COMPLIANCE
How SFG20 streamlines maintenance activity
In this ‘Q&A’-style article, James Weber, Marketing manager at SFG20, the UK industry standard for building maintenance, talks to Mathew Houghton, IT lead for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, to understand how – as the latter puts it – he got back an entire working day per week of time savings using SFG20 content and software.
There are over 100 SFG20 specialist healthcare schedules, which have been built taking into account the requirements of the Health Technical Memoranda (HTMs).
For those that may not be familiar with SFG20, it is the industry standard for building maintenance specification, with an extensive library of schedules covering more than 70 different asset types, plus the fabric of the building itself. It was created in 1990 in response to the need for a standard that would drive legal compliance, and is used by organisations in a wide range of sectors – including healthcare, education, government, retail, residential, and many more – to ensure safe, legal and competent building maintenance. The system enables users to access asset- specific compliant maintenance schedules that ‘plug into’ their maintenance plans or Computer- Aided Facility Management system. These maintenance schedules can be used to considerably shortcut the research part of drafting compliant Planned Preventative Maintenance schedules. Each schedule comprises asset- specific tasks that instruct the user on what action to take, when to do it, how long each task is likely to take, and the skillset required to carry out each job. Users simply need to upload their asset register into SFG20’s software solution, Facilities- iQ, and the software then maps the relevant maintenance schedules to their assets. The resulting maintenance plan
is then extracted to their CAFM via an API (Application Programming Interface) that provides a seamless data exchange, consolidating their workflow down into a single software solution.
What is the scope of the SFG20 standard?
n Air-conditioning/handling units. n Building fabric/access equipment and lifts. n Boilers, burners, and heat generators. n Catering, chillers, cold rooms, and food storage. n Ducting, fans, and filters. n Fire alarm systems. n Heat emitters, exchangers, and rejection systems. n Hot and cold water services and pipework. n Power generators, supplies, and pumps. n Vacuum systems, valves, and ventilation.
62 Health Estate Journal May 2025
Real-life example of the in-use benefits To illustrate the in-use benefits that, say, an NHS Trust user of SFG20 can gain, I recently spoke to Mathew Houghton, IT lead for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, about his own experience.
James Weber (JW): “It would be great if you could start off by telling me a little more about you and the estate you manage, Mathew.” Mathew Houghton (MH): “Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest providers of integrated hospital and community- based healthcare. We provide a comprehensive range of local and tertiary services to the residents of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, Mid Yorkshire, and North Derbyshire, alongside some highly specialist services to all parts of England. “As the IT lead for the Trust, I’m in charge of the
CAFM system used to manage maintenance workflows for the Trust’s estates, which include the Northern General Hospital, the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, the Jessop Wing (Maternity facility), the Weston Park Cancer Centre, and the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital. I maintain the actual system to keep people scheduled. This includes daily activities, PPMs, unplanned maintenance, and reactive works etc.”
JW: “A sizeable estate then. How did the Trust keep on top of its maintenance responsibilities prior to adopting SFG20?” MH: “We were doing our best, but keeping abreast of all the latest technical updates, and of information about how all the various elements are maintained – assets, buildings, and the estate essentially, was proving difficult. Many people went off at a tangent dealing with their own particular asset ‘in silos’, rather than having one central repository of all that information, which is what SFG20 provides. “We had an old system that was heavily paper-based, but clearly, we live in the digital age now, so when I joined the Trust in 2018, I quickly realised that the system was lacking in many of the features that modern organisations really need to be working with. That started the journey to getting a CAFM system, but when I was asked to keep up with legislation as well, I knew I couldn’t do it all myself; that’s a full-time job. “Rather than pay someone to keep on top of all
those HTMs, HBNs, and legislation etc, I thought there must be solutions out there which provide that service at a fraction of the cost that you would pay someone full-time. I thus embarked on some research around this – and that’s where the journey started that led me to SFG20 ultimately. It’s BESA (the Building Engineering Services Association) backed, and the industry standard; that’s what I saw it as. From my research, it seemed to be the product to go to.”
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