Brian Robb is the Area Soft Facilities Manager for East/Midlothian and Associated Sites in NHS Lothian, and the professional catering lead for the board. He is also the current Chairman of the Hospital Caterers Association (HCA) and has been one of the driving forces behind the National Estates and Facilities Day. National E&F Day runs on the third Wednesday in June, this year falling on 15 June.
We caught up with Brian to hear more about his role, and the importance of National Estates and Facilities Day.
“We established the day to raise the perception of Estates and Facilities services,” Brian says. “E&F staff make up around 8% of the NHS workforce, but they are often left out of the limelight in their work environments and in the media.
“It makes sense for the public perception of the NHS to be principally focussed on nurses and medical staff, but none of the work that takes place across hospital and care settings would be possible without the support of the army of E&F professionals.”
Brian first started out in the NHS in 1981, after seven years’ working in the private food sector. He was a junior sous chef before moving into his role at the Eastern General Hospital where he grasped every opportunity that came his way; by 1992, Brian had become a kitchen manager at a hospital.
“When I started in the NHS, there wasn’t really a clear career pathway for facilities staff, certainly not into management,” Brian says. “But as I progressed up the ladder, I was able to get a bird’s eye view of how our estates and facilities staff are faring. I primarily worked, as I do now, with catering and logistics.”
Because he had experience working in kitchens himself, Brian was able to see what the organisation needed to prioritise. “One of the first things we did was to ensure all our kitchen staff got appropriate footwear.”
NHS Lothian was one of the frontrunners in offering footwear, and it turned out to be a trial by fire for Brian in his new post. “Once we started offering shoes, it immediately became clear we’d thrown ourselves into the deep end – shoes are definitely not ‘one size fits all’. But now we have all sorts of options depending on orthopaedic needs, sizes and shapes, we have amazing support from our Occupational Therapy teams, and this has resulted in a healthier, safer workforce.”
Brian is now semi-retired and has been with the NHS for over 40 years. He is happy to have stayed for such a long time, and still feels that he has things to offer before he retires fully.
“There are some ways in which we cannot compete with the private sector,” Brian says. “You have million-dollar companies who will offer you a thousand pounds just to join – we cannot match that. However, working for the NHS has so many benefits that go beyond money.
“The NHS is a family – that’s what I want everyone to feel. When you’re providing a service that matters and helping people get well, whether that’s by feeding them, by making sure their environment is clean, or making sure that their visitors can come and go as appropriate – everything else pales in comparison.”
