Safety is at the heart of the work of the national Estates and Facilities team. NHS England’s new assurance function aims to ensure we are meeting our statutory and regulatory obligations. Led by Vajid Mahmood, the function focuses on estates data and EPRR processes, and aims to increase our technical expertise to support the system over time. In parallel, Head of Hard FM, Simon Picking, is developing a Safety Management System (SMS) for the Estate. This session will discuss how the NHS SMS builds on industry best practice to put risk management at its heart, including the identification of safety issues, risk assessments and risk mitigation; supported by a strong assurance function that monitors compliance and performance.