State of the NHSScotland Estate 2011

5.0 Forward Look to 2012

Improving the performance, efficiency and sustainability of NHSScotland's substantial property and assets base is a huge challenge because of its size and complexity. Nevertheless, the development of this first State of the Estate Report has shown that NHSScotland is making strong progress on a number of national and local initiatives aimed at ensuring that property and assets make a valuable contribution to the delivery of effective and efficient healthcare services as well as delivering best value.

Furthermore, the case studies included in this report demonstrate that NHSScotland is at the forefront of best practice in a number of aspects of property and asset management including:

• Collaborative and joint working across public sector bodies
• Office workspace planning and design
• The use of new technology to improve energy and sustainability performance
• The application of "User-Centred Design" for new healthcare facilities.

The report also identifies areas for improvement, for example in:

• The quality and consistency of the data held on property and assets, which is the absolute foundation of all work to improve the performance, efficiency and sustainability of the asset base.
• The Property and Asset Management Strategies (PAMS) of NHS Boards which provide the "route map" for delivering change and innovation in NHSScotland's deployment of property and asset to support service delivery.
• The setting of benchmarks and targets for improvement in performance of property and assets ensuring that these are challenging but achievable. In addition they must be demonstrably linked to the overall performance of NHS Boards as a partner in the delivery of health and social services in their area.
• The monitoring of performance to ensure that progress towards targets is properly measured and that ultimately the expected benefits, financial and non-financial, are realised.

2012 will see further work on:

• Implementing the Scottish Government's "Policy for Property and Asset Management in NHSScotland" which seeks to establish asset management excellence in NHSScotland. The policy provides a robust framework against which the planning, delivery, management and disposal of property and other assets are undertaken and assessed.
• Bringing the new Estate and Asset Management System (EAMS) into full operational use enabling NHS Boards and the Scottish Government to increasingly rely on the information held in it for property and asset performance analysis and monitoring, confident that the information is accurate and consistent with ISD Cost Book, NHS Board Annual Accounts, eMART and SCART.
• Supporting NHS Boards, through guidance and training, to develop comprehensive Property and Asset Management Strategies that fully meet the requirements of the "Policy for Property and Asset Management in NHSScotland" and HFS guidance on "Developing a Property and Asset Management Strategy". The aim being to demonstrate that the NHS Board's strategic plans for property and assets are closely aligned with, and support, national and local policies and will deliver on key targets for change.
• Continued delivery of strategic and collaborative projects through the "Hub" initiative which, through its partnering approach, will provide enhanced value for money and risk transfer as well as significant non financial and qualitative benefits.
• Implementing the Scottish Government's new Policy on Sustainable Development for NHSScotland and the associated Sustainable Development Strategy for NHSScotland and the development of NHS Board-specific Sustainable Development Action Plans which will provide the framework for the achievement of the Scottish Government's sustainable development objectives.
• Developing efficiency and performance benchmarking for the office estate, particularly in relation to the Special NHS Boards but also aimed at the significant amount of office accommodation within the estates of the NHS Boards.
• A strategic review, incorporating a value for money assessment, of soft facilities management services to identify opportunities for improving performance.

The journey through 2012 will be about developing and trialling solutions to some of the issues and barriers to improving performance that the development of this report has identified. It will focus on delivering quick wins, demonstrating success, and ensuring that important seeds are sown for the delivery of longer term benefits, performance and efficiency improvements in the property and asset base.