Community 1st News
We’re proud to see our colleague Ken Jones will be speaking at Healthcare Buildings Forum 2026
Ken, from the Community 1st team, will be joining Stable Events to present “Integrating Health and Social Care in a Remote Community.” A great opportunity to share important learning and experiences.
Read more here.
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The official opening of the Isles of Scilly Hospital, was celebrated on Friday 22nd May as The Duke of Cornwall returned to the islands, to officially recognise the completion of the project.
His Royal Highness first visited the project site in May 2024 to take part in the turf cutting ceremony.
The development has been a truly collaborative effort, bringing together a wide range of partners led by Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and including the Council of the Isles of Scilly, primary care services, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, voluntary sector partners and mental health services. The project was led by Community 1st Cornwall on behalf of Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust with all organisations working closely with the Duchy of Cornwall to bring this important and logistically challenging project to life.
The Isles of Scilly hospital represents a ‘project of a lifetime’ creating a new model of health and social care for the island communities. The impact on local health service is already being evidenced.
Community 1st Cornwall were appointed to provide project management on behalf of Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, with Bluesky Architects leading on architectural design and healthcare planning. Modular off-site solutions were provided by Premier Modular and construction and groundworks provided by METS ltd and TMS ltd.
Ken Jones, General Manager at Community 1st Cornwall, said: “The completion of this project marks a significant investment and milestone in health and social care for the Isles of Scilly. By combining modern methods of construction with the refurbishment of the existing hospital, we have delivered high‑quality facilities that are fit for the future. Achieving this in such a remote setting required exceptional collaboration, careful planning and strong partnership working across all organisations involved. It has been a real team effort, and we’re proud to see the positive impact this development will have for island communities for years to come.”
Further details about the project are available on the Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust news website: Royal celebration of Isles of Scilly Health and Care Partnership | News
Today, on World FM Day, we recognise the vital role of facilities management in keeping essential services running smoothly.
As a long-term NHS partner, we manage over 1 million sq. ft of primary care estate, delivering 24/7 facilities management services to ensure safe, efficient, and high-performing healthcare environments.
On this World Facilities Management Day, we reflect on this year’s theme, ‘Cultivating Belonging Through Built Environments’, highlighting the critical role that our well-managed spaces play in fostering connection, comfort, and community.
With the support of our facilities management partner, Blue Support Services, we continue to enhance efficiency, sustainability, and readiness for the challenges ahead.
Find out more here: https://bluesupportservices.co.uk/services/
#BlueSupportServices #WorldFMDay #FacilitiesManagement #Sustainability #BuildingBelonging
Community 1st Cornwall is delighted to support the World Pilot Gig Championships 2026, helping provide essential infrastructure behind the scenes for this much‑loved event.
Working alongside Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, METS Ltd and TMS Ltd, we have supplied two site cabins that were previously part of the St Mary’s Hospital redevelopment project, now repurposed to support the safe and smooth running of the Championships.
We’re proud to contribute to an event that brings together crews, volunteers, visitors and the wider Isles of Scilly community. This partnership reflects our commitment to supporting local projects and reinvesting in community‑focused initiatives.
Wishing everyone an enjoyable and successful weekend!
… It starts with using the existing estate better.
The national NHC framework is clear: start with repurposing and optimising what is already there and works well locally.
Across Oldham, Sheffield and Cornwall, LIFT buildings are already enabling integrated, neighbourhood based care. These modern, accessible spaces bring primary care, community, and wider services together.
As systems develop their NHC pipelines, the opportunity is to move faster, deliver better value and support integrated teams by making full use of the existing estate.
Neighbourhood Health is an operating model, not a building programme.
www.community1st.co.uk
#NHSEstates #NHSLIFT #Workingtogether #Neighbourhoodhealth #PPP
Read more here.
The Department of Health and Social Care has today announced the first wave of 27 Neighbourhood Health Centres, targeting areas with high deprivation and health need.
Already established in these areas LIFT buildings are well placed to adapt quickly to increase capacity to host a wider range of health and social care services which have traditionally been delivered only in Acute settings.
11 LIFT buildings are included in these first wave plans, including one of Community 1st’s properties in the South West, Truro Health Park.
LIFT remains the most successful PPP investment model to date, delivering over £2.5 billion of private sector funding to develop more than 350 health premises in the areas of greatest health need.
This announcement is a positive step forward in enabling Neighbourhood Health, but there remains significant untapped opportunities to accelerate the Neighbourhood Health programme further with greater utilisation of the wider LIFT portfolio.
The full Government announcement can be read here.
