Importance of an able, adaptable workforce

Speaking in a first day keynote, Simon Corben, director and head of Profession, NHS Estates & Facilities, at NHS England and NHSI Improvement (NHSE/NHSI), highlighted the important contribution that both well-maintained and adequately financially resourced healthcare buildings, and a skilled and flexible Estates and Facilities workforce ready and willing to learn new skills, can make to the continuing provision of first-class 21st-century care. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.

Beginning his presentation, Simon Corben thanked IHEEM and its Conference Committee for inviting him to speak at a conference which – from the agenda – he believed looked ‘packed full of excellent and highly topical content’. Much of it would, he believed, ‘tie in well’ with the subject of his presentation, ‘Raising the profile – the importance of the estate and the staff who run it’. He told the audience: “I’d like to start by saying a little bit about the team we have at NHS England and NHS Improvement. Since taking on my current role just over two years ago, I have looked to bring together services across NHS England, NHSI, the Department of Health, and the wider property companies, to create a single focus for those out working in the system to understand where they can get support on estate issues.” Achieving this had, he said, been ‘helped tremendously’ by the merging of NHSE and NHSI; here Simon Corben put up a slide (see Fig 1) which showed the organisational structure of the NHSE/NHSI Estates Team, and the core areas on which the team had a national focus. He explained: “These are split between ‘Strategy’ – where we incubate new ideas, and focus particularly on primary and mental healthcare, ‘Operations’, ‘Capital’, ‘Commercial’, ‘Policy’, ‘Sustainability’, and Workforce.  These national priority areas are then addressed through our regional and local delivery teams.”

The importance of the workforce