Text size: A| A| A
   
Community 1st
Home 
About C1OL 
LIFT FAQs 
LIFT Projects 
What's happening in my area? 
C1OL Community Programme 
Contact Us 
Letting Opportunities 

Community 1st Oldham (C1OL)

LIFT FAQ

How LIFT works?

A key challenge for primary care is to invest in premises so that they are fit for purpose, meet the requirements for modern integrated primary care and can be delivered efficiently. The Government is committed to sustained real-term increases in NHS funding - this additional funding must deliver changes in the way services are provided.

The NHS LIFT approach will involve the local health community in developing a strategic service development plan, incorporating its local primary care service needs and relationships with, for example, intermediate care and local authority services to ensure integrated joint service provision opportunities are maximised.

A private sector partner has been identified through a competitive procurement process, and a Joint Venture established between:

  • Local health bodies
  • Partnerships for Health (PfH)
  • Private sector partner

The local joint venture company, or 'LIFTco', has a long term partnering agreement to deliver investment and services in local care and community facilities.

The LIFT approach provides a number of benefits. It will:

  • Offer GPs flexible lease arrangements;
  • Deliver a significant number of premises in a short time;
  • Facilitate the integration of services, not only in terms of health but also community and social services;
  • Establish a long-term sustainable relationship focused on delivering primary care investment and services;
  • It will involve the private sector where they can add wider regeneration opportunities, such as use of local labour and investment into environmentally sustainable design solutions; and
  • Most importantly, it will provide investment in modern integrated primary care services.

LIFTCo is responsible for planning, designing, constructing and maintaining new or replacement primary and community care facilities over a 20-25 year period, for which it is paid a "lease plus" payment by the NHS for the use of the new premises.

LIFT establishes long-term relationships between LIFTCo, its supply chain and the local health community. This enables LIFTCo and its supply chain partners to develop a real in-depth relationship which facilitates continuous improvement in quality and cost, so that all “learning” from each project can be transferred to the next within a consistent set of working relationships.

LIFT also creates financial incentives for excellent design and proper maintenance. The relationship between capital, lifecycle and maintenance costs is such that small increases in capital cost can deliver larger savings in lifecycle and maintenance costs, and since LIFTCo is responsible for all these costs there is a clear incentive to optimise. As owner of the facilities, LIFTCo has a strong interest in the residual value of the property at the end of the lease-plus term.

LIFTCo’s ability to take on development risk (either on its own account or through its private sector partner) ensures that the full development potential of NHS sites can be realised, often in ways that contribute to local regeneration. This latter point is particularly important, since health and social care services are not the only response to meeting health needs and many such needs are equally susceptible to other factors such as employment, housing, education and nutrition which are usually the focus of regeneration initiatives.

Link - Department of Health Local Improvement Finance Trust Further Information

Next Section

 

 
Artists Impression of development