The varying routes to registration highlighted

October's Healthcare Estates 2024 conference in Manchester saw some topical, thought-provoking, and insightful conference presentations from NHS leaders, academics, and industry experts, with the broad-ranging content touching on some of the biggest challenges and opportunities for the healthcare engineering and estates and facilities management community, and the associated professionals working in the design and construction of, and supply to, such buildings.

The Day One opening keynote session, on one of the key conference themes — Governance, Assurance & Compliance — was chaired by IHEEM CEO, Pete Sellars, who told delegates: "IHEEM is an engineering institute, but until today we've never had a keynote session actually dealing with the focus of engineering. For this opening keynote we have three fantastic speakers — Dr Hilary Leevers, Chief Executive of EngineeringUK, Professor John Chudley, Chair of the Engineering Council, and Simon Corben, head of Profession for NHS Estates & Facilities at NHS England."

Dr Leevers, the first to speak, explained that EngineeringUK — a not-for-profit organisation which works to 'drive change so more young people choose engineering and technology' — had been working closely with IHEEM over the last year, and said it was 'an absolute pleasure' to be able to present at the event. She said: "I'm going to focus on the engineering workforce — an absolutely necessary part of what you all do." Dr Leevers explained that she would cover four key elements — Understanding the ('wider engineering') workforce needs, 'What's happening in skills policy — particularly with a new government', 'What EngineeringUK does to help with the skills agenda', and 'How you can get involved'.