Below are this week’s key messages from the national NHS Estates & Facilities Team. Please email any questions or comments you have on any of these items to: [email protected] or follow the links where provided.
NHS Chef 2021
Congratulations to Sanish Thomas & Sinto Mulavarickal from the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust who were announced as the winners of NHS Chef 2021. Following hotly contested regional heats and a national final competing against six other teams of chefs, Sinto and Sanish were awarded the accolade by judges including Prue Leith, advisor to the NHS Food Review, and Phil Shelley, its chair.
Their final menu comprised vegetable samosa with tamarind chutney; roulade of seabass with bouillabaisse; stuffed duck breast with duchess potatoes, braised red cabbage and orange sauce; and their take on the classic sticky toffee pudding.
Chefs from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn came second, and the team from Royal Devon and Exeter came in third place. Congratulations to all the chefs who reached the finals.
Looking After You Too: Coaching support for BAME staff working in the NHS
One to one wellbeing coaching support is available for BAME colleagues in the NHS workforce. Talking to a trained coach can help you process experiences you may be facing, develop coping skills and develop practical strategies to manage situations and maintain your health and wellbeing. All coaching sessions are free and confidential – details will never be shared with employers. Please use this link to book a session.
Greater Manchester NHS Careers Hub
The Greater Manchester NHS Careers Hub exists to support people from Greater Manchester who are looking for a career in the NHS. They are looking to recruit more ambassadors to help create a bigger bank of expertise and experience as well as to collaborate further across the region.
They are looking for anyone from apprentice to director who works in estates and facilities in Greater Manchester to share information, insights and experience with local young people.
If you would like to sign up or find out more then please get in touch at: [email protected] and for more information on the Careers Hub visit: GM Health & Social Care Careers Hub (gmcareershub.nhs.uk).
SRCL Addition (COVID-19) Waste Management Costs
The NHS Estates and Facilities Team at NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE/I) shared some guidance previously in respect of the types of costs for which suppliers could seek to reclaim additional funding. One such cost was SRCL’s additional cost incurred as a result of increased COVID volumes to support the COVID-19 guidance issued by the Finance Team at NHSE/I.
We e-mailed the Directors of E&F on October 14 regarding additional waste management costs which SRCL incurred by having to procure additional capacity to treat the additional waste volumes. An FAQs document has recently been shared on the Collaboration Hub which might useful to estates and facilities teams.
Please check the NHS Estates Collaboration for further details. Any concerns about this should be sent to: [email protected] marked for the attention of Jo Dolby and Steve Lawley.
FSA Listeriosis Guidance Survey
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is reviewing its guidance, Reducing the Risk of Vulnerable Groups Contracting Listeriosis (2016). To help the FSA develop a picture of the implementation of the guidance in NHS hospitals in England, they are requesting that managers with responsibility for food safety complete an online survey. This is expected to be launched on November 22 and will run until December 17. The survey is for managers with responsibility for food safety in NHS hospital Trusts.
This review follows the listeriosis outbreak in 2019 which led to seven deaths, the corresponding Public Health England outbreak report and the Independent Review of Hospital Food. Local Authority food safety teams and other health and social settings are also being surveyed.
Park Active
Could Park Active help ease your hospital’s parking pressures?
Park Active enables hospital staff to park off-site and to travel safely on foot or bike to work. The British Parking Association is working with the National Estates and Facilities Team to select a series of pilot Park Active schemes to operate from this autumn.
These schemes will benefit from free consultancy advice to help broker off-site Park Active provision.
Please see the NHS Estates Collaboration Hub for further details, or contact either [email protected] or [email protected] marked for the attention of Gill Donachie.
Dates for National Webinars
Please note the dates for the national webinars which have been scheduled as follows:
• November 25 – Valuations and “Instructing” Valuations
• December 16 – 2020/21 ERIC
• January 27 – NHS Estates Facilities: Resilience
These will all take place at 11am. If you would like to attend any of these webinars then please contact: [email protected] or [email protected].
NHS Estates and Facilities Team – Monthly Bulletin
The second edition of the monthly Estates and Facilities newsletter was issued on November 5. This provides the latest updates directly from NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Estates and Facilities Team including the latest guidance, health technical memoranda and policy developments affecting your work, as well as celebrating the successes of the wider E&F community. NHS staff can register to receive future editions of the newsletter.
NHS England and NHS Improvement National Estates Team: Collaboration Hub
The Collaboration Hub is a protected space for local NHS estates and facilities teams to access key information as well as to collaborate and to share ideas and successes. Access to the Collaboration Hub for individuals from local NHS estates teams can be arranged by e-mailing: [email protected]
We have been arranging “overview and masterclasses” to help registered members understand and navigate the Hub more effectively. These have taken place on an ad hoc basis to date. However, following the very positive feedback we are now looking to formalise these on a more regular basis. If you are interested in attending one of these sessions (they last approximately 30 minutes) then please e-mail the above mailbox and Joy Heaps and Stuart Robinson will follow up directly.
If your e-mail address has changed over the past year (perhaps to .nhs.net), or you have moved to another NHS trust then please e-mail us with the details ([email protected]) so that we can update our records.
Thank You
Our thanks to all of those working in estates and facilities for all that you do in maintaining the NHS estate, facilitating patient care as well as supporting the ongoing response to COVID-19.
Please continue to stay safe and access the support material available on the Collaboration Hub. The service could not function without you.
