Estate Strategy and Masterplanning

Through an informed approach to strategic planning, we work closely with NHS Trusts and health providers to develop a clear vision for their estate, establishing a long-term development framework which extracts maximum value from the existing building stock. We combine the latest thinking in estate planning and healthcare design, with a practical understanding of the factors that make healthcare infrastructure clinically, operationally, and environmentally effective.

The best strategic plans draw insight from a variety of perspectives and distil the inputs into a clear and focused vision. We develop estate strategies and masterplans through a collaborative process, ensuring we arrive at a future direction which reflects the needs of all relevant stakeholders. Stakeholder engagement plays a vital role in this, and we are experienced in guiding diverse groups through a structured process, communicating clearly, and ensuring that all parties have any opportunity to be heard.

Our Estates Register Tool enables Trusts to gain a more informed view of their properties, and quickly define a set of actions to consolidate the estate to ensure efficiency of service delivery, improved environmental performance, and value for investment. We ensure that emerging plans have the flexibility and adaptability to provide long term value as national and local healthcare needs change, and models of care and methods of service delivery adjust.

We understand that estate planning has a significant role to play in delivering a net zero National Health Service and we bring our expertise in sustainable design to the process to ensure that the pathway is clear and deliverable.

Healthcare estates are complex and there are many varied sources of data to analyse and draw conclusions from. We utilise Building Information Modelling and our own innovative digital tools to turn complex data sets into simple and legible visual guides, that enable informed decision making.

Our digital tools allow us to simulate complex change sequences and provide accurate three-dimensional views of the impact of each step. This allows us to conduct “what-if” reviews with real time data linked to development control plans, to enable rapid decision making during multi-phase development programmes.

An estate strategy was developed to assist in delivering The Christie’s clinical objectives, through prioritising the investment required to improve patient experience and support improved service delivery. A series of workshops with clinical and management leadership established the preferred options for future redevelopment of the estate. A large number of estates and functional activity data sets were then absorbed into a BIM model, which was used to closely analyse sequential development possibilities for the site. The site was extremely constrained, and the sequencing was therefore critical to the appraisal of each option. The resulting estates strategy provides a guided framework for investment, demonstrating how to provide the required capacity for the Trust’s planned activity in a flexible way.

The hospital site had suffered from an ad hoc building programme over many years, which had led to difficult wayfinding and poor connectivity. Functional adjacencies were poor with planned and unplanned care services spread across numerous buildings. We worked closely with the Trust to create a vision for the estate which provided an outstanding healthcare environment which supports the current and future delivery of acute, specialist and integrated healthcare. This resulted in a multi-phased development control plan which combining efficient use of the existing hospital estate with strategic development projects to improve the experience for patients and staff. This was presented to the Trust in a short, animated film showing the sequencing from Phase 1-10 with supportive narrative.

Much of the Trust’s existing building stock—built in the 1970’s, 80’s and early 90’s—had been operating with inefficiencies and configuration issues. We worked closely with the Trust to form a vision for the estate that moved away from ad hoc and opportunistic development and created a guided framework for investment which supports their leadership in sustainable development. The strategy assists in delivering the Trust’s clinical objectives, by focusing on investment to improve patient experience and service delivery, and to foster enhanced teaching and research. Planned for phased deliverability, it is consistent with the long-term financial model of the Trust and supports cost savings and efficiencies. The works illustrated in the strategy have been costed and plotted into a 5-year programme, with the flexibility to adapt it to meet changing demands and funding supply.

The hospital site had been developed in a piecemeal fashion over many years, the site configuration reflecting a historically opportunistic development approach rather than a coherent clinical vision or urban strategy. Our adaptable site masterplan for St George’s Hospital will transform the existing facilities into a cohesive mental health campus focussed on therapeutic treatment and patient recovery. The development control plan identifies a sequence of six major development phases required to transform the hospital site. Each phase has been planned with a carefully considered construction sequence to align with the expected allocation of capital funding. The most complex of these enables the replacement of medium secure inpatient beds without disruption to the existing operational service in close proximity.