Broadcaster, Rachel McTavish, will join delegates at the Royal Armouries in Leeds for the 2026 National Leadership Forum. With a theme of ‘Delivering Estates & Facilities Services: FIT FOR THE FUTURE’, this unique event is entirely focused on the Estates & Facilities professions working within the NHS.
Rachel, whose diverse credits include working for ITV, BBC, FIVE, GMB, STV and a host of corporate and foreign broadcasters, hosted the 2025 National Leadership Forum with the professionalism and ease of an experienced broadcast journalist. HEFMA is delighted that she has agreed to return for next year.
Rachel tells HEFMA how much she enjoyed her role as host at this year’s event in Telford, saying: “The breadth of topics covered by leading industry experts at HEFMA 2025 was absolutely fascinating. From learning about the special challenges with infection control in one of the country’s most well-known and loved hospitals – Great Ormond Street – to the exciting developments in AI that will save time and resources for Estates & Facilities teams trying to keep abreast of ever-changing legislation.
“Not only were the keynote speakers fascinating and knowledgeable, but the range of questions posed by delegates at each session really helped understand the different challenges facing every hospital Trust.
“I’m really looking forward to returning to host the HEFMA National Leadership Forum for 2026.”
2026 Programme
The organising team from the host Northern & Yorkshire Branch is putting the finishing touches to the Forum programme, which will be announced soon. Sessions will focus on some of the core issues facing Estates & Facilities services across the NHS, and the need to ensure they are ‘FIT FOR THE FUTURE’. Sessions will include an examination of the shift towards neighbourhood health and what that could mean for the secondary estate, topical issues of the digital agenda, creating a sustainable health service and the workforce, as well as a focus on the NHS plan, ensuring the estate that is being built today meets the needs of healthcare into the future and national oversight/priorities.
A very special keynote speaker will open the Forum programme, setting the tone for the two-day event and underpinning the need for resilience and change around safeguarding for patients, staff and the public. We will announce details of this, and other sessions very soon.
HEFMA’s 2026 National Leadership Forum takes place from May 27 – 29, 2026, with the opening night ‘ice-breaker’ dinner on the evening of May 27, the Gala Awards dinner on the evening of May 28, at which the winners of HEFMA’s 2026 awards will be celebrated, and the conference programme, accompanied by an exhibition, on May 28 & 29.
Delegate bookings are now being taken. Member Trusts are reminded that their membership fee includes one residential place at Forum, enabling them to send a member of staff to benefit from this learning and networking opportunity even when budgets are tight.
