At the prestigious annual award ceremony, held last night (May 10) at the Cotswold Water Park, the winners of HEFMA's 2018 awards were announced.
The ceremony was hosted by Forum Chair, Peter Hancock.
Efficiency & Improvement Award
Alison McCree, Managing Director of CDD Services
CDD Services is an Operated Healthcare Facility (OHF) set up to provide estates, facilities and procurement services to County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust via a Managed Service Contract (MSC) through a wholly owned subsidiary.
CDD Services pushed the model to a further level and established a partnership arrangement with another OHF to maximise efficiencies, meeting the requirements of the Carter report to review and transform in-house services to reduce back office costs.
This OHF has been fully operational for just over one year and already the efficiency benefits are being seen across many platforms, including individual and team productivity, procurement, flexibility, rationalisation of products, removing duplication, economies of scale, developing trading opportunities and new ways of working. The efficiencies will be demonstrated year-on-year in ERIC/Carter metrics.
The Estates, Facilities and Procurement teams have embraced the changes and positively stepped up into their new roles and responsibilities, which include running services on a more commercial basis with a focus on increasing value, whilst ensuring transparency and accountability through a robust performance frameworks.
Other finalists in this category:
Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust for the £14.8m Hospital Energy Project
The Freeman Hospital (Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) for improved sustainability within the catering department
West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust for the development of a smartphone app by the catering department.
Individual Development Award
Hannah Sharland, West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
Hannah Sharland is a Project Manager who has taken responsibility for several significant, high value projects at the Trust, the most recent being a £9.5m scheme to relocate the Trust's sterile services department.
In the last five years she has completed a Foundation Degree, followed by a Construction Management Degree with First Class Honours, both at University College Suffolk (UCS). Her dissertation, for which she was marked a First with 95%, focused on why projects fail in the NHS. It was singled out for praise by UCS and she won the Purcell Award, which recognises excellence in the form of a written piece of work prepared by a student. Whilst studying she was working 30 hours a week and had two young children - her son was just five months old when she started the Foundation Degree.
Since her studies completed, Sharland has continued to progress her own development, successfully completing an Asbestos P405 qualification that focuses on the management of asbestos in buildings. Her next challenge is to work towards a chartership in construction management.
Other finalists in this category:
Gillian Grimes, Facilities Co-Ordinator, Bradford District Care Foundation Trust
Mark Turner, Head of Portering & Security, CHoiCE Limited at City Hospitals Sunderland
Ellie Rodger, Estates & Facilities Project Officer, Northern Lincolnshire & Goole NHS Foundation Trust
Leader of the Year
Alison McCree, Managing Director, CDD Services
Alison McCree joined the NHS as a National Trainee Chef and has over 33 years' experience in NHS catering and Estates and Facilities Management. As Managing Director of CDD Services she has overall responsibility for the leadership of 650 staff with a budget of £50 million, delivering a range of estates, facilities and procurement services across eight hospital sites and a large number of healthcare premises.
The TUPE transfer of over 650 staff was a significant challenge but through Alison McCree's strong leadership it was seamless for individual staff, patients, visitors and external customers.
She has a clear vision for the delivery of services and believes and has demonstrated that it is essential to support, develop and nurture staff as they are the most significant and precious resource, as well as the key to safer, better and more reliable care for patients. She also recognises that staff development and support needs to be backed up with clear and strong accountability and performance management arrangement at all levels.
Other finalists in this category:
Paul Fitzpatrick, Director of Estates & Facilities, Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Tracey Battison, Head of Estates, Liverpool Community Health
People Development
In-house Facilities Team, Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
This team set out to ensure that their workforce develops in such a way that recognises and embraces the varied challenges of providing support services within a NHS mental health environment, whilst ensuring a dedicated, proactive and knowledgeable facilities team.
They re-evaluated their approach to staff training and development and produced a long term plan, with accredited FM qualifications and detail of how and when training would be delivered. The search for a location to deliver courses including BICSc (British Institute of Cleaning Science), CIEH Food Hygiene training, Health and Safety and COSSH training and Water Management training led to the creation of the Training Hub, located at The Barberry in Edgbaston.
The Training Hub was opened in May 2017 and the flexibility of the training programmes delivered has been rated by both external inspectors and Trust teams as a unique model demonstrating best practice within a very limited budget.
Other finalists in this category:
CDD Services
Project of the Year
Donna Jones, The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust
Between May and July 2013, Rotherham CCG opened up proposals for urgent and emergency care services to a public consultation. Patients told them that the existing system was confusing and asked for one place where they could go to if they had an urgent/emergency care need.
The CCG, in conjunction with the Foundation Trust, responded with an ambitious four year transformational programme, the planning of which was been clinically led, evidence based and put the patient first, ensuring they get the right care, first time.
The programme set out a vision for a sustainable urgent care system in Rotherham that would transform how patients receive urgent and emergency care.
It involved the construction of a two storey extension and major refurbishment of the old ED department, attended by some 280-300 patients every day (it is designed to accommodate 400 patients daily).
The success of the scheme is due to the close relationship within the project team, which saw clinicians, managers, Estates and Facilities and the main contractor work together, setting aside one day per week, for four years. Strong leadership on all sides was necessary to deliver such a successful outcome.
Other finalists in this category:
West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust for the design and build of Quince House to relocate the Trust's Sterile Services Department
CDD Services for developing and implementing the Operated Healthcare Facility
Oxford University for the Hospital Energy Project
Team of the Year
CDD Services
Working to establish the wholly owned subsidiary company has made for a challenging 18 months for this team, but they continued to take great pride in delivering a number of service improvements which support the Trust's objectives in improving services to patients, visitors and staff.
Several service improvements have been introduced, the most significant being the introduction of an electronic patient meal ordering system and the establishment of a procurement inventory management team.
Other finalists in this category:
Rotherham, Doncaster & South Humber NHS Foundation Trust for introducing changes to improve quality, safety and efficiency to benefit patients, staff and carers
Derbyshire Community Health Service NHS Foundation Trust for the Estate's agile working initiative
