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How Estates and Facilities support the NHS’s vision and long-term goals

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Published on : 7/18/22

Reading time : 6 min

Estates and facilities teams are an integral part of the NHS and play a crucial role in ensuring trusts can provide a good service for patients. As part of the wider healthcare system, they also have a role to play in supporting the NHS vision, priorities, and policies. New research with NHS Trust executives examines the role of facilities in supporting the NHS to deliver on its vision and goals. Read the article to find out more.

How can Estates and Facilities support the net zero targets?

In October 2020 the NHS published a “Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service” document which articulates plans surrounding the NHS’s ambition to achieve net zero.

The NHS’s net zero commitment is made up of two components: for emissions that are controlled directly by the NHS the target is “net zero by 2040, with an ambition to reach an 80% reduction by 2028 to 2032”. For emissions the NHS doesn’t cause directly but can influence, the target is “net zero by 2045, with an ambition to reach an 80% reduction by 2036 to 2039.”¹

According to the “Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service” document, estates and facilities contribute to 15% of NHS emissions.¹

It is not just the emissions caused by these teams that they can impact, but also the rest of the hospital’s emissions by supporting improved infrastructure.

This means estates and facilities will be instrumental in the NHS’s ability to meet targets, with opportunity for emission reductions in “energy use in buildings, waste and water, and new sources of heating and power generation.

One target involves “supporting the construction of 40 new ‘net zero hospitals’ as part of the government’s Health Infrastructure Plan with a new Net Zero Carbon Hospital Standard”.¹

As well as ensuring that the new hospitals are working towards net zero targets, changes will need to be made to existing hospitals.

One key initiative estates and facilities teams will need to implement involves upgrading NHS heating and lighting systems “by completing a £50 million LED lighting replacement programme, which, expanded across the entire NHS, would improve patient comfort and save over £3 billion during the coming three decade”.¹

Digital transformation will also play a role in meeting net zero targets, the NHS will need to ensure “the digital transformation agenda aligns with our ambition to be a net zero health service”.

For estates and facilities teams this will assist with optimisation of how NHS estates are used, with “intelligent, real-time energy monitoring and control, including the use of artificial intelligence” supporting teams to meet emission targets.¹

In recent research carried out by Sodexo Health & Care, NHS hospital executives described the move towards sustainability and its importance in the healthcare landscape.

One Head of Facilities said: “The net zero carbon challenge... I think it’s fair to say that we as a trust had a lot of really good things in place, but it probably wasn’t top of the shop. So, we’re now having to rethink how we’re going to make sure that it is, and what actions we can take.”²

According to one Director of Service Transformation, having a good sustainability offering is an important consideration when choosing an FM partner: “What can they do in terms of sustainability? Don’t just look at the hard and soft FM but look at the environment because that’s fast becoming one of the most important issues we’re dealing with at this point in time. The Chief Exec said this is one of the most important things we’ve got to pick up on in the coming years.”²

It is likely that this will continue to increase in importance going forward.

A Finance Director said: “As we move forward, I think what’s going to be really key is sustainability. Everyone is being asked to come up with their ‘green plan’ – how are we going to get to that neutral carbon position. I can see all organisations investing more in that area. There’s a lot of work to do, but it’s certainly something which exercises some of our non-executive directors.”²

How can Estates and Facilities support NHS priorities?

In December 2021 the NHS published its 2022/23 priorities and operational planning guidance. The document lays out priorities for the NHS over the 2022 to 2023 period, covering topics such as workforce, responding to Covid, the backlog, population health management and digital transformation.³

It will be important for estates and facilities teams to understand which of the priorities align with their work.

Supporting the workforce

One NHS priority for the upcoming year involves workforce investment, which is expected be achieved through “more people and new ways of working, and by strengthening the compassionate and inclusive culture”.¹

It is no secret that the NHS is experiencing something of a workforce crisis that has been exacerbated by Covid, with hospitals struggling with staff absences and difficulty retaining staff.

An NHS Director of Estates and Facilities confirmed the significance of the issue: “Our biggest challenge prior to Covid, and during Covid, was staff availability.”²

Another Director of Estates and Facilities alluded to specific challenges for recruitment within FM, “In estates it’s getting really difficult to hold onto and replace staff because they can make so much more money in the private sector for now. We also have a rapidly ageing workforce, particularly FM.”²

It will be important for Estates and Facilities managers to find new ways to attract and retain staff.

This could be facilitating training and development opportunities, supporting mental health and wellbeing, investing in new technology to support employees, and exploring how to provide staff with a better work-life balance.

Results of the 2021 NHS staff survey shows that only 51.9% of staff agreed they were “satisfied with the recognition they get for good work” and only 42.1% were “satisfied with the extent to which their organisation values their work”.

The scores to these questions were at the lowest they had been in five years. This presents an opportunity to do more to ensure NHS staff are feeling valued and recognised across Estates and Facilities teams and beyond.

Innovation in patient experience

According to the 2022/2023 NHS priorities, the NHS aims to “exploit the potential of digital technologies to transform the delivery of care and patient outcomes” so that every service can reach a “core level of digitisation”.³

Within facilities management, innovating and digitalising processes can be done to improve patient experience. Whether this is through automated monitoring of non-clinical processes or implementing the latest innovation in cleaning techniques, technology and real-time data can provide useful insight that can be used to improve efficiency and the patient experience.

An NHS Director of Estates and Facilities discussed the influence FM teams have on patient experience: “We interact with the patient way before they interact with the medical team. We have cut the grass on the grounds they walk through and cleaned the revolving doors on their way in. We clean the floor beneath them and send them home again.”²

In data collected by YouGov on behalf of Sodexo Health & Care, it was discovered that “non-clinical interventions such as cleanliness” was ranked as the second most critical factor impacting an inpatient’s experience. The efficiency of processes is also a factor, with 87% of those surveyed agreeing that “the quicker any issue is resolved, the more likely their patient experience would be improved”.²

To respond to these needs, Sodexo Health & Care has developed the Experiencia platform, designed to collect and report patient experience data in real-time.⁴

This flow of data allows issues to be solved quickly, during the patient’s stay.

The platform connects with a Patient Ambassador to obtain patient feedback on the non-clinical experience. Analytics from data collected can be used by Sodexo Health & Care FM teams and hospital teams to identify trends and support continuous improvement of non-clinical services.