leads by example, and would take on any activity she would be happy to do herself. She promotes flexibility and inclusiveness to get the best out of people.

One of Amanda?s key strengths is her ability to take strategic policies down to a common sense level, allowing everyone in an organisation to be involved and work together to achieve the organisation?s goal. She works hard to enable people to understand where they fit into the organisation?s strategy and make everyone feel like an important team member.

Amanda empowers her work force, making them feel involved and showing that their contribution is valuable. She makes work fun for people and gives them the confidence to see how they can contribute to the organisation as a whole.