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DIVERSITY & INCLUSION IN THE WORKFORCE Thirty years in the NHS


Duane Passman, director of Redevelopment for Brighton’s Royal Sussex County Hospital, has worked in the NHS on major infrastructure programmes and projects for over 30 years, and has a degree in Astrophysics. Finally, Lizzie Gibbons is a Project Delivery specialist at Bedford- based service and asset management software specialist, Aeromark. Leaving school with GCSEs, she began her career at Leonardo MW, where she undertook a four-year electronic engineering apprenticeship, graduating last August. At Aeromark, one of her main responsibilities is top-level coding. With the introductions over, Kim Shelley ‘set the scene’ with some data on women in engineering, based on her Healthcare Estates 2019 presentation, ‘Turning negatives into positives’. She said: “2018 data from Engineering UK suggests that just 12 per cent of UK engineers are female, unchanged from last year. This is an improvement compared with a decade ago, but nothing like the increase we would have liked, particularly given that the sector target is for 30 per cent of the UK engineering workforce to be female by 2030. One NHS Trust I know of, that has just introduced an apprentice scheme, had just five people apply to its first advertisement, for six roles. All five secured an apprenticeship, and the one female opted for mechanical engineering. When previously asked why females wouldn’t consider electrical engineering, the response was: ‘The maths is too difficult’.”


Maths across all engineering training Trish Marchant said: “It’s interesting that somehow people think mechanical engineering has no maths in it. I undertook the HTM HVAC course, and looking, for example, at psychometric charts and all the other stuff you study, the content in ventilation, mechanical, and electrical training is very similar. People think electrical engineering is all about the maths, but all engineering has elements of maths, and you are taught how and what maths you need to use – especially as an apprentice.”


Kim Shelley said at this point – by way of broader comment on the fact that engineering still appears largely male- dominated: “We know of one company that has so far this year trained over 120 electrical engineers, with not a single female among them.” This was, she explained, among the findings in an EqualEngineers study, Masculinity In Engineering, published in October 2019, which found that less than a third of the engineers questioned believed the culture they worked in was ‘diverse’.


The ‘starting a family’ question Kim Shelley suggested here that the panel move to consider some of the questions


26 Health Estate Journal January 2020


Pictured, left to right, at the IHEEM 2019 Awards Dinner in Manchester are: Suzie Mertes, Police Scotland; Ashley Dunsmore, Kier Construction; Lizzie Gibbons, Aeromark; Kim Shelley, Eta Projects; Dr Manju Patel, NHS Grampian, and chair of the IHEEM Diversity & Inclusion Group; Claire Hennessy, Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust, and Trish Marchant, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.


raised both via the Healthcare Estates 2019 ‘Comments box’, and in her own recent discussions with female engineers. She put the first comment to Claire Hennessy: ‘I couldn’t start a family, as it would have affected my career progression.’ Claire Hennessy said: “I have two daughters, with a significant age gap, and it has never hindered my progression. I took time out for maternity leave, but was extremely lucky with my managers. “When I had Holly (now 19), they seconded to my post while I was away, but on my return, made the staff member stay on an extra month to bring me back up to speed. When I had Poppy (now 12), and was on maternity leave at Watford Hospital, the Trust paid for her to go to nursery locally, since they had asked me to come back for two days a week while on maternity leave, as they were building an AAU, and wanted me as the ‘interface’ for Estates with the build. In my experience, good managers will support you and ensure you feel completely comfortable having that time off when you have children.”


Level of determination


Based on this positive experience, Trish Marchant asked Claire Hennessy if, as ‘a very determined individual’, she had been particularly keen to progress her career anyway, since some might perceive it might be harder for a woman to return to their previous job following a career break. She asked: “Do you think you have had to work that bit harder than if you hadn’t had children” Claire Hennessy replied: “I was always keen to pursue my career. Even on joining the Navy, I had the notion of travelling the world, but also wanted to have something to fall back on when I left. I have always believed in taking opportunities, but have never thought too hard about where I was going or what I was doing, or had a definite game plan. I guess how you fare and feel about going back to a job after maternity leave depends on the type of person you are, but you definitely need support and encouragement. I have always believed in a sound work/life balance though.”


Jeopardising their career


Suzie Mertes, Superintendent, Partnerships & Performance, at Police Scotland, shared some of her interesting experiences as a female police officer in the IHEEM Diversity & Inclusion session at Healthcare Estates 2019.


Commenting on this, Duane Passman said: “I think your experience at work following having children has been really fantastic. Look beyond engineering, though, to women in business generally, and I hear quite a lot – in all sorts of industries – that female workers feel that if they take time off to start a family, it will hinder their career. One woman that I know extremely well in a major Government Department has been passed over for promotion several times – with managers intimating that she doesn’t work hard enough ‘because she has childcare duties and has to be home by 6 pm’. Male colleagues have also told her: ‘We do a lot of our work ‘down at the pub’.’”


Duane Passman added that, having read through the EqualEngineers Masculinity In Engineering report, one of the key themes


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