#NHSLIFT #NHSEstate #PPP
Community 1st Cornwall is proud to announce that the St Mary’s Hospital Extension on the Isles of Scilly has won the Structural Award from the Devon & Cornwall Concrete Society recognising excellence in structural design, technical innovation, and construction quality.
The project stood out in the Structural category thanks to its innovative use of offsite‑manufactured precast concrete, which enabled a highly coordinated build despite the challenges of working 27 miles offshore. This approach ensured structural precision, improved quality control, and significantly reduced on‑island disruption during construction.
A big thank you to our project partners for their exceptional collaboration and expertise:
Well done to everyone involved, this award reflects outstanding teamwork in a truly unique setting.
Speaking during the Westminster Health Forum NHS Estates policy conference, Lord Hutton urged the Government not to waste another year debating models of private-public partnerships.
He argues that Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) provides a model that works for neighbourhood health centres and had delivered more than 300 primary and community care facilities in England.
LIFT is in no doubt the most successful Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, initially securing around £2.5 billion of private investment into community based primary care assets in areas of significant health deprivation.
Almost 25 years on, these important ‘core’ assets are still maintained to the highest standards with no back log maintenance issues like we see across the wider NHS estate. Most importantly, these assets are ready to evolve and adapt to becoming home to more acute services as part of the Neighbourhood Health agenda.
We agree with Lord Hutton’s comments ‘The LIFT platform gives us a ready-made delivery vehicle, and we should definitely pick it up and run with it.’
LIFT partnerships are well established; they have proven that they can deliver critical NHS infrastructure, build successful local partnerships with service commissioners and they are well placed to evolve to support this next phase of Government investment in Neighbourhood health centres.
Extending this established partnership model, LIFT is ready to support any form of capital project and provide investment and estate expertise without delay.
For existing ‘core’ LIFT properties, it’s the right time to start to review lease agreements to remove any uncertainty for NHS service commissioners.
Lord Hutton’s full speech available here Association of Investors in Infrastructure
Healthcare management article https://www.healthcare-management.uk/breaking-news-private-sector-capital-reservoir-dam-lord-hutton
We’re excited to share that our appointed architects Bluesky Architects and modular solutions partner Premier Modular, in collaboration have been shortlisted for the MMC 2026 Awards in the Healthcare Project of the Year (Secondary) category for the Isles of Scilly Hospital project.
As the appointed project delivery partner for this scheme by Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, we needed a team that would be up for the design and logistical challenges of this project.
This project presented unique design and logistical challenges to ship 29 modular units to the remote St Marys island. Collaborative design and teamwork between Bluesky, Premier Modular and the wider design team, ensured the seamless integration of the modular solution with the existing hospital building which has provided new inpatient wards, outpatient services, and care home facilities (12 ensuite bedrooms and support space).
We are delighted the team have been shortlisted for this award. Its is a project that will make a lasting impact on the Isles of Scilly communities.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone here at Community 1st.
We look forward to working with partners old and new in 2026.
#MerryChristmas #WorkingTogether #ThankYou #NHSEstateservices #facilitiesmanagement #propertymanagement #assetmanagement
Community 1st is proud to support the transformation of health and social care on the Isles of Scilly with the opening of the new Isles of Scilly Hospital Wing and a pioneering integrated model of care.
This state-of-the-art facility, opened in July on St Mary’s, is more than just a building, it’s a partnership between NHS, social care, and community teams delivering more care closer to home. Services like Hospital at Home, expanded diagnostics, remote consultations, and mental health support are improving access and outcomes for island residents.
Early results show a nearly 30% drop in emergency medevac fly-offs to the mainland, proving the power of community-focused care.
Ken Jones, General Manager at Community 1st, said: “We’re proud to play our part in this project and to work alongside our NHS and Social Care partners and local teams to support their vision for a new neighbourhood model of care.”
With the new care home wing opening soon, the Isles of Scilly Health and Care Partnership is leading the way in integrated, digitally enabled community care.
We were pleased to attend this year’s Mental Health and Dementia Facilities Forum, where NHS, private mental health, and care home professionals came together to share the latest thinking in care-focused design, construction, and service delivery.
Across two days, we gained valuable insights into new mental health projects and made the most of the many networking opportunities. It was a great chance to connect with sector leaders, exchange ideas, and bring back fresh perspectives to enhance the environments we help deliver.
At Community 1st, we continue to work closely with our NHS partners to support high quality, community based mental health services, bringing care closer to home through state of the art facilities.
We look forward to building on these conversations and exploring new opportunities with colleagues across the mental health sector.
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