The comments made by Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on 2 April 2021.
Our record breaking Culture Recovery Fund has already helped thousands of culture and heritage organisations across the country survive the biggest crisis they’ve ever faced.
Now we’re staying by their side as they prepare to welcome the public back through their doors – helping our cultural gems plan for reopening and thrive in the better times ahead.
The comments made by George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, on 1 April 2021.
Seals are one of our most iconic marine mammals. They can be found along our coastline around the UK, and we must do all that we can to protect them.
Disturbance by members of the public can be detrimental to seals, but this is entirely preventable. I would urge everyone to follow the guidance, give seals the space that they need and respect this vulnerable marine species.
This campaign will raise vital awareness ahead of the bank holiday weekend and help protect some of our most treasured marine wildlife.
The comments made by Gavin Williamson, the Secretary of State for Education, on 2 April 2021.
The values of our Armed Forces – those of resilience, perseverance, and teamwork – are the same that we want to instil in all our young people. These are skills that will serve pupils both now and well into adulthood.
As we move out of national lockdown and back to normality, we want to make sure that children have a balance between academic and extra-curricular activities to set them back on track towards excellent futures. The cadets programme will widen extra-curricular activities available to disadvantaged children, as well as boost a culture of self-discipline in schools.
The comments made by Lucy Powell, the Shadow Minister for Business, on 1 April 2021.
It’s absolutely crucial we protect our country’s steel industry, which provides highly-skilled jobs across the country and equips us to build critical infrastructure like railways, hospitals and schools.
But a decade of Conservative indifference has seen steelmaking production plummet in a huge hit to our economy, risking jobs and livelihoods, whilst other countries across Europe have backed their steel industries to grow.
Labour would stand up for our steelmakers with a proper industrial strategy, supporting the industry to decarbonise, and putting in place stronger targets to buy British steel.
And we would step up, not stand back, and protect jobs and plants at Liberty Steel.
The comments made by Andy McDonald, the Shadow Employment Rights and Protections Secretary, on 1 April 2021.
The results of this investigation are extremely concerning. Safety must absolutely always come first – before delivery targets and before profit.
The success and competitiveness of a company cannot be built on the back of cutting safety standards, putting workers and the public at risk.
Amazon must urgently ensure that targets are set at a safe level and provide those drivers with basic employment rights and protections.
The speech made by Michelle Donelan, the Universities Minister, on 1 April 2021.
Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me today.
I wanted to start by really taking the opportunity to thank you all, and everyone in the higher education sector, for your inspirational response to this pandemic.
Coming together for events like we are today reminds us of the incredible impact that you have had on people’s lives.
You have kept people learning despite a once in a century pandemic so that they didn’t have to put their lives on hold.
You have kept your world-beating research alive, and if anyone has any doubt about your impact on the everyday life of people in our country, I would say look no further than the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine, which has been a key weapon in our fight against the virus.
The last year has been particularly hard for students and school pupils. I don’t need to tell you how challenging it’s been for them.
We have seen, as schools reopened for all pupils, pupils and teachers both delighted to be back.
The sentiment is very much the same for those students at university who are studying creative and practical courses. They’ve expressed to me just how happy they are to be back at university, and back to face to face teaching.
Now I know the remaining students who are not yet back are also eager to return and I get and appreciate just how hard it is for them.
We are currently reviewing the data and we will get those remaining students back as soon as we possibly can, based on the data and the latest advice and we’ll give at least one week’s notice.
As you will all be aware, because of the disruption the pandemic has caused A level, GCSE and most vocational exams won’t proceed this summer and instead we have decided that teachers will determine students’ grades.
We have made this decision because it is simply the fairest way to determine grades this year, given the sheer impact and disruption of the pandemic. And it is vitally important that no student misses out on those opportunities and the opportunity to embark on the next chapter of their lives because of the pandemic.
I want to thank everyone at UCAS and all university admissions teams for your continued flexibility in making this ambition a shared reality.
Throughout this pandemic we have prioritised education but it has only been made possible and enabled by you. By being so flexible and accommodating and investing time in creating innovative digital solutions.
