Bluesky Design Services are our healthcare estate partner and have been working closely with Community 1st for over 15 years. Together we have delivered over 510,000 sq ft of health and wellbeing estate in partnership with the NHS across Oldham, Sheffield, and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.

Community 1st have worked with Bluesky Design Services on over 21 new build primary care facilities. The design of these buildings allows maximum future flexibility, enabling straightforward adaptations of the space. Bluesky continue to support ongoing smaller variation projects as services evolve, including bringing additional health services into centres.

Bluesky Design Services have a strong design portfolio across the healthcare sector. Projects range from new build design of large community based primary care facilities and acute hospitals as well as mixed-use wellbeing centres through to refurbishment and remodelling of small GP practices.

Director Alison Quinn leads the design team. Alison has over 20 years’ experience leading architectural design projects across the healthcare and other sectors. Our long-term partnership approach to working together with the Bluesky design team ensures we deliver service-led, patient-orientated design solutions matched to a commissioner’s service strategy.

Alison Quinn, Director, said: “We understand from the beginning of our long working relationship that adaptable design solutions were a priority for all stakeholders. Working together over the years we have seen the buildings evolve and adapt to changing needs, which prove the original designs delivered the right solutions.”

Get in touch:
enquiries@blueskydesignservices.co.uk
0161 475 0220
www.blueskydesignservices.co.uk

October 2020 marks 15 years since Community 1^st Sheffield started to invest in the transformation of the local health estate in Sheffield; working in partnership with the local NHS.

We are delighted to share some of our achievements from this decade and a half.

Community 1st Sheffield started construction on our first projects, Wincobank Medical Centre and Deepcar Medical Centre in late 2005. Since then we have delivered £79m of investment in six state-of-the-art health facilities across Sheffield. We continue to own 128,284 sq ft of health estate, which we maintain to the highest standards.

These years have seen considerable changes in primary care, both locally and nationally.  We are proud of our strong partnerships and links with the local community, who have worked with us to respond quickly and effectively to these changes. The most recent examples of this are the rapid adjustments made to our buildings to ensure they are ‘COVID safe’ for staff and patients.

Our buildings are home to a range of primary care and community services, providing local neighbourhoods in Sheffield with award-winning facilities. However, we don’t just deliver new build projects.

Over the years, we have provided a range of expert estate services, managing a variety of minor and major capital works projects across the local health estate on behalf of the NHS.

We are committed to working together with our local NHS and GP partners to support their changing estate needs. As a procurement cleared partner, we can be directly appointed without any delay.

In these challenging times, we look forward to continuing to offer a flexible, supportive estate service to meet NHS Long Term Plan goals and changing local service objectives.

#WorkingTogether #NHS #ExpertEstateServices #Celebrating15years #partnerships

Current climate

As a result of the Covid-19 response and out of necessity, the NHS has seen rapid and radical changes to the way in which services are managed and delivered. Examples of these changes are evident across all health and social care settings. The rapid changes were required to be able to achieve social distancing, non-essential contact, and the ability to maintain delivery of safe and high quality care for patients along with safe working practices for staff.

Changes in Primary Care during Covid-19

Guidance published from NHSE/I requested that General Practice move to the ‘Total Triage’ system as soon as possible to reduce footfall in practices and to ensure safe working environments for all staff in these buildings. These rapid changes in Primary Care and General Practice are evidenced by latest statistics showing a 600% increase in telephone and virtual consultations between 1st-31st March alone.

Across the board teams in General Practice have changed their working practices to continue to provide high quality care to patients and to ensure safe working environments for the staff. This has including the ability to work, consult and have access to patient records regardless of their location.

The availability of a national framework developed and agreed by NHSE/I enabled the quick access to a range of technology and software solutions to facilitate the changes quickly and efficiently along with tool kits and support channels to get these systems up and running as soon as possible.

As we move through to the next phases of dealing with this pandemic there is much discussion across all Health and Social Care sectors on what the future now looks like for the delivery of health and social care services. The consensus is that the gains and progress made around new technology and service delivery cannot be lost, along with the acknowledgement that social distancing will be a long term requirement.

The main questions regarding health and social care facilities: how do we move forward with design and planning either on new build projects or existing facilities for the current or future climate? In the absence of guidance and lessons learned from the current situation, how do we plan and design new facilities or adapt existing ones to provide safe and efficient, fit for purpose facilities?

