NATIONAL EFM POLICY AND STRATEGY
Pride and passion keep Head of Profession enthused
In six and a half years as Director and Head of Profession, NHS Estates, at NHS England, Simon Corben has faced some considerable challenges and a pretty full in-tray. To date his agenda has included directing the central NHSE Estates & Facilities team and the national EFM workforce in their rapid response to COVID-19, guiding the EFM workforce in delivering on Lord Carter’s Productivity programme, working with the New Hospital Programme team on England’s biggest hospital building programme yet, and revitalising the NHS standards and guidance programme. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, recently met up with him.
Simon Corben became Director and Head of Profession, NHS Estates, at NHS England, in April 2017, after 14 years in the private sector, where he advised the NHS, and grew and managed a team of property and clinical planning consultants and analysts. Immediately before joining the NHS he spent six years as Business Development Director and Sector Leader for Health at Capita Property and Infrastructure. He has an MSc Degree in Construction Project Management from London South Bank University, and – when we spoke by ‘Teams’ in mid- November – he explained that while his professional and educational background is centered around this field, he has become considerably more well-versed in engineering and facilities management as his career has progressed. One of the first things I wanted to
discuss was the current healthcare estate backlog, which (based on the latest ERIC returns), sits at over £10 bn. I asked how big a task addressing this is for the healthcare EFM workforce across England. He replied: “Its massive, and indeed the figure is so big now that people really can’t get their heads around it. We’ve thus spent significant time changing the narrative, shifting to a far more focused view around the impact of infrastructure failure, over and above simply ensuring that we’re meeting our obligations under the Health and Care Act in key areas such as fire, electrical, and water safety, and a clean, fit-for-purpose environment. The infrastructure failure we’re seeing can significantly disrupt our clinical
‘‘
Meeting Princess Anne at the opening of Eastwood Park’s new training facility in early April 2023.
services. Our stakeholders understand that, and articulating this is a really important message. You’ll now hear me talk considerably more about this than about backlog maintenance per se.”
Burst pipes and electrical burn-outs Simon Corben acknowledged that while RAAC concrete was among the more high-profile current issues for England’s EFM workforce, Estates and Facilities teams were often faced with more immediate, unexpected scenarios requiring a rapid response – for instance pipes bursting and leaking into ward or theatre, which could see clinical services interrupted, with significant disruption to
I’m really fortunate to have an amazing workforce that rolls up its sleeves and sorts problems out. It’s phenomenal how they’re able to do it so quickly… I believe we should be showcasing the brilliant work NHS EFM teams do – because that will result in greater levels of investment
the hospital concerned. He said: “In the past two years we have had over 12,000 recorded incidents where infrastructure failure has stopped clinical services. We now have tools to enable logging of incidents, and to collect data on such events in the ERIC returns. “I’m really fortunate,” he added, “to
have an amazing workforce that rolls up its sleeves and sorts problems out. It’s phenomenal how they’re able to do it so quickly. What we need to get better at is not hiding this work, but instead celebrating and quantifying it. Otherwise, EFM teams do the work, and then don’t want to talk about it. I believe we should be showcasing the brilliant work NHS EFM teams do – because that will result in greater levels of investment.” With the New Hospital Programme now
Simon Corben
often in the news, I asked about the major gains – alongside the clinical and patient benefits to the communities impacted – in terms of learnings for future hospital design and construction. Simon Corben said: “The Programme is unprecedented in size and scale – to know that we’re putting this level of investment into this number
January 2024 Health Estate Journal 39
Courtesy of NHS England
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88
