Location, Location, Location: finding a Trust a new home

DATE: COMPLETED AUGUST 2023   |   LOCATION: LEEDS   |   PROJECT AREA: STRATEGIC ADVISORY SERVICES   |   PROJECT STATUS: COMPLETED

Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust (LCH) were in need of a new home. They had headquarters in Leeds, but their landlord was planning to convert the building into flats, so they needed to find somewhere new.

Community Ventures provide in-house estates support to LCH, with four staff embedded within the wider LCH team. They were tasked with finding a solution that would work in the post-Covid world.

The Solution

Rather than trying to find a like-for-like replacement of the LCH HQ, the Community Ventures team wanted to look at things a little differently.

They considered new ways of working, including the changes in work practices since the pandemic, and recommended LCH create a new staff hub. This will not only give a place for LCH staff to work, but also created a collaborative opportunity to bring in partners, the Leeds office of the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and the Leeds GP Confederation, as sub tenants. The new staff hub will also provide much needed office space and meeting rooms to support hybrid working and new ways of operating.

Community Ventures assembled a full team to do everything required, from searching for and recommending a new building and undertaking the whole business case process, to managing the move, fit out and IT, a transformational change programme, and negotiation on early surrender of the old building, saving the Trust a significant sum of money.

The Result

LCH are now settled into a modern building on the White Rose Park in Leeds.

The business case was approved on time, despite some tight deadlines, with decision makers complimenting the team on the quality of the case presented.

The Community Ventures team were able to make the project as much about people as about estate – they drove changes in working practices which meant the new building needed less space. Negotiations for the new building and with the landlord of the former building saved the NHS over £400,000, and ensured the move will save, rather than cost, money.

Community Ventures are now working on how LCH can save even more money on their estates strategies in future, enabling them to prioritise funding for patient care.

"The team at CVM, led by Emma, have worked extraordinarily hard to get LCH and its partners to this stage. We have been one team, with a shared agenda of delivering excellent new facilities for the NHS in Leeds that will facilitate collaboration."

Bryan Machin, Deputy Chief Executive, LCH

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