It is the theme of flexibility that I would actually like to speak to today – and how we can unlock and open up our education system together to expand opportunities for all. In Higher Education, Further Education and in Apprenticeships but also so that those individuals can go on to get jobs that they find rewarding and that fill our skills gaps and boost our productivity.
Let’s start with the facts.
Our productivity levels are only four per cent higher than they were in 2008.
The Employer Skills Survey of 2019 suggested there were 214,000 vacancies which employers were unable to fill because they could not find people with the right skills, right qualifications, or experience.
This equates to 24% of all vacancies. 24% is a staggering figure.
And analysis by McKinsey suggests that this is growing. It suggests there is a growing demand for skills, and an increasing skills mismatch, with around seven million additional workers predicted to be under skilled by 2030.
So we need to do something about how people learn in our country if we are going to ensure the next decade is as prosperous as the previous one.
That does not just mean improving our skills system incrementally.
It means wholesale change of our skills system to bring it into the 21st century.
Part of that must include challenging misconceptions and outdated views including that university is the only route to a successful life. When Apprenticeships and FE can in fact be a better route for some. A take which I know those of you at UCAS also share.
We also need to tackle head on the barriers to studying at university in later life – education should never be seen as a boat that arrives at a port once a day – more as a ferry that makes regularly crossing everyday.
This is why the PM’s Life Long Learning Entitlement will revolutionise opportunities – available to all and at all stages of life and ages so people can train, retrain and upskill throughout their lives.
In the simplest terms, I believe that a good education can lead to a better life. And I have no doubt you all share that view. We often say that a good education is the foundation upon which people build their lives. I think it should also be seen as the mortar that they need to keep on building. Here in the UK the term education is often associated with young people and children learning but it should be a lifelong undertaking of learning, especially given how fast technology can change entire sectors.
Now changing this ethos won’t happen overnight, but I ask you today to assist me and to assist our government on this mission as we make this vision possible with the PM’s life long learning entitlement.
We want to break down these barriers, because this Government will always stand up for those who want to make a better life for themselves.
That is why we want to make it easier for everyone, at any stage of their life, to get the best education possible.
As Universities Minister, and the first in my own family to have gone to university, I want every person with a genuine desire and aptitude to succeed at university to have the opportunity to do so.
But as I mentioned, it is not the only route to success and equally nor should the door be viewed as shut to those later in life.
Why do some people view it as shut? Because it is hard to take three years out of full time employment when you have a mortgage, children or caring responsibilities – that’s why we need to facilitate the growth of modular provision with a loan system to accommodate it. That’s at the heart of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement and not just for Higher Education but Further Education too. This will revolutionise our education offering.
I entered politics to create opportunities and this flagship policy will do just that – enabling those who had never dreamt that Higher Education was for them, or who thought it was too far away or impossible to study at university, or those who had longed to do a Higher Technical Qualification to seek their dream job but felt it was all too late.
So how will it work?
It will give people a loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years of post-18 education to use over their lifetime.
It gives more choice to more people and more opportunities to learn the way they want to, to fit into their lives.
The loan will be available for study at higher technical and degree levels regardless of whether they are provided in colleges or universities – or in our Institutes of Technology, where there have already been fantastic examples of collaboration which are starting to deliver the higher technical STEM skills our nation so badly needs.
In order to create a flexible system which responds to the learner needs, people will be able to use this loan for modular learning as well of course as full time study over a number of years.
And for those of you that know me will know just how passionate I am about Modular learning. Because it really will be a game changer both in terms of social mobility and our levelling up agenda but also to fill our skills shortages and boost our productivity.
The data backs this up. Recent polling from Universities UK shows 82 per cent of prospective students in England who are either unemployed, at risk of unemployment, or looking to learn new skills would be keen to study individual modules at a university degree level.
The polling showed that modular study has the potential to increase the number of people with high level skills in the UK. Some 13 per cent of those who are interested in university education say they are not likely to study part time but are interested in modular study.