Nationally the message is that the NHS cannot lose the progress already made around delivering new, efficient, and effective ways of working, and cannot be seen to revert to previous ways of working in inflexible constrained or environments that are considered unsuitable because new Covid-19 guidelines cannot be achieved.

As an established local estate partner to the NHS in Oldham, Sheffield and Cornwall and the Isles of Silly, Community 1^st can support our partners to move forward in these uncertain times, to support our NHS colleagues to develop flexible service delivery strategies that are underpinned by robust operational and clinical policies, providing considered design solutions that allow flexible and appropriate changes and that can respond and adapt to service demand.

How?

Community 1^st has always recognised strategic and operational healthcare planning to be the best practice in any new or re-designed health development, however in the current climate this process has never been more critical.

The pace at which the recent changes due to Covid-19 have been adopted means that there is a multitude of new working practices that have been adopted.

Current local working practices and policies, IT infrastructure and solutions, existing buildings, and workforce, along with what can be achieved quickly and successfully have all dictated which has been the most suitable way forward for our NHS colleagues in the current climate. As a result, this means that there has not been a ‘one size fits all’ solution, and neither should there be in the future.

The process that should be adopted now to allow longer term progression with the design or re-design of existing facilities, is for Community 1^st to support our local NHS partners to provide a range of support services that are tailored to meet each of our partner’s needs.

This approach provides the ability to acknowledge the national direction of travel and potential future guidance but at the same time allows new development or re-design of existing facilities that are established around locally agreed clinical, operational and estate strategies that are appropriate to local arrangements. This enables any design solutions proposed, to build on existing flexibility in current primary care facilities and ensures that future flexibility in any new developments are embedded into the design process on day one.

Adopting this process allows Community 1^st to support our partners with:

• Evidenced based feasibility studies
• HM treasury compliant business case analysis and development that supports funding applications and agreement

All of which ensures solutions are designed to deliver appropriate, fit for purpose, flexible, high quality clinical services that are unpinned by robust and agreed clinical and operational service strategies.

With our service support, Commissioners, Clinicians, and other stakeholders are provided with immediately available and experienced resource and support to allow them the time to review and establish appropriate local operational policies, development of robust and evidenced business cases that will deliver successful and considered service delivery strategies that meets local needs and the targets as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Kate Edwards

Health Development Director

Want to discuss your changing health estate needs?

To find out more about how we can work with you to support your changing estate requirements, get in touch with the Community 1^st team.

T: 0161 831 9722
E:  info@community1st.co.uk

 

Community 1st Cornwall was established in 2004 as a local joint venture public private partnership with the aim to develop and maintain community-based primary health, social care, and community premises across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Meet our General Manager. I’ve spent 30 years in the UK construction industry, mainly in the South West, starting in Civil Engineering building complex bridges and highways before moving onto buildings.

I was the Regional Design & Build Manager for one of the largest UK construction companies when we became part of the team bidding for the NHS LIFT framework which eventually became Community 1^st Cornwall.

I’ve been at Community 1st Cornwall since 2005 and this continuity has helped me to develop the local base for Community 1^st Cornwall and build great relationships with our local NHS partners and our local supply chain. I am responsible for the overall direction and control of Community 1st Cornwall reporting to our local board. I look after the day to day management of the Company and have oversight of the provision of services from Community 1^st and our supply chain.

Local partnerships: What has Community 1^st Cornwall done in partnership with local public sector partners to contribute to transforming communities across the country?

Community 1^st Cornwall have delivered six state of the art new build health developments and have managed over 150 Capital projects on the NHS owned estate in Cornwall since being established as the local procurement cleared NHS expert estate partner in 2004. This covers everything from the design and build of new Community hospitals to improvement projects on NHS owned assets along with estates reviews and strategic planning.

In the past couple of years, Community 1^st Cornwall have provided technical supervision on the design and construction of a new children’s mental health in-patient unit and managed a number of other Mental Health out-patient projects for the local NHS Trust.

The innovative and award-winning buildings that we have designed, funded and delivered have transformed the provision of healthcare in Cornwall. Each of these buildings was designed to be flexible to accommodate future service changes, meet the needs of building users and maximise efficiencies.

These buildings comprise of over 144,000 sq ft of the highest quality health and community estate across Cornwall. These cutting-edge buildings have helped to enhance the clinical environment in Cornwall, relocating services previously provided from outdated, often inaccessible buildings that were not fit for purpose into modern and effective facilities located in the communities they serve.

We are procurement cleared and have the resources and skills in place to support any local health estate projects in Cornwall to any budget.

