Case Study: Health Education England achieves a safe, flexible return-to-work and optimized space utilization with FM:Systems

How Health Education England used Advanced Desk Booking Solution in combination with Workplace Occupancy Sensors to Facilitate its Post-Covid ‘Return-to-Work 'Strategy

Health Education England (HEE) is the national body that leads education, training and workforce development for NHS staff and students across England, operating dozens of offices and supporting more than 160,000 trainees. HEE struggled with conflicting, anecdotal space data — facilities teams reported desk shortages while physical checks showed large under‑utilization — and when COVID‑19 forced almost the entire workforce to go remote, the organisation urgently needed real‑time visibility and a flexible solution to safely plan phased returns.

HEE expanded its use of FM:Systems — deploying workplace occupancy sensors across its estate and a cloud-based desk/room booking system — so employees could reserve sanitized desks and leaders could see true utilization. Today HEE uses over 1,000 sensors covering hundreds of workspaces, enabling data‑driven decisions, eliminating double bookings, improving cleaning workflows, boosting staff confidence (18 of 26 offices open at about 60% occupancy) and supporting a permanent shift to a more flexible, hybrid working model.

Health Education England

Tom Blackwell

Facilities Manager