So, there is a demand there that I believe we should be looking to meet, especially in industries with significant skills shortages, such as engineering, which we know is the second most popular subject choice for modular study.
We will consult on the detail and scope of the Lifelong Loan Entitlement this year and will set out proposals for how we introduce this reform and consensus on how it can really benefit students and enable providers to put on the type of courses which will fill these skills gaps.
But make no mistake, this is real, transformative change.
It will transform the education system and ensure people can learn throughout their lives, so they are not trapped in a vicious cycle or low-paid work – or unemployment.
It will make us into a fairer country where you have opportunities to train and retrain whether you are 18 or 48.
It will set us on a path to a highly skilled nation so that you can get highly-paid, rewarding jobs whether you’re from Surrey or Sunderland.
The education system has highlighted just how flexible it can be in the last year and now we need to move up a gear and make it a permanent feature of our education system.
On another note, there is another route which we will all recognise as boosting social mobility is degree apprentices.
There is a growing consensus that these qualifications deliver for society and for students. Parents in my own constituency time after time tell me how they want their child to explore this option – given that they give that real on the job work and the ability to earn whilst they learn. I also hear the same message from young people who tell me how they would love the opportunity to study a degree apprenticeships. However they also talk to me about the limited availability and lack of subject choice.
My message today is we need to expand upon those options so that degree apprenticeships are available to all those who have the grades and the desire to pursue this option.
Now is the time to seize on the growing momentum.
Again they also open up Higher Education to those who might not have considered higher education as an option and give the chance to pursue a career path that brings the benefits of a degree-level education.
I believe choice is fundamental. And yes, higher education is not the right path for all, but it should be available with flexibility and choice so that all those with the grades and desire to peruse it can do so.
When we’re honest, choice is what is missing. Now don’t get me wrong, we have a great range of degree apprenticeships in the UK ranging from Automotive, Digital, Engineering, Nursing, Chartered Surveying, Aerospace and Nuclear but the list is certainly not exhaustive. This list does not include all the industries we need to be billing into the pipelines of the labour market, or all the subject areas young people have told me they would like to be offered.
And there are now 266 industry-designed apprenticeship standards available at levels 4 to 7, of which 97 include a degree.
So whilst we have these world beating high quality degree apprenticeships – we need to ensure that more can be offered so that there can be a wealth of choice for students
There is good reason to ensure this happens, there is so much widespread agreement about the impact of Degree apprenticeships. Employers, providers and apprentices alike are positive about degree apprenticeships, including their potential to improve productivity, as well as helping widen participation in employment and higher education.
During this year’s National Apprenticeship Week we published our Higher and Degree listing of apprenticeships at Level 4 to 7, and I encourage employers recruiting from summer 2021 onwards to take a look at how these can work for your business.
Today, I am asking clearly for more universities to look seriously at these qualifications and I will work with you to iron out and remove the barriers you may face.
I believe they can be a real alternative to a traditional three-year degree, which remains out of grasp still for too many people and you have the ability to put it back into their grasp.
I believe that boosting the number of degree apprenticeships choices will lead to greater social mobility, which remains one of my foremost priorities.
And this is also the key priority for my department – which is why we are conducting a review of our admissions system – which needs reform. We need to level the playing field by modernising the system for example we know that predicted grades play a particularly important part of the current system yet they under grade students from disadvantaged backgrounds
It is a system that we now know disadvantages many already disadvantaged students.
Our consultation on Post-Qualification Admissions will be open until May 13 and I encourage all of you, if you have not already, to express your views on admissions reform because we need to get this right, working hand in hand with you.
In conclusion I would like to thank you for your time today
I do believe that together we have an opportunity now to make our education system more flexible including at the higher level.
By doing so, we will be helping all those who have the ability, attainment and desire to pursue higher education by giving them high quality options that will lead to the good graduate jobs – that will in turn transform their lives.
I know that in the last year the pace of change has been astronomical, and that it can be difficult to think beyond this pandemic.
But the work you have done throughout the last year has already laid the foundations to help us level up education and make our universities even better.
And I believe that by coming together, we will be able to rise to the challenges of the future.
