East Anglia RFCA is keen to support our staff in securing the skills they need for their work. The team who oversee maintenance and building work for our volunteer estate, for instance, have to be up to date on the latest information about safety and construction.
So we were proud to learn our estate manager Claire Styles had been awarded Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management certification for the quality and breadth of her work. Claire received her certificate last month and is pictured holding it outside RFCA HQ in Chelmsford.
Claire said of her certification: “For me, it was important to show volunteer estate end-users—and colleagues in our wider and growing national estates team—that they can rely on me.
“I want to provide the same high level of support to Reservists and cadets at our sites that they’ve come to expect from East Anglia RFCA’s Estates team as a whole.”
Claire’s role includes responsibility for Cambridgeshire cadet facilities and the county’s Army Reserve Centres. Her fellow estate managers look after similar premises in other counties across our region: Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
There are many years of training and experience across our Estates team as a whole, including a Member of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management, two Technical Members of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and an Associate Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Leading the team is our Head of Estates, David Routledge. David is not only a member of the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management but a graduate from an IOSH-accredited degree course and an expert in asbestos management and removal.
All these skilled professionals monitor and certify volunteer estate maintenance undertaken by national contractor VIVO Defence Services, to make sure our cadets and Reservists have a base that’s fit for use.