Excellence in REME

Brigadier Lizzie Faithfull-Davies CBE and Brigadier Phil Prosser CBE

In the New Year’s Honours for 2021, Brigadiers Lizzie Faithfull-Davies and Phil Prosser both received a CBE for their work on Op RESCRIPT. As two sides of the same coin, leading the military contribution in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS respectively, they share with us their lessons from a year no one expected.

Brig Phil Prosser CBE What made you join the Army?

Brig Phil: Overall, it was a search for adventure. But I also chose REME for a number of other reasons. First, the variety and the opportunity to serve anywhere, especially with airborne forces and tanks. Second was the chance to progress my education and study for an in-service degree. Finally and most importantly, it was about the people. I probably didn’t realise it at the time but REME is a family. We are a collection of like-minded people who want and choose to be together, bound by our outlook on life as clear eyed pragmatists, united through our attitude of solving problems and achieving mission success. We are down to earth, intelligent and driven towards success. The Corps is also full of fun and some of the best times of my life have been spent in unit life, surrounded by my Corps family celebrating the success of our most recent shared endeavour. Brig Lizzie: My maths teacher! I was lucky enough to have a superb maths teacher at college; he understood that I loved maths and the sciences and suggested engineering was a practical way to use these subjects. As a retired Army officer himself, he could also relate to my passion for sport and the outdoors and he suggested I take a look at a career in engineering in the Army. This sounded like a great idea to explore, so he linked me up to an Army Careers’ Advisor and I was promptly sent off on visits to the Royal Signals, Royal Engineers and REME.

How did you decide that REME was the right fit for you?

Brig Phil: The key thing with REME is that we are born problem solvers; I assume it’s the engineering brain in all of us that make us this way. But the constant engineering challenge and relevance of our role is what made it so appealing.

The eternal challenge for us is keeping the kit in the fight; that’s fundamental to warfighting and I have lived and breathed that for the last 2 years as Commander 101 Logistic Brigade, enabling the manoeuvre of the warfighting Division. It’s an exciting time for the Corps; with new equipment entering service, there are a number of technological opportunities where we need to invest. One area is taking the lead on developing the diagnostics that come with that equipment in order to exploit data to improve reliability and keep it in the fight for longer. And that’s not just for VMs and Armourers; there are huge opportunities for wider trade groups, like Technicians getting more involved in analytics and at the forefront of harnessing technology with Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. Brig Lizzie: From the moment I first met REME on my familiarisation

Brig Lizzie Faithful Davies CBE

visit to Bordon, I felt welcomed and part of the team. The recruiters were motivated and positive and they demonstrated the huge variety of careers that REME could offer. The soldiers I met were professional, entertaining and enthused by their trades. I could see the relevance of the Corps in everything the Army did and, most importantly to me, there were no constraints on what I could do as a woman in REME. I was hooked straight away. REME was for me and the Corps offered to sponsor me through university, which promised to make a big difference to student life. Whilst at Bristol University, the REME recruiters kept in touch - they arranged for some fantastic work placements during my summer breaks, which included Germany and Hong Kong as well as the UK. The REME recruiters also introduced me to skiing for which I am eternally grateful!

On reflection, the Corps was ahead of its time in its attitude to providing an inclusive working environment. Other engineering roles in the Army at that time limited the options open to women, which made no sense to me. REME also provided the professional training, experience and accreditation to enable me to work towards my Chartered Engineer, which I was keen to pursue. I was impressed by the quality of the training provided to our soldiers and I also really liked the attitude that we could all learn from each other. Lots of specialist skills, working together to make a great team. I think the most important factor making me choose REME was the fact that I felt I could fit in and that the Corps was willing to support and invest in me both professionally and as an individual.

You both received a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Brig Ewart-Brookes handed over command of 101 Logistic Brigade to Brig Prosser in July 2019

Empire) in the New Year’s Honours. Can you tell us Brig Lizzie: It was an incredible honour to be recognised with a CBEmore about this achievement? this year and there is no doubt in my mind that the credit for this Brig Phil: “I see so far because I stand on the shoulders of giants”. My goes to the amazing team I have worked with over the last 12 CBE was recognition of the amazing achievement of the team who I months. The year of COVID has been extraordinary for everyone and had the honour of deploying with and leading during our time in it was a privilege for my Bde HQ to have been asked to contribute to London. the nation’s response to this crisis by providing some support to the

HQ 101 Logistic Brigade were deployed to support NHS England Department for Health and Social Care. This gave us all a sense of for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) procurement and purpose and we had practical work to deliver as a team rather than distribution. Thinking back to March 2020, we were in the perfect being left to face the difficult challenges of working from home, storm. With rising waves of an unknown virus sweeping the globe, home schooling, feeling isolated and uncertain. We were asked to the situation in China was unclear due to restrictions on reporting, so contribute to the planning and delivery of COVID-19 testing to we didn’t know how bad it was going to be. As a result of this frontline workers. This took on many facets: ranging from the military uncertainty and the way China locked down to look after its own support to the drive through Regional Test Sites; the design, build population, the global demand of PPE rose to astronomical levels at and delivery of the Mobile Testing Units; training of large numbers of the same time as the supply chain dropped to its lowest levels due to military personnel to run the mobile test sites; specialist logistical the problems of lockdown and the repurposing of factories across support to the new Lighthouse Laboratories; and provision of China. It really was a perfect storm. warehousing and distribution of testing components (PPE, test kits,

