NHS estates and finance leads are looking at more-innovative funding sources to kickstart capital improvement projects, according to a recent webinar.

The 400 participants in the webinar, chaired by Chris Naylor, senior fellow at health think tank, the King’s Fund, included thought-leaders from NHS Property Services (NHSPS) and NHS England alongside estates and strategy leaders from BHS trusts and integrated care boards (ICBs). Topics covered included understanding and leveraging more funding options – from developer contributions to lease negotiations; how to better access and combine sources of capital; and looking at more-innovative funding sources.

And NHSPS leads said that while any parts of the NHS estate need more capital investment, property and finance leaders often ‘struggle to understand and access the funding available to deliver their estate strategies and improve patient care and outcomes’.

Kieran Kinsella, executive director of advisory services at NHSPS, was joined on the panel by Fiona Daly, director of sustainability and workforce and national deputy director for estates at NHS England; Lucy Gardner; chief strategy and partnerships Officer for Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; and Nicola Theron, director of estates at the North Central London Integrated Care System.

Kinsella told the webinar: “The aspiration to create a better NHS estate fit for the future is central to our long-term strategy at NHSPS – and in our recent response to the Darzi investigation, we highlighted the annual backlog maintenance investment we’ve made so far.

“We must also acknowledge, however, the remaining shortfall and be innovative, finding and delivering different ways to plan and unlock investment, so ICBs and trusts can successfully deliver their estates strategies.”

The webinar participants also talked through the risks and opportunities of long-, medium- and short-term planning for securing funding, highlighting the need to work within a capital allocation budget and CDEL envelope, but simultaneously delivering transformation which remains affordable from a revenue and operational cost perspective.

Kinsella added: “The age, profile, and size of the NHS estate presents us with challenges, but also with opportunities, and we know from our survey results that the issues our NHS colleagues face are areas we have highly-skilled experts to help them with.

“One example is our securing of some £35m of funding through our town planning team, accessing local authority development funding over the last two years, supporting 20% of the ICBs with bids for that funding.”