Excess stock available to NHS E&F teams
NHS England has excess stock held centrally that NHS Trusts are entitled to have for free, helping to save money and resources. There is a range of items available, including consumables (e.g. paper towels), white goods (e.g. fridges), furniture (hospital beds) and equipment (e.g. infusion pumps).
All stock is available to order for free via the Innova Care Concept online portal on a first come, first served basis. NHS staff are welcome to visit the warehouse and review the stock. To arrange a visit and if you have any further questions, please e-mail: [email protected]. More details are available on the NHS Estates Collaboration Hub.
Building Blocks for Health
‘Building for Health’ was published on the NHS England website on February 2, 2023. This provides practical information for estates and facilities managers to understand their role in reducing health inequalities and inspire action in 10 key areas. There is also a blog from Simon Corben which explains how the NHS estate can help reduce health inequalities. This project has been led by NHS England’s Health Inequalities team with significant input from estates colleagues and stakeholders.
There is also a post on our LinkedIn page and we will be posting further details over the coming days. Please feel free to like and/or reshare these posts from your own accounts.
Safe use of oxygen cylinders
Guidance has recently been issued by NHS England on the safe use of oxygen cylinders: NHS Estates Collaboration Hub
This reiterates current best practice in the use of oxygen gas cylinders and asks organisations to undertake a risk assessment of all acute clinical areas where patients are treated without immediate access to medical gas pipeline systems, and oxygen cylinders are required.
ERIC 2022/23 – data submission
A change to some of the ERIC data submission dates has been announced in advance of the launch of the 2022/23 ERIC collection. The energy and waste management data will need to be submitted during the week commencing May 1 to allow additional time for review and validation. The collection period will run from April to June as in previous years.
It should also be noted that, while anyone can enter the data, it can only be committed/submitted by the Director of E&F (or another nominated SRO for the purposes of A/L etc). A letter from Simon Corben explaining the changes can be found on the NHS Estates Collaboration Hub.
National Estates and Facilities Uniform Project – Staff Survey (now closed)
The National Estates and Facilities Uniform Survey has now closed. 3,179 responses were received from estates and facilities staff and we would like to thank those colleagues who completed the survey as well as their managers for their support. The data will now be analysed with the findings expected to be published in the near future.
NHS England’s Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance
NHS England’s 2023/24 priorities and operational planning guidance was published on December 23, 2022. The guidance reconfirms the ongoing need to recover core services and improve productivity, making progress in delivering the key NHS Long Term Plan ambitions and continuing to transform the NHS for the future.
Reusable catering consumables: How to Guide for NHS Trusts
Following the government announcement that single use plastics, including plastic cutlery, plates and polystyrene trays will be banned from October 2023, the catering consumables ‘how-to guide’, accessible via the NHS Estates Collaboration Hub, outlines some easy steps that Trusts can take to switch to reusable catering consumables. A switch from single-use sets to a reusable type could save the average NHS hospital 50-100 tonnes CO2e a year, equivalent to around 185,000 car miles, and £30k a year.
Emergency Department pressures: ideas and suggestions
We are still keen to hear from E&F teams which have successfully introduced new and innovative practices, large or small, to help relieve pressures in Emergency Departments. We would like to share these via the NHS Estates Collaboration Hub to benefit our wider NHS E&F community. You can get in touch by e-mailing: [email protected] marked for the attention of John Showalter.
The E&F Team at the University Hospitals Dorset FT has been in touch recently about its ‘housekeeping robot’. The FT has purchased a second robot cleaner costing around £30k following a successful trial. The robot automatically cleans the main hospital corridors, while releasing cleaning staff to focus on corners and clinical areas. You will be able to read more about this on the NHS Estates Collaboration Hub soon.
National Apprenticeship Week
We are getting ready for National Apprenticeships Week (February 6-12, 2023) and would love to hear from you about any fantastic E&F apprentices you have working in your organisation who we could profile on our LinkedIn account and other channels during the week. Please get in touch with [email protected] if you would like to find out more or put yourself or another colleague forward.
The organisation Amazing Apprenticeships has launched a set of resources to support employers to plan events and communications in the run up and throughout National Apprenticeship Week.
Recruitment Lunch and Learn Session: Royal Devon and Exeter FT
Would you like to know how to attract a larger number of candidates and recruit the best talent to your estates and facilities roles and fill them in good time?
If so, please come along to a bespoke NHS estates and facilities recruitment ‘lunch and learn’ session. This is taking place on February 16 at 1:30pm and will last for approximately 30 minutes via an online session (Microsoft Teams). Register now.
The session will discuss:
• Real life experience of the Indeed recruitment platform by Darren Shepherd from Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust and Aimee Duffy from Indeed,
• How to elevate visibility of your roles - Carla Wakeham, Indeed
• Q&A.
Join the National EFM Workforce Engagement Forum
We had a record number of attendees at January’s Workforce Engagement Forum (WEF), with around 100 estates and facilities managers, HR specialists and partner organisations joining us to discuss how we overcome current recruitment challenges. The next WEF is on Thursday, March 2 at 1pm when we will be focusing on the national uniform project and our employer brand. E-mail: [email protected] to be added to the meeting invitation list and look out for our 2023/2024 WEF programme and in the meantime please save the following dates:
• March 2, 2023
• June 8, 2023
• September 7, 2023
• December 7, 2023
• March 7, 2024
All of these meetings start at 1pm.
National Webinars
Please note the following dates in your diaries:
• February 23 – Waste Management,
• March 9 – Hospital Helipad Landing Sites,
• March 30 – Apprenticeship Challenge (One Year On),
• April 27 – Public Switched Telephone Network: Service Closure,
• May 25 – Medical Gases Pipeline Services.
These sessions are run by members of the national Estates and Facilities team. The webinar links and joining instructions will be sent to all listed E&F contacts in due course. NHS staff who are not on our contacts list and would like to attend these sessions should e-mail: [email protected] marked for the attention of Tom McHugh and John Showalter to request an invitation. These sessions will take place from 11am until 12:30pm.
The recordings from the national webinars which have taken place to date are all available from the NHS Estates Collaboration Hub. This includes the most recent webinar on the 2021/22 ERIC from January 26.
NHS Estates and Facilities contact e-mail addresses
The e-mail addresses for both the National Estates and Facilities Team and the NHS Estates Collaboration Hub are:
• [email protected] and
NHS Estates and Facilities – Monthly Bulletin
The last Bulletin was issued on January 31. The bulletin provides updates directly from NHS England’s NHS 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. The next edition is expected to be issued in the week commencing February 27.
NHS Estates 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 masterclasses to help registered members understand and navigate the Hub more effectively. If you are interested in attending one of these sessions then please e-mail the above mailbox.
If your e-mail address has changed (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.
You can also follow our latest news and updates on the NHS Estates and Facilities LinkedIn page.
