Safety recommendation
HSSIB recommends that the Department of Health and Social Care, with input from stakeholders including NHS England, identifies the short-, medium- and long-term requirements of NHS mental health built environments to ensure they enable delivery of safe and therapeutic care to patients, and create a supportive working environment for staff. This is to support the development of a strategic and long-term approach to capital investment and prioritisation for NHS built environments.
Response:
The Department accepts this recommendation.
NHS Trusts conduct an annual survey of NHS estates, known as the Estates Return Information Collection, that is reported to NHS England. The data collection includes an assessment of the level of backlog maintenance (including critical infrastructure risks) and maintenance costs, which is used to inform fiscal events, understand the needs of local estates and has at points informed the allocation of capital.
In March 2024, NHS England asked every Integrated Care System (ICS) to develop a 10-year system-wide infrastructure strategy that aligns to its clinical vision, delivers the NHS Long Term Plan and sets out how the local estate will be used. Through the ICS Estate Strategy programme, NHS England has asked systems to identify capital needs across all estates, including mental health services (excluding high secure hospital estates which are retained by NHS England commissioning). These returns will be reviewed and refreshed on a periodic basis.
NHS England, working together with DHSC, will build on this work to explore how the returns from the ICS Estates Strategy Programme could be used to inform the long-term strategic approach at a national level to capital investment in the mental health estate. This will include a gap analysis of the ICS Strategies against national priorities and clinical strategy, so we have sufficient detail and consistency on capital demand information to inform future Spending Reviews and ensure that investment is directed towards long-term clinical priorities.
As announced by the Government in the autumn budget, we are also investing £26m to open new mental health crisis centres to reduce the pressure on A&E services and offer support to people in mental health crisis.
Funding for investment in the MH estate is dependent on future funding settlements.
Actions planned to deliver safety recommendation:
- Estates Return Information Collection. By when: ongoing. Organisational lead: NHS England.
- ICS Estates Strategy Programme. By when: ongoing. Organisational lead: NHS England.
- Building on ICS Estates Strategy Programme to inform long-term approach to capital investment. By when: Q2 2025. Organisational lead: DHSC and NHS England.
Response received on 3 February 2025.