With a more flexible – skills driven – education system that will meet the needs of the labour marker of tomorrow but also fulfil the dreams of so many.
The comments made by Ben Wallace, the Secretary of State for Defence, on 1 April 2021.
In the face of new and emerging threats, it is vital we collaborate with our international allies to tackle our shared security challenges and our long-standing relationship with Qatar exemplifies this.
By working together we continue to share skills and expertise whilst promoting global security and driving prosperity at home.
I’m delighted RAF Leeming has been chosen to base the historic second UK-Qatari joint squadron, which recognises the globally-held high regard of RAF flying training.
The comments made by Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on 1 April 2021.
Our plan to level up communities across the UK by giving them the fastest broadband on the planet is working. We’re now on track to connect 60 per cent of homes and businesses to gigabit speeds by the end of the year and I’m thrilled to see the tens of thousands of jobs being created as we build back better from the pandemic.
But we want to go further and faster, which is why today the Prime Minister and I sat down with the biggest names in broadband to discuss what more we can do together to end the battle over bandwidth.
It was a useful and constructive meeting where we emphasised our goal to speed up investment from our £5 billion Project Gigabit fund if providers can put forward workable plans to accelerate the delivery of lightning-fast connections for every part of the UK.
The speech made by Edward Argar, the Minister of State for Health, on 16 March 2021.
Introduction and thanks
Thank you very much, Simon, and good morning everyone.
Thank you also to everyone in NHSE/I and the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management for organising today. Organising events like this are always a challenge, even more so in the current circumstances. So thank you very much.
It is an important event, and I’m absolutely delighted to be here as the minister with direct responsibility for both the NHS estate and all of the work you all do with it.
In normal times, I would have of course given multiple speeches in my 18 months in the role, but the challenges of organising such events as this during the pandemic, and the pressure of work we have all faced, have meant that I have generally politely declined invitations that have been extended.
Today’s event is different. As soon as Simon and his team invited me there was no question I would say ‘yes’.
That is because of just how central and vital the work the profession and people represented here today has been to our pandemic response, and how vital your work is to our NHS every day.
Now, I understand attendees cover the full breadth of those working in and around supporting our estates – from NHSE/I, to directors of estates, to finance directors to those working in the facilities space. It really is a great privilege to have the chance to speak to you all today.
So, before I go any further, I want to start by saying a huge ‘thank you’ to all of you.
Thank you to all of those senior estates professionals attending today.
And thank you to every one of the 100,000 people who work in NHS estates and facilities, who you collectively represent.
Now I always remember the quote – quite possibly apocryphal but I hope not because it is a very powerful quote – and it is one which you may have also heard my Secretary of State use in the past, attributed to John F Kennedy when he visited NASA for the first time.
During his tour of the facility, he met a janitor who was carrying a broom down the hallway. Kennedy asked the janitor what he did for NASA, and the janitor replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
And it is that approach and sentiment which I think should characterise our attitudes towards our amazing NHS workforce. Whether you are a consultant or a cleaner, an emergency department nurse or an estate manager and any and all roles in between – you are all vital to help the NHS do what it does day in and day out – which is to save lives and help patients recover from illness.
Indeed, I often hear those who work in this profession as it is represented today described as the ‘hidden heroes’ of the NHS.
That heroism has never been greater.
My role is to work with you, Simon and his team to do what we can to make sure to ensure that role isn’t quite so ‘hidden’. So that people know what you do everyday to make our NHS function.
You have worked tirelessly during these extremely challenging circumstances.
You and your teams have played a pivotal role in so many of our great achievements.
The shift to telemedicine, which kept so many of our vital services going; the building of the Nightingale hospitals in 9 days to ensure that there was always the surge capacity should the NHS need it; the doubling of ICU capacity in 9 days.
All this alongside your ceaseless work to adapt the estate to meet the demands and clinical needs of this pandemic.
From testing and reworking patient flows, to supporting social distancing – and even more intensive cleaning and infection control.
