Department of Health regional meetings report back
30 November 2009
Following the announcement of the Department of Health (DH) capital grant programme for 2010 – 2011, the grants team at Help the Hospices ran a series of meetings across England. Over 150 people attended the meetings and attendees found the sessions really useful, generating plenty of questions for the presenters.
As well as providing more information about the programme, there were a range of speakers, talking about some of the challenges of managing large capital projects and suggestions of how to think more creatively about the physical environment of hospices and how small changes can make a big difference to the care of patients, their families and carers.
Full details of all the speakers and the meetings are at the bottom of the page.
Vincent Kirk, an architect with KKE architects in Worcester was involved in sixteen of the Department of Health capital build projects in the last grant round so has a lot of experience in this area of work. He emphasised how, of all the elements involved in managing large capital projects, time is probably the most important factor in this grant round.
With only twelve months to complete the work, hospices will really need to get moving before they know if they will receive a grant, for example applying for planning permission if it is required and starting to draw up detailed plans. His slides of the different stages involved in managing a project against a timeline, really illustrates how essential this is.
The first image indicates the time available in the first round of DH grants, from April 2007 until March 2009, two years in total, allowing enough time to plan and design the work, get tenders in, leaving around seven months for the construction stage.
The second indicates the stage reached following the same timeline in the current round of DH grants as this time there is only twelve months to complete the work - projects would be half way through selecting contractors, with the start of the building phase still some months away.
The third image demonstrates how the work could be achieved in the timescales, but only if a lot of the planning work is done before April 2010 - before the funding decision is known. This involves a financial risk but would be the only way that hospices could complete the building work by the end of the grant programme.
The other important area is good and regular communication and ensuring that everyone involved knows what the other is talking about. He suggested continually asking questions of the design team until you are completely clear that you know what they are planning to do. He also mentioned that hospices may want to consider budgeting for a project manager with the skills to work with the builders/architects and know the right questions to ask.
Individuals from hospices, who were involved in project managing the DH funded work in the last round also spoke about the challenges and learning points of their involvement in a large capital build and echoed much of what Vincent had said.
Vincent can be contacted via the KKE website.
Robert Tunmore from the King's Fund Enhancing the Healing Environment (EHE) programme then talked about the support they can offer hospices when they are thinking about improvements to the physical environment.
Working with nurse-led multi-disciplinary teams, the EHE team supports and encourages the team to really think creatively about how the physical environment of hospices can be improved.
He showed a wide selection of ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos to demonstrate that with relatively small budgets, a huge difference can be made to the care environment and therefore well-being of patients, carers and their families, through the better use of light, colour and space.
The King's Fund have contacted all hospices with more information of what they can offer and there is further information on the enhancing the healing environment website.
Finally Karl Benn, grants manager at Help the Hospices ran through the timeline, application process and criteria for this round of DH grants which are all on the grants section of the Help the Hospices website. Many questions were generated which have been incorporated into the frequently asked questions page on the website.
Please feel free to contact the grants team at Help the Hospices for further information, support or advice.
Speakers at the meetings included:
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Department of Health: Stephen Lock, End of Life Care team - background and context within End of Life Care strategy
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Kings Fund: Robert Tunmore, Enhancing the Healing Environment – inspiration and design
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KKE Architects: Vincent Kirk, Architect – project management tailored to capital build project
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DH project case study: example project from the last round
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Help the Hospices: Karl Benn – grant criteria and process
Five meetings were held at the following hospices and attendees were offered the opportunity to look around the facilities:
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Wigan & Leigh Hospice, Wigan
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St Gemma’s Hospice, Leeds
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St Luke’s Hospice, Plymouth
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St Joseph’s Hospice, London
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St Mary’s Hospice, Birmingham
