Health and Care Space Newham (HCSN)

This will be a partnership with a difference because we are generating social capital/local ownership for our residents through better housing and facilities. Together we will have the ability to provide healthcare in modern fit-for-purpose premises built and owned by the community. This will ease access to services and lead to better health and a better quality of life for local people.

Dr Mohit Venkataram, Executive Director of Commercial Development, East London NHS Foundation Trust

About the partnership

1. Health and Care Space Newham (HCSN) is a collaboration between East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) and Newham Council (LBN) that was set up to enable an integrated health and social care provision through the development of new facilities such as fit-for-purpose community health centres and housing for staff.
2. Facilities integrate GP services alongside a range of community health, social care, out-of-hospital, and a variety of clinical services.
3. As the country’s first strategic collaboration between a local government and an NHS organisation, HCSN serves as the delivery platform for a larger strategic alliance that also comprises ELFT, Newham Council, NHS North East London, Barts Health and Newham Health Collaborative (NHC) – the local GP federation.
4. It’s a necessary partnership to provide capacity to tackle population increase and other pressing delivery issues, where there currently is no clear government strategy or policy plans.

What has gone well

1. The partnership now has a mechanism where funding is available for where funding is needed, and decisions are made at place level.
2. Subject to Business Case approval for each development, HCSN can access funding to deliver a £300 million development programme of health and care estates in the borough.

Challenges experiences and overcome

1. Access to capital in the health system is historically difficult to come by. To tackle this, HCSN was established on a 50:50 shareholding basis between LBN and ELFT. The venture is set up as a ‘for profit’ company, which allows partners to raise and access capital as required. adds a level of accountability.

Results

1. One health centre already open despite Covid-19, three being delivered and 11 are in the pipeline.
2. The model was developed from scratch, and it took five years to open the first health centre. However, the process developed now provides an additional lever for the local health and care system, which is needed to tackle growing health and care pressures.
3. The venture is equitable and provides a discount on the district current market rent – to provide value for money for partners.
4. The model has been developed to be in a good position to iterate designs based on local population need.

What made the difference

1. Venture: the partnership was set up as venture and exists as a private limited company, which acts as a lever for policy delivery and partners. The company can access funding via the local authority, or directly from the market.
2. Extensive stakeholder engagement: developing a solid partnership through extensive engagement was a key step in developing the venture. This was necessary as partner organisations had different ways of working and priorities that had to be aligned. The company now works closely with GPs to understand the tensions between primary care provision and other parts of the system.
3. Genuine consensus: everyone involved agrees that this approach is the right one.
4. Ownership: the partnership is in control of all parts of the process, from buildings to governance, which means they can set important aims, such as net zero, and have control on how they achieve these.