The LIFT Council welcomes Future Forum response and Government amendments to Health Bill

 

The LIFT Council welcomes the recommendations of the Future Forum and the Government’s response – and is delighted to see that clinically-led care remains central to the Health and Social Care Bill. This core aim together with the recent focus on service delivery being truly integrated will help improve health outcomes. It is a vision that LIFT as a model has and continues to be well placed to support by ensuring that the local facilities needed for integrated care are in place and fit for purpose. Indeed without improved primary, community and social care facilities the ambition to see more patients treated in more local settings will simply not happen.

 

We do note the Government’s removal of Monitor’s remit to require “a provider to allow access to its facilities to another provider”.  This change does have the potential to allow existing providers to frustrate the introduction of new and better service to patients which we do not believe is in the best interests of patients or the tax payer. We have long argued for health facilities to be managed by an independent expert asset manager on behalf of all providers thereby facilitating clinical service changes by any provider. To ensure the best of both worlds this independent manager should be a Public/Private Joint Venture company with the Public sector shareholding being held by the Commissioning function.  

 

Expert asset managers such as local LIFT companies (LIFTCos) are Public/Private Joint Ventures and are already in place. They are able to provide the necessary support and thereby ensure that local facilities remain fit for purpose and Commissioners can, if all else fails, seek alternative service providers where necessary to improve patient care.

 

 

LIFT Council welcomes Mill Asset Management membership

 

The LIFT Council is delighted to announce that Mill Asset Management Limited is to join its membership.

 

Mill Asset Management joins at a time when the LIFT Council continues to highlight the value of the LIFT model and the contribution it can make to the Government’s future infrastructure strategy.

 

Chris Whitehouse, Chairman of the LIFT Council, said:

 

“The addition of Mill Asset Management is extremely welcome, and I feel reflects the very positive steps the LIFT Council continues to take in articulating important arguments about the future of the healthcare estate to the highest levels of government.

 

“The Government’s health agenda and goals for integrated care will require significant provision of expert asset management if the NHS is to rationalise its estate, achieve the efficiencies demanded of it, and ensure community facilities are fit-for-purpose and capable of improving health outcomes.  LIFT has considerable scope to contribute to this vision.”

 

 

The LIFT Council welcomes the publication of EC Harris’ report ‘Seizing the opportunity’

 

Recent Government announcements have highlighted the importance of integrated care to the NHS in the future.  For this goal to be achievable there must be a holistic review of what health facilities are needed across NHS primary, community, acute and Local Authority facilities. In essence a ‘Community Asset approach is required rather than an individual silo approach. In this way the right facilities of the right size and in the right location will be provided that allow patients to be treated in the best possible place and for best value to be derived from clinical costs as well as facility costs. This approach will require expert asset management of the sort that local LIFT companies are ideally placed to provide.

 

 

LIFT Council: Health Bill welcomed, but important decisions yet to be made.

 

3 February 2011.  The LIFT Council, which represents organisations involved in local improvement finance trusts, has today welcomed the Health and Social Care Bill, while urging the Government to ensure that it does not allow estate ownership issues to jeopardise its ambitions for healthcare reform.

 

The Bill enables the Health Secretary to deal with property belonging to Primary Care Trusts ahead of their abolition in 2013, but the Government has left its options for future ownership of the residual estate as wide as possible.

 

The LIFT Council has warned that the wrong choice of future residual estate owner could severely limit the scope of the Government’s wider health agenda.

 

Chris Whitehouse, Chairman of the LIFT Council, said:

 

“We certainly welcome the broad strokes of the Government’s plans, as set out in the Health Bill.

“The Government does, however, now need to be careful that it does not make a rod for its own back.  The ownership of the residual estate once PCTs and other bodies are abolished in 2013 still needs to be settled.  Although the Government has rightly left its options as open as possible at this stage, putting these estates in the wrong hands could thwart its own ambitions in the long-term by undermining competition and patient choice.”

 

  

LIFT Council: Health Bill welcomed, but important decisions yet to be made.

 

3 February 2011.  The LIFT Council, which represents organisations involved in local improvement finance trusts, has today welcomed the Health and Social Care Bill, while urging the Government to ensure that it does not allow estate ownership issues to jeopardise its ambitions for healthcare reform.

 

The Bill enables the Health Secretary to deal with property belonging to Primary Care Trusts ahead of their abolition in 2013, but the Government has left its options for future ownership of the residual estate as wide as possible.

 

The LIFT Council has warned that the wrong choice of future residual estate owner could severely limit the scope of the Government’s wider health agenda.