With the 7 Nightingale hospitals and the National Oxygen Infrastructure Programme alone you have supported essential critical care capacity. Which meant no matter how tough it got, no matter how challenging it got with the number of patients in our hospitals needing care during the pandemic – up to 37,000 at the peak of the second wave – there was always that care available to make sure our NHS was not overwhelmed.
And it is also important that we take a moment to thank all of the partners who make up our NHS supply chain and work alongside you all.
Without your efforts and their efforts, the Nightingales and the National Oxygen Programme would not have delivered the significant increase in additional oxygenated beds.
And you have risen to the occasion in a way that you should all be incredibly proud of, reflecting the way we and the British people are all incredibly proud of you.
And of course, the broader context within which you have achieved these things has never been more challenging. And the human costs have sadly been significant.
I wanted to pause to note how saddened I was to learn of the members of the estates profession, your NHS family, who have lost their lives due to COVID.
May I take this opportunity to express my deepest condolences to their families and friends. Many of these friends and colleagues are listening today. Our thoughts and prayers remain with all of you.
Now I know that the estates community is closely knit, and that sense of community and collaboration will be more vital than ever as we move forward from this pandemic.
Indeed, moving forward will require us all even more so than normal to work as one team. Recognising that every person, every link in that team is vital for its functioning.
Challenges faced
Now the challenges should not be underestimated – and as you all know, many are historic challenges.
Government investment, by governments of all parties over recent decades, has been unpredictable at times.
There has been constant pressure on you to balance competing demands – from the urgent demands of addressing critical infrastructure risks, day-to-day maintenance needs, to raising your eyes to look to the long term, and to develop an estate that is the right size and shape to meet future service needs.
The needs of maintaining an ageing estate has meant that it has often been hard for many of you, the profession, and us to always focus on the long term as much as perhaps we should have.
All too often, the urgency of short-term pressures has won out.
Some specific challenges
As we look forward, the approach we are adopting as a government, championed by the Prime Minister, is to tackle both – investing in meeting immediate needs, but in parallel investing in the long term, with a long-term, predictable pipeline of investment.
The specific challenges we face are significant. Backlog maintenance is a £9 billion challenge that you all grapple with every day.
The day-to-day costs of keeping the estate in working order are huge – and that’s why we’ve allocated £4.2 billion for NHS operational capital investment, supporting NHS trusts to refurbish and maintain their estate. As I say, you grapple with those challenges every day. Every day you ensure that our estates and our hospitals are there, working to deliver that world-class healthcare.
I want to start by looking at some long-term challenges as well.
Climate change is a global challenge, and the NHS must play its part in achieving net-zero carbon emissions – a legal requirement for the whole UK by 2050.
We must create an estate fit for the clinical and patient needs of the 21st century, reflecting the advancements in science and clinical treatments. And the way in which we are able to treat different illnesses and help keep people alive and fit and experiencing a high quality of life for longer.
We must ensure that we build an estate that is capable of incorporating technological advancements as they emerge over the coming years as a standard.
Moreover, the vision set out by this government’s long-term plan for the NHS – a vision built around patient and place and the integration of care – is a vision which simply cannot be achieved unless it is enabled by strategic, sustained investment in our NHS infrastructure and estates.
The approach to strategic investment
That’s why we must deliver that long-term, strategic approach – an approach that enables trusts to look beyond day-to-day demands, and to embrace the vision and intent shown, perhaps encapsulated, by the quote from the janitor at NASA.
I know it is my job to ensure that approach is driven by clear leadership – and delivered at pace.
In that spirit, as Simon in his introduction mentioned, I’d like to talk about the NHS Strategic Infrastructure Board, which I have the honour of chairing.
In this role, I’ve seen first hand the collaboration between NHS staff at all levels.
And we’ve seen how well traditional silos and ways of working can be transformed in a pandemic situation.
My hope is this will continue long beyond the pandemic, and that the positive structural shifts in healthcare that have been accelerated as a result of the pandemic continue to develop at pace.
All NHS trust estates teams are now registered in the NHS Estates Team Collaboration Hub. This is an excellent tool that enables the estates and facilities community to communicate across the system, and crucially share knowledge and experience and share best practice.
