Estates Team

Estates Matter

NHS A&A, our award winning Health Board, supported by highly skilled teams, all inter-dependent on one another, working collectively to ultimately meet our shared goal in Healthcare provision.

Where does my team fit in and who do they support?

The answer is quite simple - we are the Estates Team and we support everyone. 

Now that is a massive claim to fame, how can I convince you?  Let me ask you, when you arrived at work did the doors open, did the lights come on, is there power in your work space, connections, sockets, windows to open, AC to run, radiators for warmth? A safe working environment is paramount to ensure you succeed and can contribute effectively.

If so, the basics just mentioned apply in every clinic or to your hospital bed space too, additionally perhaps you pressed the nurse call button for help, took a shower, used a toilet, rode the lift – each controlled by highly trained maintenance staff to ensure your patient experience as well as your health and safety is met throughout your hospital stay.

Our Helpdesk team made sure that your call was answered, a skilled trade appeared at your side and resolved your issue.

In all of these ways and many, many more, Estates Team supported you and made all of this possible, 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days of the year.

It’s clear that Estates team are proficient in problem solving for everyone else so what do we do when we have our own predicament? 

A huge part of our day job is planned maintenance, this plays a pivotal role in ensuring the continued safety of our working environments.  The meticulous reams of data input by Estates Information and Quality Support team ensures planned maintenance output is received every week from our CaFM system (Computer aided facilities management) Apollo.  We know where every piece of equipment belongs, when it requires checked, serviced, tested and even replaced.  The opportunity has arrived to replace the Apollo system and bring it up to date with a newer CaFM system which promises a more modern, user-friendly system that offers more advanced functionality.  For those of you who have yet to see this for yourself, what are you waiting for.......find us via Quick Links -FM First (shameless endorsement for my team!!!)

So back to the issue at hand, how do we pull data from an old system and add it to a new system.  I will skip a few chapters where the main characters paced the floor, pulled their hair out and will instead jump ahead to where the team devised a new plan, a new way of looking at the issue, we sat down and processed mapped the journey we had to make (nod to the AAIFS team), we considered not only what we needed data wise but also who we needed.  Getting everyone on board was exactly what we had to do; our Head of Estates, keen to develop the plan further, rolled up his sleeves and helped us produce amazing core templates thanks to his years of experience and know how.  We had solved the ‘what are we going to do’ which leaves the ‘how are we going to do this’ part. 

Helen Ross runs a Bitesize Leadership training group and I was fortunate to take part in this, she taught a session early on last year where the subjects had to change their perspective of the problem, look at it from another vantage point, truly a Eureka moment.  We knew what was on the old system couldn’t be simply poured into the new system, my team are not skilled trades staff we didn’t know one end of an Air Handing Unit from another so how could we translate this......luckily for us, we certainly do know some very skilled staff who could teach us what we needed to know.....Estates Team!

South Sector always ready for a challenge were on the starting line and ready to roll, we formed working groups that took outdated PPM apart and rebuilt it with vision and determination.

We about turned and took the A78 North where North Estates Manager, his Estates Officers, trade supervisors and trade staff were ready, willing and able to make their sector goal a reality.  Working groups - we did them, site visits – we made them, phone calls – spoke to everyone, Teams calls and chats – they answered, M365 forms and spreadsheets - completed, training – delivered.

Did we learn a lot..... understatement of the decade! Chapter skipping opportunity here, however the full story of what, where, when and why is my nerdy topic of conversation of choice should you care for a fuller story time.

East Sector, not ones to wait in the wings for things to just happen, sprung into action with a determinate spark (if you know, you know)

I have purposely made light of the enormous task Estates team faced for illustration purposes, on a more serious note, more than what we have currently achieved and lets not be hesitant to shout this from the rooftops because this has been a huge achievement, we proved that working collaboratively delivers effective, real results. 

We showed that Estates teams were willing to take the time to consider a different approach, our managers supported an innovative team and they took a chance that will continue to pay off and allows them to ultimately maintain their long term goal to provide quality workmanship and safety for us all.