Rob Westhead

Said the following about Training Team:

“JUSTIFICATION

Mark has led the Emergency Foster Pack initiative at 3 major hospitals across the UK and is the driving force behind its success within Alstom. He is the first to stand up and nominate himself for any charitable initiatives that the company runs and encourages his team in to get involved in volunteering days supported by the company and often finds events for others to support even if he is not available himself.

OPENING STATEMENT

Mark Houghton has developed an outstanding initiative in his own time which makes a real difference to children entering emergency foster care who often have absolutely nothing and would benefit from a backpack with essential items and distractions to help them feel valued in their hour of need as the authorities work to get them into care. In March 2019, he asked colleagues to donate items to create 30 foster packs, which resulted in 55 back packs being given to North Middlesex Hospital thanks to Mark's dedication.

Following this success, Mark wanted to expand the project as other hospitals must be faced with the same situation which has resulted in the national launch happening on 18th and 19th July 2019, ready for packing in March 2020, targeting 30 back packs each for 3 hospitals - North Middlesex, Birmingham Children's and Royal Manchester. Mark's passion and enthusiasm for the cause is inspirational, he works tirelessly to get things going and has helped unite staff members across the UK in contributing to this fantastic project.

The Foster Pack initiative benefits children who are brought to A&E / Paediatric Assessment Units for child protection medicals before they are placed in emergency foster care.

The backpack aims to be everything a young person would need for the first night in their emergency foster care placement including pyjamas, clean pants and socks, a toothbrush & toothpaste, hairbrush, activities, a book and a toy. The main aim to make the young person feel less scared and bewildered and to make them feel valued.

The foster packs are for children who have been bought to hospital by social workers or the police because they have been found home alone, wandering in the street or have been abused and need an acute assessment of their injuries.

SUPPORTING STATEMENTS

Robert Westhead, Alstom Traincare Centre Manager. Mark joined Alstom in March 2016 as the Training Manager for the Northern Line during a challenging period, including a high turnaround of staff. Taking his experience gained over many years as a military instructor, Mark immediately implemented a structural change to the department and embarked on a recruitment campaign adding to his team specific skill sets required to execute the vision he laid out for his team.

At the foundation of this vision was a training development methodology employed by the British Army to which Mark used as a blue print to fit the training needs of the business in the railway. This is now known as the ‘Alstom Systems Approach to Training’ (or ASAT for short).

Key to the success of the ASAT system was the upskilling of his team to integrate this new approach for all new and existing training courses, and Mark spent the first year preparing his team and ensuring they gained qualifications such as EATS and AQA. The foundations now put in place, Mark has been able to roll out vastly improved training courses to meet the specific needs of the business.

During this period Mark met difficult times such as a number of his team absent through Long Term Sickness’ during the same period. With Mark and one other they spent a period of nearly 6 months keeping the safety critical training in date, with the help of trainers throughout the UK, to allow operations to continue.

In addition to the new ASAT process, Mark was keen to reduce the training costs by reducing the amount of external training and bringing it in-house such as Fire Warden training, First Aid and Fork Lift training saving the business thousands in training costs and hours. As a corporate responsibility task he also arranged for Neasden Foodbank to receive manual handling training from his team.

Mark’s work with the apprentices is well documented and he works closely with them mentoring and when needed encouragement or a gentle firm hand. This year he arranged a military style exercise agenda for the annual Blackwell adventure camp for the new apprentices, including camping and cooking with military ration packs.

However, his work with young men and women does not stop there and he has been heavily involved in working with Kingston University to help people with under privileged backgrounds to give them an opportunity in Engineering as well as the National College for High Speed Rail. In addition to this Mark arranged for a number of work experience youngsters to come into Alstom for a week for those interested in a career in Engineering.

To meet Mark is to meet an individual whose enthusiasm and relentless energy is tiring just to watch. It comes as no surprise that Mark was awarded an MBE during his time with the military. A keen STEM ambassador Mark not only volunteers for every corporate responsibility or charity event such as Speed Interviewing with Ark Elvin academy or the local foodbanks, but he spends a lot of his time outside of work organising charity work for Alstom in the local community.

Mark has completed a lot of charity work with North Middlesex Hospital including the extremely successful ‘Emergency Foster Packs’ for young children who have been taken into care. He organised for his training team to visit the same hospital and completed a number of DIY and painting tasks, and when Alstom couldn’t keep up with his charitable work, he took his own family up from Southampton to Middlesex hospital to put up Christmas decorations! Similarly, the year before, Mark arranged for his Training Team to visit ‘Homes for Hero’s’ and spent the day doing odd jobs for those who have served and are struggling with health issues.

And when he’s not doing all of that he throws himself into additional charitable events such as the Three Peaks Challenge and the Social Mobility Foundation Mentoring scheme.“