NHS Property 2021

Plenary session

The Plenary session will be a panel discussion and Q&A covering the following subject matters:

Reflections since the Strategic Estates Planning Team

• What has been delivered in estates since the Naylor 2016 report – where we are and where we need to be.
• Evolution of our environment: digital, social equality – putting estates in a wider context.
• Growing profile of estates in the NHS (including property companies evolving from landlords to partners)

Integrated Care Systems – challenges, opportunities and how estates can support

• Specialist estates capacity to support ICSs: town planning, development, energy & environment, smarter working, rise in digital and smarter healthcare buildings.
• How the existing portfolio can help primary and community care objectives.
• Collaboration and partnering.
• Optimising the existing estate.

Worksessions / presentations

Opportunities for better local management for primary and community estate – CCGs/Integrated Care Systems are in a process of significant change with focus on better integration across services and providers. Primary and Community care estate is a key enabler for this transformation that seeks to provide better, more joined-up care and to improve local care.

This session will cover the lessons learnt from Kent where the local system has been exploring all possible options and using all available avenues to ensure that estates play their part in driving alignment with patient-focussed objectives, reducing overall estates costs and improving estate quality and management.

Developing place-based estate strategies
On 11 February 2021, the Department of Health and Social Care published the White Paper Integration and innovation: working together to improve health and social care for all, which sets out legislative proposals for a health and care bill. it is intended that these proposals will be implemented in April 2022. The central aim of ICSs is to integrate care across different organisations and settings, joining up hospital and community-based services. This will have profound implications on the NHS and social care real estate footprint. Although the system change will take some time to evolve, we hope this presentation provides those involved in delivering the ICS plans some guidance on assembling their real estate portfolio to meet place-based settings.
ICS champions will find this presentation helpful in reviewing estate solutions under four principal headings:

• Assets in the right location, accessible & patient centric
• Property solution must be sustainable and meet carbon footprint targets
• Property regularisation and ensuring continuity of occupation
• Control rental costs (with special insight into the healthcare market)

Homes for NHS Staff – Community Health Partnerships Limited (“CHP”) and their advisors Montagu Evans will be discussing the journey ‘thus far’ to bring forward part of the Finchley Memorial Hospital site to deliver up to 130 homes for NHS staff in salary bands 2-8. We will discuss the vision and objectives of the scheme as well as how we worked through the planning process to secure a resolution to grant outline planning permission. We will also share collaborative studies supported by North Central London Partnerships (NCL) Trusts, Trust Charities, GLA and One Public Estate that builds on the research by the Royal College of Nursing demonstrating the case for housing and we will demonstrate how the proposed Section 106 agreement will secure this 100% affordable housing for the medium to long term.

Space Utilisation – Why is it so hard to maximise optimisation of NHS community buildings and how can you overcome barriers? This session will show you how to overcome key barriers to good utilisation. We will provide evidence and practical insights from over 50 projects, a stakeholder poll and relevant case studies.  We want to change the way the NHS thinks about and uses space to deliver more services locally, improve the experience and outcomes for patients and staff, reduce operating costs and save time.  We will show practical solutions to improving utilisation rates across primary, community and NHS office accommodation

Post Pandemic Opportunities for NHS Estates – There has been talk of repurposing property assets for the benefit of the NHS estate for a while, but the pressures put on the retail and office markets, particularly, by the pandemic have been a catalyst to accelerate that change. In recent times we have seen NHS Trusts taking space in shopping centres for PPE storage, vaccination centres and clinical space. Trusts have also taken advantage of a struggling office market to reduce the pressure on space within hospitals.  In this session we talk to Carly Palmer, Associate Director at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust about the ways her Trust is making room for more clinical space on-site and look at some other case studies of more innovative use of non-clinical space.

Delivering sustainable growth in the workplace – Workplaces cannot grow sustainably without investment in staff. In this session we will explore the many benefits that apprenticeships can bring to your workplace and explain how to get your staff Chartered without it costing the earth. We will also highlight how apprenticeships are increasing diversity in the property profession.

Foleshill, the greenest healthcare centre in the UK – Find out more about Foleshill Heath Centre, the UK’s first Passivhaus certified healthcare building. This £3.3m 619m2 innovative primary care centre in Coventry is an example for future sustainable NHS estate design. We will explain CHP’s vision to develop Foleshill working with our build partners and the local NHS to create this facility in only 10 months during the pandemic.

We will outline the design and construction, demonstrate the energy efficiency, Passivhaus whole life cost; showing data and feedback from patients and staff using this sustainable low energy building.

One Public Estate; Building a Movement Through Partnership – enabling collaboration across central and local government estate to support strategic health priorities

Driving a greener NHS: the road to net zero carbon – Climate change and the way we interact with our environment has a significant impact on our health. The UK government has therefore set a target for the country to become net zero carbon by 2050, with the NHS striving to be the first national health service to be net zero carbon by 2040.

In support of these targets and with over 3000 properties in our portfolio – that’s 10% of the NHS estate – NHS Property Services is in prime position to lead the way in reaching net zero carbon by 2040 by reducing the negative environmental impact of our buildings and creating awareness amongst our people and the occupiers of our buildings to help us do this. In this session, Cameron Hawkins will talk us through the plan and programmes to reach net zero carbon by 2040.

Utilising the NHS estate to deliver effective social prescribing within the community – To help the NHS get the most from its estate and support delivery of the Long Term Plan, we work with NHS colleagues to identify and turn vacant or underused space into social prescribing hubs, and poor quality, unused outdoor space into green spaces including allotments, sensory and dementia gardens. In doing this, we are helping patients socialise, learn new skills and hopefully improve their overall wellbeing.

In the past 18 months, we have created 28 social prescribing hubs across England and are targeting 50 by the end of the financial year. In this session, Rhea Horlock will explain how our social prescribing programme works and share some key learnings for others considering doing the same.

End of day panel & Chair’s closing remarks

Please note agenda will be updated regularly, speakers, subject matter and timings may be subject to change