 

Chris Whitehouse, Chairman of the LIFT Council, said:

 

“We certainly welcome the broad strokes of the Government’s plans, as set out in the Health Bill.

 

“The Government does, however, now need to be careful that it does not make a rod for its own back.  The ownership of the residual estate once PCTs and other bodies are abolished in 2013 still needs to be settled.  Although the Government has rightly left its options as open as possible at this stage, putting these estates in the wrong hands could thwart its own ambitions in the long-term by undermining competition and patient choice.”

 

  

New report: Primary Care needs to LIFT efforts on carbon emissions 

 

A new report commissioned by the LIFT Council has found that primary care could save more than £47 million over the next five years through the adoption of better energy efficiency.

 

The report, Energise Your Estate the Low Carbon Way, examined the carbon emissions of every Primary Care Trust.  The LIFT Council has called on all Trusts and their successor bodies to adopt long-term carbon management strategies to minimise their emissions - in addition to the ‘quick wins’ achievable through modest changes in practice.

 

 

Public Finance: There’s still life in LIFT

 

LIFT Council executive director David Pokora highlights the future for LIFT, and the role of joint venture models in getting best value from existing public estates, to Public Finance magazine.

 

To read David’s comments in full, click here.

 

 

LIFT Council responds to Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS

 

The LIFT Council, the representative body and discussion forum for parties involved in Local Improvement Financial Trusts, has today published its considered response to the Government’s NHS White Paper Equity in Excellence: Liberating the NHS. The LIFT Council welcomes the proposals set out in the NHS White Paper and its submission outlines how LIFT can play a crucial role in assisting the Government during the period of transition and full implementation of the new healthcare environment.

 

The proposals evolve the more radical of the previous administration’s policies, most notably Commissioning a Patient Led NHS, but also Any Willing Provider and the choice agenda, and should introduce a greater emphasis on quality and a shift away from central diktat. This aligns well to the model that has been established by LIFT over the last decade, with the LIFT community working hard to ensure that facilities match local need and are responsive to the inevitable demographic and clinical changes that happen over time.

 

However, the timetable for the Government’s proposed reforms are relatively quick and with no explicit proposals for NHS estate the Government needs to consider this matter urgently in order to ensure it does not unwittingly allow estate to become a barrier to progress for its wider agenda.

 

To deliver the best, most clinically and financially effective care to patients requires infrastructure that is fit for the purpose, appropriately located and properly maintained. To deliver the Government’s aspirations, the primary and community care estate must be owned by expert asset managers independent of providers. The best way of ensuring this is through a number of Public/Private Joint Venture Property companies such as existing LIFTCos.

 

LIFT represents the most effective way of managing the NHS estate, bringing in asset management expertise and capital along with an ability to integrate services along defined commissioning pathways that are in the best interests of the patient. The contractual framework can overcome historic procurement and financial barriers to encourage integration of services.

 

Chris Whitehouse, Chair, The LIFT Council, said:

 

“The LIFT Council warmly welcomes the proposals set out in the NHS White Paper and looks forward to working with the Government during the period of transition and full implementation of the new arrangements.

 

“To deliver the best, most clinically and financially effective care to patients requires infrastructure that is fit for the purpose, appropriately located and properly maintained. The LIFT market is now very mature, having been in existence for seven years, and it is clear that this model has a crucial role to play in achieving these standards.

 

“LIFT represents the most effective way of managing the NHS estate through bringing in asset management expertise and capital along with an ability to integrate services along defined commissioning pathways that are in the best interests of the patient.

 

“The LIFT Council supports all efforts to improve the delivery of healthcare to patients and we await with interest more details on the plans and look forward to working with the Government to deliver this new vision.”

 

To view the LIFT Council’s submission in full, please click here.

 

 

LIFT Council responds to Department for Education’s capital spending review

 

The LIFT Council, the representative body for private sector investors in the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) programme, has published its response to the Department for Education’s capital spending review. The aim of the review is to ensure that future capital investment is better value for money, less bureaucratic and more cost efficient.

 

In the submission, the Council outlines the great potential of LIFT to play a key role in future school building projects. LIFTCos are already delivering education projects and as a mature joint venture can be used both to generate investment and to bring expertise into school infrastructure. There are numerous examples of LIFT schemes offering services such as leisure facilities, children’s centres, literacy and ICT facilities. For example, LIFT projects were among the successful recipients of the then Department for Children, Schools and Families’ £220 million co-location fund, for ‘innovative local capital projects that enabled the co-location of two or more services’ for children, young people and families.

 

To view the LIFT Council’s submission in full, please click here.