The Healthcare Expert Panel met on 28 October 2024 for the final meeting of the fourth NLA Expert Panel cycle. It was agreed that, as a panel, we would continue to focus on the two key areas of:

A.    There was a focussed discussion on determining how practically digitising a green and blue masterplan across London with a technology provider linking all the green and blue spaces into a cohesive network could work from both a travel route perspective, but also as destinations where activities and events take place with the objective of improving people’s mental and physical health. 

It was identified that the idea had been tested in pockets of London previously but it had not been adopted. The panel agreed that it would be useful to investigate what the issues were that impeded its adoption e.g. funding, data security, suitable partner identification etc. As a result, as a panel, we would be able to establish the ability to harness the opportunities and overcome key challenges associated with its rollout.

B.    Separately, for there to be a cohesive green and blue masterplan, there was a discussion on the connecting nodes between large-scale regeneration developments i.e., what activation happens at the red line boundaries of developments. The panel determined that this warrants discussion and exploration bringing in learnings not only from London and more broadly in the UK, but also from abroad in cities such as Dublin. The potential silence on the connecting nodes or redline boundaries is an area of opportunity for the GLA and further enhances a capital-wide green and blue space masterplan. 

Taking the points above into consideration and deliberating as to what tangible outcomes the panel wanted to achieve in 2025, the idea of hosting a summit / focussed charette was championed to discuss both points A and B in more detail. In Spring 2025, we plan on bringing together multiple stakeholders from place-based partnerships, ICBs, primary care networks, the GLA, regeneration developers, tech companies such as Google, TfL, research organisations such as the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation together with universities and NHS Trusts. 

Recognising that there is a vast array of capital projects undertaken by NHS Estates and Development teams, with varying degrees of complexity, the panel and indeed the sub-group identified that this is an area that would benefit from a self-assessment tool to equip Trusts with the ability to review the degree to which they have the capacity and resource to set up projects for success. 

It was established that introducing Professor Grant Mills, Professor of Healthcare Infrastructure Delivery at the Bartlett School for Sustainable Construction – Faculty of the Built Environment, UCL, would be beneficial in achieving a tangible outcome in 2025. The sub-group met in early October and determined with Professor Mills that emulating some of the principles of the existing Premises Assurance Model (PAM), i.e., a RAG rating self-assessment backed up by the provision of evidence examples, could be a useful place to start to develop a Project ‘Complexity Assessment’. Similar to the assessment UCL developed for Heathrow, this would essentially be a review of key project gateways and skills required to highlight where gaps exist and where support might need to be drafted in either through internal or external direct or consultancy recruitment. 

The underlying objective is the Prevention Appraisal and Failure Model, i.e., to prevent failure, it is best to invest in expertise, expertise that is able to manage the risks and opportunities of any project. To secure buy-in from Trusts and to ensure the evidence base for developing the tool is fit for purpose, it was mooted that Trust working groups would be set up. The outcome of a Project Complexity Assessment should not only benefit Trusts, but also potentially the GLA in whose interest it is to receive robust major planning applications as well as insightful input and representations into planning policy and Local Plans.