Annual State of NHSScotland Assets and Facilities Report for 2014

Annex D

Capital Planning Review

The Capital Planning Short Life Working Group (CPSLWG) has recently completed an exercise of developing and appraising options for the future delivery of capital planning services for NHSScotland. The Group's report, describing the outcomes from this exercise, concluded that the preferred strategy for delivering future capital planning services is one that is based on regional/geographic groupings of capital planning teams and resources.

This proposed new strategy is expected to deliver significant benefits for NHSScotland.

The Group acknowledged in its report that prior to implementing the new strategy, further work is required, particularly in relation to:

• The detailed arrangements for regional/geographic models in different areas of Scotland.
• The need to maximise potential benefits from the new strategy whilst taking into account the practicality of staff travel times/costs in relation to delivering services in different areas of the country.
• The extent to which the new strategy can adopt "new ways of working" as an integral part of the model i.e. the use of modern IM&T systems which enable staff to work as teams without necessarily needing them to be physically co-located, flexible working arrangement such as home working, mobile working and hot desking.
• The confirmation of the report's assumption that the new strategy can be implemented within existing resources.
• Addressing the concerns of some members of the Group that the benefits of the new strategy for capital planning activity associated with projects procured through Frameworks may be marginal.

The work completed by the Group to date has confirmed the strategic context for the project, made a robust case for change and provided stakeholders with a preferred way forward having identified and undertaken an analysis of a wide range of available options.

The next stages in the development of this project are summarised as follows:

• Develop the details and evidence base for the preferred strategy - revisiting assumptions made in order to verify the preferred option.
• Determine the potential value for money of the proposed new strategy by revisiting and building on the option appraisal work already completed to demonstrate value for money from the proposed new service delivery strategy.
• Ascertaining the affordability and funding requirements for the new strategy by comparing current funding within Boards with the requirements for the new strategy.
• Undertake a detailed risk assessment of the new strategy and identify plans for mitigating and managing the risks.
• Determine the practicalities of implementing the changes required to enable the new strategy to be implemented across all Boards including timescales and key tasks.
• Drafting a comprehensive business case document that provides a compelling case for change and clearly demonstrates both the value for money and the affordability of the new strategy.