We’re coming up to the time when you either use or lose your budget for this financial year, and the planning of the 2024/2025 budgets in the NHS and across the public sector.

It’s the time when we see most demand for our services, as organisations are either proactively planning what they need based on next year’s budget, or have leftover budget that they still need to spend. Indeed, over 4/10 of the mandates that we’ve taken on and filled over the past 2 years in specialist not-for-profit recruitment team have come between February and May.

If we’re seeing greater demand, so are the top candidates for their services – thus making it an incredibly competitive period to secure the best available candidates for your 2024/2025 plans.

Temporary specialists to suit your budget that can become permanent

Many of the roles I work across tend to be project-based or for operational delivery- roles in Senior Estates Management, Facilities Management & Capital Project Management, primarily in the middle-management space, but with a network that spans roles from an Estates Officer/Facilities Officer/Project Officer right through to Director-level mandates.

With new budgets and new priority projects being drawn up for the new year, most will have an at least semi-defined end-date, meaning a temporary specialist can be your most effective solution to work on the project or operations, ensuring that you remain on-budget as they’re not part of your headcount beyond the date you need them to be.

This said, there’s always the opportunity to make these temp specialists permanent, should the need arise. A great example of this was a placement made at East Cheshire NHS Trust for an Interim Head of Facilities in a maternity cover capacity. The mandate actually came in at the end of a budget when there was surplus, with the appointed candidate brought in to lead the operational soft services function – but ending up taking on greater responsibility across estates and facilities and particular projects within these functions. This work saw the Trust win a ‘Partners in Healthcare’ award at the Premises and Facilities Management (PFM) Awards in November 2023. The temporary contract saw him achieve the original objectives in the role and go that extra mile, making him indispensable to the point where, once the incumbent came back from their maternity leave, the Trust created a new role as ‘Head of Technical Services’ in the next year’s budget.

Securing your specialists for your 2024/2025 objectives

As soon as you’re aware of the budget you have for specific projects and operations across your organisation, brief us to ensure that you’re getting the pick of the 3,500+ temporary (and permanent) public sector estate and facility management specialists we have active on our database, and thousands more we have access to via LinkedIn and other specialist job boards that we have partnerships with.

Whilst we offer a turnaround in as little as 2 weeks, some of the best talent are scouting out their next move months before the end of their current contract, so get in touch with me now via the below for a discussion about the Senior Estates Management, Facilities Management & Capital Project Management professionals you need to either complete this year’s activity or achieve next year’s goals.

Our Cobalt PS team also specialise in temporary and permanent appointments across the public sector with a focus on Finance, Accountancy, and HR positions. We know that the year-end and beginning of new budget is critical for these areas, and their network of year-end finance specialists and experienced HR staff to set up those new year objectives (around improving productivity and reducing absenteeism, for example) can also be available in as little as 2 weeks to begin their next role. Please contact Lead Consultant for Cobalt PS, Eden Kendall, via ekendall@cobaltrecruitment.com / +44 (0)20 7478 2525.

I look forward to hearing from you via my details below.

Email: Chumpage@cobaltrecruitment.com

Phone: +44 (0)20 7478 2554

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See our latest roles available across Real Estate and Construction here.