Achieving a better gender balance in healthcare FM

The fundamental role of the NHS is to provide care for our population, to help maintain good health. This selfless drive to care for others is what motivates most NHS staff to come to work each day. The staff at NHS Property Services (NHSPS) – a government-owned company that manages approximately 12% of the NHS estate – are no different. We work closely with our partners to create safe, efficient, sustainable, and modern healthcare environments, so that every patient can get the care they need in the best place for them. We are proud that the work we do enables our medical colleagues to deliver excellent care for patients. 

To deliver this, we must ensure the good health of our own organisation. As head of People Transformation and Culture at NHSPS – an organisation comprising almost 6,000 people – I know that our colleagues are our most important asset. Managing a disparate workforce across 7,000 properties comes with many challenges, so it is important that we find ways to bring people together and ensure that we have an inclusive culture. One of the ways we have done this, for example, is through introducing Yammer, a corporate social network, to better connect and inform our workforce. It is the nature of our teams that drove the launch of our People Strategy in June 2020 to ‘get, grow and keep great people’, which aligns with the NHS 2022/2023 priorities on workforce investment, and includes strengthening the compassionate and inclusive culture needed to deliver outstanding care

‘Fine-tuning our diversity approach’