Our local partnerships with the NHS and track record of estate works demonstrate our flexible approach and commitment to providing a high-quality service.

Flexible Solutions:

The comprehensive variety of in-house resources offered by Community 1^st Cornwall and our supply chain shows that we can respond quickly with solutions that meet the visible set of challenges faced by our partners. Every successful project we deliver involves a unique blend of selections from the array of funding, design, delivery and operational options available – there is no ‘off-the-peg’ response to our clients’ specific objectives.

As well as new build projects, Community 1^st Cornwall has supported a diverse range of capital works projects from electrical or heating upgrades to extensive refurbishments and remodelling of existing premises. We recently carried out Fire Risk Assessments and managed the remedial works on the Cornwall Community Hospitals estate on behalf of NHS Property Services.

We have a wide portfolio of local experience which you can see here: https://community1st.co.uk/about-community-1st-cornwall/.

Future plans: Community 1^st Cornwall has an established local base in St Austell. Using our local supply chains, we will continue to work with partners across the NHS and wider public sector, to help produce modern, fit for purpose buildings that give access to a range services close to people’s homes. In particular, we are working on adaptations and variations to existing primary care premises to accommodate new service requirements quickly and affordably to minimise value for money from existing assets.

To keep up to date with our projects why not follow our LinkedIn page here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/community-1st

We would love to discuss what we can do to support your local health estate project. Contact us today:

General Manager: Ken Jones

Email: kjones@c1c.co.uk

Phone: 0161 831 9722

Meet the team – Jonathan Keegan, General Manager of Community 1^st Sheffield and Oldham

Community 1st Sheffield and Oldham were established in 2004 and 2005 respectively as a local joint venture public private partnership with the aim to develop and maintain community-based primary health, social care, and community premises in these local areas.

Meet our General Manager: As the General Manager, I am responsible for the overall direction and control of Community 1st Sheffield and Oldham reporting to our local boards. I look after the day to day management of the Company and have oversight of the provision of services from Community 1^st and our supply chain.

Local partnerships: What has Community 1^st  done in partnership with local public sector partners to contribute to transforming communities?

The innovative and award-winning buildings that we have designed, funded and delivered have transformed the provision of healthcare in these areas. Each of these buildings was designed to be flexible to accommodate future service changes, meet the needs of building users and maximise efficiencies.

These buildings comprise over 366,000 sq ft of the highest quality health and community estate across these areas. These buildings have massively improved the clinical environment in Sheffield and Oldham, relocating services previously provided from outdated, often inaccessible buildings that were not fit for purpose into modern and effective facilities conveniently located near to local residents.

We are procurement cleared, have the resources and skills in place to support any local health estate projects in these areas.

Flexible Solutions:

The comprehensive range of in-house resources offered by Community 1^st and our supply chain means that we can respond quickly with solutions that meet the distinct set of challenges faced by our partners. Every successful project we deliver involves a unique blend of selections from the array of funding, design, delivery and operational options available – there is no ‘off-the-peg’ response to our clients’ specific objectives.

As well as new build projects, Community 1^st has supported a wide range of capital works projects from electrical or heating upgrades to large-scale refurbishments and remodelling of existing premises.

We have a wide portfolio of local experience which you can see here.  Sheffield and Oldham

Future plans: We will continue to work with partners across the NHS and wider public sector, to help provide modern, fit for purpose buildings that give access to a range services close to people’s homes. In particular, we are working on adaptations and variations to existing primary care premises to accommodate new service requirements quickly and affordably to minimise value for money from existing assets.

To keep up to date with our projects why not follow our LinkedIn page here.

We would love to discuss what we can do to support your local health estate project. Contact us today:

General Manager: Jonathan Keegan

Email: jkeegan@community1st.co.uk

Phone: 0161 831 9722

 

Across our Community 1^st areas – Oldham, Sheffield and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, we have always recognised the important impact our local partnerships have on community regeneration and local social impact.

We remain committed to supporting local regeneration and local economic impact. Working with like minded partners and supply chain is a key part of turning these commitments into reality.

Through our supply chain partners we have created local office bases for our estate team, creating local employment opportunities and a commitment to equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion.

Its great to see our Facilities and Construction Management Partner Blue Support Services celebrate International Women’s Day in Engineering 2020 and demonstrating their commitment to equality of opportunities for women in this sector.

Read more here:

http://bluesupportservices.co.uk/2020/06/23/international-women-engineering-day-2020/

 

#WorkingTogether #LocalEmployment #INWED2020