This will enable more joined-up, collegiate working on the ground, so we need the same at the centre.
We also need collaborative national leadership to make health infrastructure challenges a priority as we go forward.
We need all the national players in the NHS estate in the same room, albeit at the moment virtually in the same room.
The Strategic Infrastructure Board is the place for national partners to work collaboratively to guide the future vision of the NHS Estate – as I alluded to before, to raise our eyes beyond the horizon of the day-to-day challenges, to look a decade or more in to the future.
And Simon and others with us today are also members of the board.
Now many of the issues that you’ve been discussing today are the same ones that we’ve been grappling with.
We’ve also carried out a lessons-learned exercise on the COVID-19 pandemic.
We wanted to understand the impact of COVID-19 on our priorities for estates and capital.
And to use these reflections to consider what’s on the horizon for health and social care infrastructure over the coming decades.
This exercise clearly highlighted the opportunity to refresh our strategic approach to NHS infrastructure.
When the board met in February, we set out what more we can do. How we can maximise opportunities for integration to deliver better value for money and more personalised care. How we can make better use of data to remodel the estate and drive efficiency. And how we can champion the unsung heroes, each and every one of you in your estates and facilities teams, who have performed with such distinction throughout this crisis.
Thanking Sir Robert Naylor
On the topic of leadership, I would like to take this opportunity to thank another champion of the NHS Estate and a champion of taking the strategic view – Sir Robert Naylor.
Sir Robert’s landmark review originally led to the formation of the NHS Property Board. This was a critical first step in ensuring that the estate receives the attention it deserves as an enabler of care.
Sir Robert has led the estates agenda with skill, diligence and an unmatched level of expertise – challenging us where necessary, and tirelessly championing both the estate and its workforce, and, crucially, driving that long-term view.
As Sir Robert steps down from his official role with the department, I am sure you will all join me in expressing deep gratitude for all that he has done to lay such firm foundations. Such firm foundations that allow us to move into an exciting new phase for the NHS estate.
Strategic approach
That new phase is focused on a coherent strategy for how we can invest in our infrastructure in the most effective, joined-up way.
In 2019 we set out our new, strategic approach to improving our hospitals and health infrastructure with the publication of the Health Infrastructure Plan (HIP).
You will all be familiar with the historic challenge – a burst of activity and investment, for example the early 2000s hospital-building programme, then, an easing off – the stop-start historically which mitigates against a long-term view, and which can see the expertise people have gained in building new hospitals lost in our NHS, as during a paused phase they leave for new challenges.
Our HIP seeks to remedy this, setting out a long-term plan of investment over many years, allowing the NHS to plan for the future and to predict and see that pipeline of investment.
The last few years have already seen significant investment – from allocating £600 million through a Critical Infrastructure Fund to resolve the most urgent estates issues in the NHS, to the Prime Minister’s announcement of £850 million to upgrade 20 hospitals, and of course £3.7 billion to help deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030.
We’ve also provided funding to eradicate mental health dormitories, and to upgrade A&Es to expand capacity and improve infection control.
These have all made a huge difference to the NHS, and with many of these projects invested in and delivered in winter at pace, each and every one of the estates teams working on them in the trusts has risen to the challenge to see that investment get to the frontline and deliver benefits for patients.
And we must now look to refresh our strategy to set an even clearer direction that reflects the lessons we have learned from COVID-19.
It’s vitally important we get this right. In the Victorian era, town halls and civic buildings were symbols of civic pride, of the pride our communities had in themselves and in their country. In many ways, our hospitals fulfil a similar place in our pride today. The pride in our NHS is reflected in the respect and in which we hold those who work in it and the respect and value we attribute to the buildings out of which it operates.
Before COVID, we knew the elements that would make our strategy successful: standardised design through modern methods of construction, listening to clinicians and designing clinical spaces, reflecting what we know they need to do their job. Effective use of technology hardwired in as standard, and an unwavering commitment to achieving net-zero carbon across the whole NHS.
But recent months have also brought into clear focus critical issues like agility and flexibility in controlling infections.
