Background
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) is one of the UK's largest integrated mental health, learning disability and community healthcare providers, delivering vital services to hundreds of thousands of patients across Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and the surrounding region.
Managing a complex healthcare estate requires strong leadership to keep facilities safe, compliant, operationally resilient and capable of supporting patient care. During a significant period of estate transformation, the Trust partnered with Maxwell Stephens to recruit an experienced Estates Manager capable of leading strategic estates initiatives, capital investment programmes and operational improvements across the organisation.
The Challenge
The Estates Manager role was a critical leadership appointment, responsible for keeping the Trust's estate fully compliant while supporting major investment programmes and long-term service transformation. Operating within a highly regulated NHS environment, the successful candidate would need to combine technical estates expertise with strong commercial, financial and project management capability.
The role carried responsibility for:
- Supporting the delivery of the Trust's long-term Estates Strategy.
- Providing strategic estates advice to the Trust's Turnaround Team and senior leadership.
- Managing a major capital investment programme valued at approximately £12 million.
- Identifying opportunities to improve value and reduce unnecessary capital expenditure.
- Leading complex refurbishment and infrastructure projects.
- Managing outsourced Estates and Facilities Management contracts.
- Ensuring compliance with Care Quality Commission (CQC) requirements.
- Managing statutory Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) programmes.
- Developing new Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and contractor performance frameworks.
- Acting as the Trust's Fire Safety Manager.
- Ensuring compliance with NHS technical guidance, Health & Safety legislation and statutory regulations.
- Driving continuous improvement across estates governance, quality assurance and operational performance.
The successful candidate needed to provide both strategic leadership and hands-on operational expertise within one of the UK's most demanding estates environments. NHS estates roles of this kind are difficult to fill because the combination is unusual: the technical and statutory knowledge to act as Fire Safety Manager and hold CQC compliance, alongside the commercial judgement to challenge a capital programme and the credibility to advise a Turnaround Team.
Our Approach
Maxwell Stephens worked closely with the Trust's senior leadership team to gain a detailed understanding of both the operational challenges facing the estate and the strategic objectives of the organisation.
Recognising the complexity of the appointment, we undertook a targeted executive search focused on experienced estates professionals from across:
- NHS Trusts
- Acute healthcare
- Mental health estates
- Community healthcare
- Higher education
- Public sector estates
- Complex multi-site property portfolios
Every shortlisted candidate went through a comprehensive assessment covering:
- NHS estates leadership
- Capital project delivery
- Healthcare compliance
- CQC standards
- Health & Safety governance
- Contractor and supplier management
- Financial management
- Strategic estates planning
- Leadership capability
Our focus was on identifying a leader capable of improving operational performance while supporting the Trust's wider transformation programme.
The Outcome
Following an extensive executive search, Maxwell Stephens placed an experienced Estates Manager with a strong background in NHS estates management, capital project delivery and healthcare compliance. The successful candidate quickly became a key member of the Estates leadership team.
The role covered the Trust’s Estates Strategy, capital investment, project delivery, and estates governance.
Why This Placement Worked
The search succeeded because it was scoped as a leadership appointment with a statutory core, not as a technical role with some strategy attached, and the assessment tested capital, compliance and leadership capability with equal weight. It reflects Maxwell Stephens' experience in recruiting senior estates professionals for NHS organisations where strategic leadership, compliance, capital investment and operational resilience are fundamental to patient care.
If you are recruiting an Estates Manager or senior estates leader for an NHS or public sector organisation, Maxwell Stephens can help you define the brief and reach candidates with the right blend of statutory, commercial and leadership experience. Get in touch with our team.
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