WORKFORCE PLANNING Regularly audited


The Assessment Centre is accredited by awarding body, EAL, which regularly audits both its performance, and the training provided. Eileen Bayles said: “On completing their training the apprentices will emerge as fully qualified craftsmen, and in some cases, alongside an Advanced Apprenticeship, will gain an additional qualification, such as a Level 4 diploma. We have worked closely with a number of institutes and professional bodies in recent years, and apprentices joining Trusts with a view to completing an Advanced Apprenticeship are eligible for free IHEEM membership at Apprentice Affiliate grade for their apprenticeship’s duration. All the Trusts we have worked with have been highly enthusiastic about the scheme.”


The key stages


Basing the various key stages on the NYNHSAC Estates Apprentice Recruitment/Levy process running from December 2017 onwards, Eileen Bayles showed a flow chart which set out the key stages and timeline of an apprenticeship undertaken through the NYNHSAC – from initial bids being awarded by the MRG, through to the apprentice being fully certified, and employed into the NHS organisation as a qualified Craftsman Technician. She also focused on the various funding streams – explaining, for instance, how monies from the Apprenticeship Levy can be used to finance some of the main costs; set out the minimum educational qualifications needed to enrol as an NHS Estates/ Engineering apprentice, and the qualifications and standards successful apprenticeships would achieve, and – via a spreadsheet – gave a clear idea of the typical costs an employing Trust might incur in putting staff through the scheme. The apprenticeship, she stressed, not only provided specific training geared to the candidate’s preferred engineering discipline – such as Mechanical Engineering or Plumbing – but also the opportunity to be trained under more ‘specialist’ courses throughout the programme.


The Assessment Centre’s work and the apprenticeships it co-ordinates are audited by bodies including Ofsted, the awarding body itself, the ESFA, Health Education England, and Matrix, and to the ISO9001: 2015 quality assurance standard.


Employees that can ‘hit the ground running’ In summary, Eileen Bayles said apprentices trained via the NYNHSAC gained nationally recognised qualifications, while the Trust gained an employee trained to meet their requirements, which simultaneously also contributed to workforce development planning. Those successfully completing


28 Health Estate Journal June 2018


Eileen Bayles, Regional Training & Development manager of the Northern and Yorkshire NHS Assessment Centre, speaking at the Apprentices’ Theatre at Healthcare Estates 2017.


the apprenticeships would also be immediately employable – without further training – and while their skills would be NHS-specific, they would also be transferable. Eileen Bayles added: “Trusts also get to know the character of the trainee, while by the time they complete their apprenticeship, the apprentices themselves will ‘know and understand’ the NHS environment.” On closing, Eileen Bayles said that, particularly given the success of the north-eastern training scheme, there was a strong case for replicating the model nationally/regionally.


A Government perspective The Workforce Planning event also saw Clare Johnson – head of Learning and Development for the Government Property Profession at the Cabinet Office, outline the current initiatives the body is undertaking ‘to raise the skills and capability of property professionals across the Civil Service’. A Chartered Surveyor with many years’ experience undertaking property surveys and valuations, and providing advice on strategic property matters to local and central government, she also has a background in learning and development, and is currently leading on a number of projects aimed at raising the skills and capability of property professionals working in government departments across the Civil Service. With experience delivering graduate and apprenticeship programmes, she was influential in the development of Chartered Surveyor Trailblazer Standards.


She began with an overview of the Central Civil Estate in 2016-2017, which she explained comprised over 4,000 holdings (excluding land) totalling 7.9 million m2


. Running this vast estate


(based again on 2016-2017 figures) cost £2.57 bn, excluding the cost of capital charges and depreciation, while the holdings were held by 28 parent departments, of which four – the Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, and HMRC, held over 65 per cent. As part of the


Government Estate Strategy 2018-2023, Clare Johnson explained, a number of workstreams had been set up, looking at areas including: n Property function (‘skills and capability’, and ‘standards and controls’).


n Government hubs and Government Property Agency.


n One Public Estate. n Asset efficiency (including land for housing and property input into major government priorities).


n Improved data technology and information.


n ‘Smart’ working. n Driving growth across the UK by redistributing public servants.


Key areas for development Key areas to be developed by the GES Skills and Capabilities ‘Workstream’ group, she explained, include: n The development of a strategy to build capability across the function to enable delivery of the Government Estate Strategy.


n ‘Development programmes and career pathways which meet future workforce needs’ – including the creation of 250 Trailblazer property apprenticeships and 100 property graduate/fast stream roles by 2022.


n Resourcing and recruitment solutions ‘to ensure that the property function is able to identify, attract, and retain, individuals with the capability to deliver the Government Estate Strategy’.


Other speakers included Geoff Neild, associate director of Estates at North Staffs Combined Healthcare; Darren Aldrich, lead for Strategy and Communications at Health Education England; Trevor Payne, director of Estates at the University of Birmingham; Jemimah Eve, Workforce Intelligence manager at the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine; Alison McCree, MD of Synchronicity Care Limited (SCL) – a subsidiary company wholly owned by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, and Simon Phillips, a director at real estate advisory business, GVA.


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