A roadmap to the perfect infrastructure strategy
It’s been anticipated for a while that Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) will need to produce a clear and well-planned strategy for their infrastructure, and practical guidance has now been published by NHS England to set out exactly what this will include.
Whilst some ICSs have already begun to undertake completion of the task, there are others who will now need to respond quickly in order to meet the July deadline suggested by the guidance. This is a great opportunity to understand and address key challenges and healthcare inequalities, but it can be a daunting task, especially given the additional workload this may bring to already stretched teams.
This is a great opportunity to understand and address key challenges and healthcare inequalities, but it can be a daunting task, especially given the additional workload this may bring to already stretched teams.
We’ve put together a roadmap to take you to a place where you’re confident to begin the challenge of creating your strategy.
Step 1: Partners
Planning your infrastructure strategy could be the perfect catalyst to strengthen your relationships with individuals and organisations in your local health economy.
- Who’s missing from your infrastructure strategy team?
- What’s the governance structure for your infrastructure strategy?
- Who will have what roles and responsibilities?
Step 2: Data
Without data, your infrastructure strategy can’t progress.
- Reach out to everyone to collate data into a single source.
- Highlight any gaps in information, and how they’ll be filled.
- Assemble all your strategic objectives, current estates and assets information and pipeline projects or developments.
Step 3: Objectives
You can’t assess and prioritise your future spend without knowing what your objectives are.
- Do you have mutually agreed SMART objectives and KPIs?
- Do you have a clearly articulated shared vision?
Step 4: Clinical strategies
Your future health estate needs to respond to the local population’s health needs, so it’s vital your infrastructure strategy aligns with the clinical strategy.
- Ensure you have a well-defined clinical strategy
- Ensure you have clear answers to any questions now, so they can inform the development of your infrastructure strategy
Step 5: What’s changed?
System level estates plans were last produced in 2018, and updated in some places during 2019, and some of these have been refreshed more recently.
- Has your strategic context changed?
- What progress has been made?
- What simply isn’t relevant any more?
If you’ve worked your way through this roadmap, you’ll be in good shape to move to the next steps and start preparing your strategy, however you’ll need to move at pace. It’s important to build upon what you have, rather than starting with a blank sheet of paper, so ensure that you don’t try to begin planning without gathering everything you need first.
Want to reach out for help? We have the knowledge, experience and expertise to support you through the entire process, so please get in touch if you need further guidance, or would like us to be a partner in developing your plan.