Housing is a critical part of the current NHS staffing crisis and surplus National Health Service land should be used to deliver homes for health and social care workers to support staff retention and recruitment.
Authored by the NHS Homes Alliance the White Paper sets out a vision for using the NHS estate to build affordable, high-quality, and sustainable homes near to hospitals and clinics. Thus, boosting NHS and social care staff retention and recruitment, ultimately improving the quality of care and providing better services for all.
The White Paper recommends that developments are built based on the specific recruitment and staff retention needs of local health and social care services, according to NHS Trusts and ICBs, and provide different types of homes that work for the required staff at all levels of primary, secondary and social care; from junior doctors, nurses and social care workers, to porters and cleaners. The NHS needs a strategic approach to utilising its existing land holdings in a way that provides housing and creates community, retaining and nurturing its workforce.
gbpartnerships group is proud to be a founding member of NHS Homes Alliance – a collaboration of representatives from public and private sector organisations including NHS Trusts; pension funds, financial, legal and real estate experts; housing associations; architects and developers.
Hugh Robinson, gbpartnerships Group Business Development Director, who also contributed to the development of the White Paper, commented:
NHS Trusts and ICBs know that the provision of good quality key worker housing is a critical element of solving their staffing recruitment and retention issues - so it’s vital that they have access to commercial models that can see this delivered. The work of the NHS Homes Alliance in articulating these models in the White Paper has already been valuable. If our collective work can secure government support for the models too then this will simplify the route to delivery for Trusts and fast-track new homes where they’re needed most.