Actions to boost recruitment and retention set out

Senior estates and facilities staff from the NHS Estates and Facilities Efficiency and Productivity Division at NHSI led the formulation of, and chaired, a well-attended ‘Workforce planning’ seminar at The Studio in Birmingham in April. The event brought together senior healthcare estates personnel from over 30 NHS Trusts, and representatives of IHEEM, HefmA, and IPEM, to discuss some of the key succession and skills gap issues facing the healthcare engineering and estate management sector.

The ‘Workforce Planning’ event was attended on IHEEM’s behalf by the President, Pete Sellars, and CEO, Julian Amey. The latter commented afterwards: “Demographics in this sector – whose personnel play such a key role in the smooth day-to-day today running and maintenance of healthcare facilities – show that experienced estates staff at all levels are retiring faster than they can be replaced. Urgent action is needed now to establish reliable data on the current situation, and the needs of the sector over the next 5, 10, and 20 years. Alongside this, alliances need to be established with course providers to draw up curricula for the programmes needed. 

orth East of England and now run by Eileen Bayles – who was among the speakers – was seen by delegates as a valuable template, which can potentially be replicated in other regions, and discussions took place on how to bid for funding linked to the Apprentice Levy. The outcomes of the day’s discussions will be taken forward in a number of workstreams.”