A new ERA for facilities management

The Employment Rights Act 2025 will come into full force for contracts that get reprocured from October this year. The consequence of this is that staff who will be transferred as part of a contract and subject to Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations will be uplifted to a single tiered workforce, with the most favourable terms applying.  

This has big implications. For example, if staff subject to TUPE transfer currently operate with two tiers of pay (the original transferred Authority staff and the Supplier’s recruited staff) then all staff are uplifted to the most favourable terms including pension contributions. A single tiered workforce will bring parity for those members of staff who are typically on national minimum wage. But it also means that the commercial advantage of contracting out large bodies of staff will become less advantageous and less economically efficient.

ERA 2025 levels the playing field for those delivering hard and soft FM services under contracts that get reprocured, but not those that extend. This could lead to Authorities wanting to extend well beyond the permitted contract extension periods. It could also lead to some services moving back in house. This would have significant consequences for teams that are well established in contract management but do not have the structure, resource or processes in place that are necessary for people and workforce management. 

It also means the risk - in terms of ensuring cover, recruitment, retaining and training of staff numbers, payroll and occupational health – would also transfer in house. Never mind the headache of materials, equipment and consumables.

The ERA 2025 fails to address a different divide: new healthcare environments. The New Hospitals Programme (NHP) is positioned to bring online new healthcare space. The first hospitals to receive investment are those that have significant amounts of RAAC (Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete) plank. Seven hospitals have been identified, built between 1970 and 1983 and will be replaced due to structural risks associated with RAAC plank. 

The NHP is rightly ambitious and has identified 50 intelligent healthcare capabilities that rely on technologies that will impact fabric, footfall and flow. These new healthcare spaces will be smart, or smart enabled and will change the way we deliver soft and hard FM services forever. They will reduce the amount of manual handling by introducing automated motorised robotics, which will significantly benefit the portering staff and reduce or even eliminate the manual handling and movement of non-patient related items such as deliveries, waste and laundry and linen. 

These technologies will therefore change the role of the porter by removing a significant amount of their low-value, non -patient facing role. In effect though, and perhaps unintentionally, it will also create a two-tier workforce. Those porters working in non-NHP spaces will continue to have to move waste, dirty and clean linen, distribute supplies and deliveries. So, two porters paid the same rate will have two very different roles based on their location.

This can be said across the entire NHS estate. Older estates in poor condition and suffering from excess amounts of backlog will have higher number of reactive activities, creating high pressured environments and stressful operating conditions. An estate with low levels of backlog and high levels of compliance will be quite a different role for those technical operatives delivering maintenance regimes.

So, while ERA25 aims to bring pay parity to all staff, there is little it can do to ensure that the environments in which staff are working are equal. 

A two-tier system remains, and indeed, the gap is set to widen over the next decade.