INSTITUTE NEWS


Apprenticeship route for next President-Elect


Simon Adamson, a highly experienced estates and facilities professional with a Masters in Building Services, who began his career as a multi- craft engineering apprentice in 2001, and is today Director of Estates, Facilities & Capital, at Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust, has been announced as IHEEM’s next President-Elect and Council Vice-Chair.


Simon is one of a number of healthcare engineering personnel to have risen to a senior role in the profession in the NHS who undertook his apprentice training under the auspices of the Northern and Yorkshire NHS Assessment Centre, his first full-time job having been as a multi-craft engineering apprentice with County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust. His mother spotted the advertisement for an apprentice in the Northern Echo newspaper, alerted him to it, he applied, and got the job. The engineering apprenticeship was the start of a 25-year career which has seen him hold a number of senior healthcare engineering and EFM roles at Trusts in Yorkshire and the north-east of England. These have included Maintenance Craftsman and Specialist Services Technician at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, Estates Officer and AP (Low Voltage, Decontamination, and Medical Gas Pipeline Systems) and RP (Water Systems) at the same Trust, Estates Manager and Acting Head of Estates at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, and Estates and Facilities Projects and Compliance Engineer, and later Head of Estates, at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In August 2019 he switched from the acute to the mental healthcare arena, taking a job as Deputy Director of Estates & Facilities at Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust, before moving to his current role at another mental healthcare Trust, Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, in April 2022. A member of IHEEM for over two decades, Simon became a Fellow of the Institute in 2017, and with encouragement from


CEO, Pete Sellars – who coached and mentored him for two years, has got increasingly involved in the organisation’s activities over the last 6-7 years, as a member of the Conference Committee, and of Council, and as Chair of IHEEM’s Yorkshire Branch. He first discussed serving as the next IHEEM President during a phone call with Pete Sellars in the early summer of 2024. He said: “I was honoured and initially surprised to be asked if I’d be interested, with a view to succeeding Nigel Kerry in late 2026, but, after checking with my employer that it felt I would be able to spare the time, and having been given the go-ahead, I was delighted to accept.


Interest in ‘what makes things tick’


“I’ve always been interested in engineering, and indeed, literally in some cases, in ‘what makes things tick’, but when my mother spotted the job advertisement for an apprentice healthcare engineer, I had never at that stage given much thought to hospital engineering, and had little idea of what such a role would entail. It was, however, the start of a fulfilling career, but one where I owe a great deal to the people who have supported me both professionally and personally along the way. “One notable such individual was Ian Darby, when I first met him a mechanical fitter at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, and with whom I worked closely for over two years on joining. He was a great mentor, inspired me with his knowledge, taught me much, and became a good friend; he and I remain in regular touch. “While doing my apprenticeship, and subsequently, I gained both an ONC in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and an HNC in Building Services Engineering, and later in my career took the opportunity to further expand my knowledge and gain additional qualifications by undertaking a Master’s Degree in the subject. “I find the wide range of people you meet in an engineering career among the most satisfying aspects, and indeed I have


INSTITUTE NEWS


Simon Adamson, a highly experienced estates and facilities professional with a Masters in Building Services, has been announced as IHEEM’s next President-Elect and Council Vice-Chair.


benefited considerably from IHEEM membership – especially from the networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities this affords. “One notable aspect of working in a healthcare engineering role in the mental healthcare arena is that while in an acute or district hospital the aim is to get the patient treated, recovered, and discharged as quickly as possible, our service-users often stay with us considerably longer – meaning the quality of the care setting arguably assumes even greater importance. Seeing the care my mother received from the NHS when she had cancer in my late teens only strengthened my motivation and commitment to the service, and I like to think that in our profession we play a hugely important part in optimising the patient and staff experience. “Two of my biggest beliefs,” he continued, “are that we need to do even more to get into schools and colleges and really ‘sell’ the benefits of a career in the profession, not just to boys, but equally to girls. Females are still very underrepresented in healthcare engineering and estate management, despite all the work completed and ongoing to address the gender imbalance.


More recognition at Board level


“I’m also keen to see that the importance of what we do, and the impact good healthcare buildings can have, are better recognised by Trust Boards. During


the pandemic, clinical teams and Trusts’ higher echelons came to rely on us more than ever, which I think helped raise the profile of healthcare engineers and estates management personnel at Board level. Since then, however, perhaps we’ve slipped back down the agenda a little, so one of my long-term ambitions is to get onto a Trust Board as an executive director, where I can then ensure that the positive impact of healthcare engineering teams gets the recognition they deserve. “There are areas too where the profession lacks leadership skills, and I would like to help address this. I completed the NHS Leadership Academy ‘Nye Bevan’ programme for aspiring executives in 2022. In my experience, dealing with personal and ‘cultural’ differences with your work colleagues can provide valuable learnings, and make one a better leader. I’m also keen for more attention be given to the workforce’s mental health in what is still a largely male-dominated field. Men are often reluctant to discuss their mental health, and I know the value that supportive colleagues and managers can have here.


“I was very pleased, and quite proud, to learn that I was being proposed as the next IHEEM President-Elect, and although it will be almost two years before I take over from Nigel, am looking forward to the chance to bring some of my own experience, knowledge, and priorities for the profession, to the role.”


February 2025 Health Estate Journal 7


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