In the midst of this storm my team and I came in to work alongside processing equipment) around the United Kingdom. Everything was the NHS to distribute this finite amount of PPE whilst we battled to needed yesterday and needed to be built from scratch at a scale and establish new stock through new manufacturers. It wasn’t just a pace that was difficult to believe. The one thing that has stood out logistic problem; it was also about maintaining the confidence of the for me is the quality of the people that worked on all these projects. frontline heath care workers through the provision of PPE. It relied The comparatively small team of around 15 personnel from 102 Log heavily on the supporting information campaign to maintain that Bde HQ, plus some individual augmentees (both Regular and trust. Reserve and a mix of capbadges) were genuinely outstanding. Their

It has been an absolute honour to work alongside the NHS. We ability to see a problem, find a solution and then move on to another have never led this operation, we have always reinforced in support unrelated task was exceptional. They were able to juggle multiple of the national response. At the heart of the NHS is an operational issues simultaneously and were impressively proactive in finding the organisation, driven by the desire to protect the nation. And that niche where their skills could add the most value. They were drives a very similar value set to that of the Army. I have learnt so motivated, humble, upbeat, innovative and exceptionally much about developing complex systems and new teams in hardworking. I will always value the team spirit that enabled us to ambiguous and uncertain environments. achieve so much in an unusually short amount of time.

When discussing the possibility of an interview, Brig Lizzie Faithfull-Davies described your roles as “two halves of the DHSC/NHS Op RESCRIPT work”. How did your roles complement and support one another during Op RESCRIPT?

Brig Phil: At the same time as 101 Logistic Brigade were in NHS England headquarters, 102 Logistic Brigade went into the Department for Health and Social Care to support with test and trace so it was awesome to work so closely with Brig Lizzie. Brig Lizzie: From the answers we have given so far, I think you will see how our work was not only complementary, but integrated. The delivery of support to the NHS and the Department for Health and Social Care needed to be aligned where possible and using our military connections our two teams were able to share information and ideas to help achieve this. We knew that there was going to be an enduring requirement for logistic support to both the clinical side of the pandemic as well as COVID-19 testing, and there were many areas where both organisations were facing similar challenges (prioritisation and allocation of scare resources, rapid scaling and distribution of those resources, and capacity to plan ahead). We were also both stepping into organisations that we hadn’t worked with before, working with newly created teams with a mix of people from many different roles. Whilst the specifics of what we both had to deliver were different, we were both helping to mobilise initiatives that were urgently needed. Therefore, with Brigadier Phil alongside, we were able to share ideas and experiences, which really helped to maintain momentum. I have really valued his support as a colleague and a friend over the last year and I was delighted to see the work that he and his team have delivered being formally recognised.

COVID-19 and Op RESCRIPT have required the Army to work in ways we never expected, especially REME. What are the lessons you’ve learnt, both individually and on a wider level?

believe in themselves so they can be awesome, every day. I believe that the role of the leader in delivering success relies on having a vision and expressing clearly what the aiming marker is to keep everyone on the right track. Designing and communicating a clear plan is the route card to achieving the mission or vision. And the leader has to build an amazing team in order to deliver that plan. During some tough times I have also learned the difference between optimism and blind positivity. Optimism is accepting that times are dark, that you’re in a tunnel, but there is light at the end of it and you will get there together, and that gives you hope. Blind positivity feeds a narrative that means you lose hope very quickly. Optimism backed up by honesty is one of the biggest leadership lessons I learned. Life will be hard, but it will never be hopeless. Finally, thinking about our time here and the military working with the NHS. The military mindset allowed us to get to problems quickly and the NHS brought that breadth of thought – it has shown the power of cognitive diversity. Our planning has been much more resilient as a result of the varied contribution to the team. Brig Lizzie: The most valuable lesson I have learnt is about the adaptability of our people and their skills. I have received many letters of thanks from a multitude of sources for the work that the people in my Brigade have delivered in support of the COVID response over the last year. They have all talked about how personable our soldiers are and how they have felt more at ease despite the worry of the pandemic. Whilst some soldiers have been employed in their core role (Medics working in hospitals, Logisticians conducting supply and distribution etc), many other soldiers have just turned their hand to whatever they are being asked to do. They have done it confidently, professionally and without complaint, despite the short notice of many of the taskings. Everyone has been willing to learn and offer up their unique skills. So I think the combination of both our professional skills and people skills is a compelling combination that we must celebrate. The use of small military teams, working independently all over the country has provided a great opportunity for our most junior leaders (both officers and soldiers) to excel. Seeing teams of REME personnel Brig Phil: The biggest thing I’ve learnt, which links back to receiving running test sites in Lancashire with poise and good spirits was a a CBE, is that the team is key to delivering success. You cannot great example of these skills in action and it made me feel very develop team spirit virtually via Skype/Teams. As we look to the proud to see our personnel doing such a superb job. future and our need to maintain fighting spirit, we must do that physically. In the new ways of working in the virtual space, I’ve seen that it can be a more blended approach. I never see us being fully dis-located because of the human nature of warfare and that need to build and maintain fighting spirit, but I do see a more blended environment in the future.

The next lesson is ambiguity. In the military we convince ourselves we are good at dealing with it, but we are not as well practised as we could be. What we do is apply process to take the complexity out of ambiguity, but that doesn’t embrace it properly in a way that supports our ability to be agile. One of the things we’ve done effectively over the past year is to have three things: a mission, a clear purpose or task; a comprehensive set of data to inform our decision making; an effective battle rhythm to hold that all together. We have done a national operation twice now by having those three things in place.

The third lesson is a fantastic reminder of the role of soldiers. Ultimately it is they who will win the next war, in the same way that I’ve seen the healthcare workers on the front line making such a difference in the response to COVID. As leaders, at every level we must do everything we can to show that we believe in our soldiers more than they Brig Lizzie on a visit to the civilian company that helped to manufacture MTUs to specified designs