So we must work together to pull this into a coherent framework that balances all these critical elements as we move forward. Working at pace, setting clear standards, and embracing the vital role that health infrastructure plays more broadly in our communities.
Because it is not just acute settings in this context, but the opportunities presented by our primary care facilities – our primary care infrastructure and buildings in the community – to play a key role with councils and others delivering regeneration in our town, high streets and cities to work together to play a key part in that. Not only in delivering vital services, but in helping drive that regeneration.
Getting this right will ensure the NHS estate enables world-class care on the inside, whilst reflecting civic pride on the outside.
That’s why later this year we will publish a refreshed version of the Health Infrastructure Plan.
Setting the strategic direction for all aspects of the department’s capital and infrastructure, and of course the NHS is at the heart of this.
I’m keen that this strategy does not re-invent the wheel, and instead builds on the great work already done, while taking into account what we have learnt over the past year.
So, we will bring together our existing commitments and strategies to give the sector – including all of you as estates, facilities and finance professionals – a clear vision and set of priorities to work towards over the next 10 years.
This updated HIP will set the direction in a wide range of areas, such as:
the strategy for new hospitals and hospital upgrades, including the standards we expect in these projects
the direction of travel in the primary care estate, including getting the most out of primary care hubs
how technology should be most effectively deployed in the NHS
the strategy to deliver on that shared objective of the sustainability agenda and net zero
This strategy will bring together our investment, maximise value for money and ensure we’re all pulling in the same direction towards the same goal.
And we want to support the development of a sustainable health and social care system that is the right size and shape for our future needs. The refreshed HIP will drive the transformation of healthcare to a 21st century model, using the latest technologies.
It will give STPs, ICSs and others what they need to design the estate that best meets the need of their local area while reflecting the learning from the national standards.
The new version of the HIP is currently in the early phases of development, but officials are already working closely with partners across the system. Because partnership with each and every one of you with your trusts and communities is vital as we seek to translate this vision from our hearts and heads into a reality on our streets.
Let there be no doubt – making this plan a reality will require us all to work at pace. We’re already doing this on the New Hospital Programme, under the leadership of SRO Natalie Forrest. This programme is an absolute priority for the Prime Minister.
Six projects are already in construction, with one further scheme awaiting final approvals. We will be bringing forward the criteria for the next 8 projects in the coming months.
We will review the designs of the earliest 8 projects in the programme pipeline, with a view to bringing increased consistency and again driving that pace throughout the programme, informing work on standardised designs which can then be applied across the programme, but crucially working together – hand in hand – in partnership with trusts to help them deliver in their vision for their communities.
But, of course, we should never forget the NHS estate stretches far beyond new hospitals – covering tens of millions of square metres in primary and community care. And, in that regard, we should also be mindful of the huge opportunities that exist for regenerating our communities and high streets while improving the facilities available for our community settings.
Conclusion
Colleagues, in closing, it is also worth reminding ourselves that for 1.5 million people, NHS buildings and spaces are places of work and learning.
For many more the NHS estate offers a vital service every day.
That is why this government’s manifesto commitment is so important.
And that is why it is so important that the HIP refresh delivers a shared vision by providing a clear strategic direction for capital investment over the next decade.
As Chair of the Strategic Infrastructure Board I will continue to champion the NHS estate and all of you who work in it.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity – what you are doing is genuinely a matter of success or failure for healthcare in the 21st century. There can be few greater callings than the work you are doing.
And I am honoured to have the chance to work with you on making our vision a reality – and I am privileged to have been given the chance to talk to you today and to conclude by offering you my thanks, with those of the Secretary of State and Prime Minister.
Thank you.
The comments made by Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Shadow Home Secretary, on 30 March 2021.
France’s decision to enter a third lockdown makes it even more urgent that the Conservatives introduce stricter border controls.
It’s reckless and unacceptable for only one percent of international arrivals to quarantine in a hotel.
I urge Conservative ministers to urgently secure our borders by introducing a comprehensive hotel quarantine system to protect the nation’s health and the rollout of the vaccine.