A successful first six months for our Newcastle office

Back in September 2022, Keystream opened our first regional office in Newcastle with plans to extend our reach in NHS recruitment to the north.
6 months later, under the leadership of Associate Director Heather Gordon, we have a new team, new customers and a growing network of regional contractors.

Establishing the team

Building a new team is no easy task! Finding people who fit culturally was incredibly important to Heather as she set out to grow our customer base in the region. She found two Principal Consultants who were keen to take on the demands of building a new venture. Holly was first on board – an experienced recruiter looking for a challenging role but, most importantly, the right culture.

“Culture was very important to me; working somewhere that understands you as an individual and supports your ambitions.

I have autonomy to manage my time, inject my personality and set up processes. It’s an environment where I can thrive.”

Yasemin joined shortly after, a recruiter with 2 and a half years’ experience. She was looking for a more challenging role which offered the opportunity to grow.

“This is the perfect kind of challenge. It’s so exciting being at the forefront of a new venture, growing it from the ground up with my colleagues.

We all bring a variety of skills, experience and perspectives to the table; we learn from each other on a daily basis.”

NHS market focus

Heather and her team, Holly and Yasemin, are focusing on non-clinical technology recruitment into the NHS, Keystream’s core area of expertise, predominantly across:-

• Infrastructure
• Service delivery
• Programme management
• Analytics

Although we already work UK wide, having a regional team that understands the local market is proving successful – they are working with several new NHS customers. Heather says:

“The value of being able to meet in person, especially after the shift to remote working, is obvious.

Yes, we can speak to people online, but in a people business, the ability to meet, build rapport and get to know people is invaluable.”

Heather’s knowledge of NHS projects, priorities and required skills has enabled the team to quickly forge relationships with new customers and add immediate value to discussions around workforce issues.

The team is backed by efficient group level business support functions, such as compliance and finance, meaning they can onboard candidates accurately, at pace.

Priorities for NHS Trusts in the north

The NHS faces numerous challenges as it seeks to transform services, processes and systems to leverage the power of digital technology.

Our Newcastle team can find people with expert skills for major digital transformation projects that are improving processes, data quality, data security and collaboration between services – ultimately having a positive impact on patient care.

Here are some of the NHS projects we’re supporting in the north:

– Digital Aspirants. The NHS is working to reduce inequalities in digital maturity, bringing all Trusts up to the same level through investment, shared learning and collaboration. We’re recruiting senior programme and project managers who can help to implement digital change and transformation programmes as well as infrastructure, digital, analytics and implementation people.

– BadgerNet. A secure, digital system to replace hand-written maternity notes, accessible by the patient, holding all their data in real time. Maintaining this system requires a niche skill set – Keystream has an existing network of people with these skills.

– MilkTrac. A digital tracking system for the correct administration of breast milk, ensuring the right milk gets to the right baby, safely and securely. We’re providing experts to support it.

– Electronic Patient Records (EPR) system upgrades and new system implementations. Multiple services involved in a patient’s care can access all records in one, secure area. This means clinicians have a complete view of a patient’s treatment, data is updated and secure, records are updated in real time, ensuring patient care is at the forefront of decisions. We have a bank of EPR experts across all EPR systems, ready to deploy.

– Data Warehouse projects. In conjunction with Keystream Analytics, we recruit data specialists for various data and analytics projects. They include improving and establishing data warehouses to store multiple sources of data. Analysts and users need to be able to utilise the data to extract reports, using Power BI. We are working with a local Trust to supply coaching and training project to upskill their in-house Data Engineering team.

A positive start!

It’s been a busy time for the team since launch last September. With demands from NHS teams on the increase, Heather is already looking for more people to boost the team.

“Starting a new venture was a whole new challenge, even with 8 years of NHS recruitment and the Keystream brand behind me.

The greatest achievement has been bringing us together as a team – we have created a collaborative, supportive environment and have become firm friends too.

I am immensely proud of what we’ve achieved and the work we’re doing.”

If you are interested in joining Heather, Holly & Yasemin in your Newcastle office, get in touch