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JOINT FUTURE AGENDA: SHORT LIFE WORKING GROUP ON JOINT PREMISES DEVELOPMENT IN PRIMARY AND COMMUNITY CARE: FINAL REPORT
APPENDIX 2
JOINT PREMISES - EXAMPLES OF PROMISING PRACTICE
PUBLIC SECTOR PROPERTY GROUP in GRAMPIAN
EXAMPLE 1
Background
The Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Joint Public Sector Group was formed in August 2000 to deliver at a local level the Scottish Executive - Joint Futures Initiative. This aspires to develop joint working between Local Authorities, NHSScotland and other bodies to provide better Community and Care Services.
It became clear at a very early stage that there were a matrix of service and organisational stakeholders involved. Although Local Authority stakeholders were focusing work down to local communities within their geographical boundaries, other public sector agencies such as Health, Police, Fire and the Ambulance Service were attempting to deliver a consistent service across the three Local Authorities areas in North East Scotland.
It also became clear that property and associated assets/physical infrastructure matters were central and critical to supporting effective services. A Property Sub Group was established in November 2000 with the remit to share and to identify any benefits of joint working for the public sector in the Grampian area and identify any possible "quick hits" that can be gained by joint sharing/joint working in these areas.
The sub-group (PUBLIC SECTOR PROPERTY GROUP in GRAMPIAN) meets formally six times per year as well as on an ad hoc basis for specialist topics. The membership is as detailed below:
- Aberdeen City Council
- Aberdeenshire Council
- Moray Council
- Grampian Police
- Grampian Fire Brigade
- Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust
- Grampian Primary Care NHS Trust (current host organisation)
- Scottish Ambulance Service
- NHSGrampian
- Scottish Enterprise Grampian
- Aberdeen University
- Robert Gordon University
The remit given to the Property Sector Property Group is considered in two parts:
1. Drawing members together on a regular basis allows open in-confidence discussion to consider the identification and merits of any benefits of joint working for the Public Sector in Grampian. The identification of benefits is substantial, as there is no other forum for sharing our respective agencies property aspirations to support live and ever-changing service needs. It has and does provide us with a working platform for common understanding. This sharing of this information has to lead to outcomes of shared good practice and identifying common high-level performance indicators so that we may benchmark and focus on continuous improvement.
2. Co-location of services and supporting infrastructure such as buildings has and will further facilitate greater efficiency in working and associated building capital and revenue costs. The Torry Neighbourhood Centre was established as a result of a bid under the Modernising Government Fund. However, the common needs of the agencies are not always as obvious and if not careful we could continue to plan in isolation from our partner organisations.
Many other potential co-location of services have been identified, such as on a site owned by Aberdeen City Council adjacent to Loriston Primary School, Cove which could provide under one roof a Library, Community facilities, Police presence and a General Practice.
At Garthdee, Health are planning to deliver a new Health Centre (on Council owned land) adjoining the Robert Gordon University campus, where there is also a requirement for a Police presence which is being incorporated within the new Faculty of Health, currently being built on the campus. Furthermore Police accommodation needs at Aberdeen University have been highlighted, agreed and implemented.
Inevitably IT and new ways of working will also have a profound effect on the recurring capital expenditure on buildings therefore an IT sub group inter-linking with Property has been established to formulate the network to support all agencies.
From work to date there has been a clear message from Council Planning Departments and the Public Sector Property Group that better, more informed dialogue requires to be had at draft Infrastructure and Local Plan stages if all are to achieve their desired outcomes. An away day with the Partner organisations and the Planners at draft stage was a successful way to begin to understand each other's needs more fully.
1. The second aspect of the aim of this Group was to identify "quick wins". Summary examples are as follows:
- Integration of a Police facility into Garthdee campus thus avoiding cost of separate development.
- Robert Gordon University, Grampian Primary Care NHS Trust and Aberdeen City Council agreeing how to proceed from a property perspective with a view to providing the Garthdee community with a much need Health facility.
- Early stages of joint working/procurement/benchmarking for utilities.
- Robert Gordon University has now agreed contribution to facilitate new builds for Garthdee/Kaimhill area sports provision.
- Knowledge within all agencies of the importance of Aberdeen to support and develop a pubic sector ICT infrastructure to support Aberdeen City boundary area and beyond.
- An understanding of the importance of structure/local planning in developing a property strategy and the emergence of regular Away Days with Planning Officials of Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray Councils to ensure a better mutual understanding of respective issues.
- Grampian Police and Scottish Ambulance Services development of shared premises - a Police Substation/Ambulance Satellite Station in Dyce, which is unique in Scotland.
- Aberdeenshire Council has made available land at Oldmeldrum for a new medical practice.
- Aberdeenshire Council has made available land at Fyvie for a new medical practice.
- Aberdeenshire Council has made available land at Kemnay for a new medical practice.
- Discussions now evolving in Ellon with Aberdeenshire Council, Grampian Police and Grampian Primary Care NHS Trust with recognition of each other's issues we could ensure that Police, Education and Health all benefit.
- Aberdeenshire Council has leased an office in Kintore to Grampian Police allowing them to dispose of the former Police Station.
- Aberdeenshire Council and Grampian Police are in discussions at Portlethen to allow extension for school and a new Police Station.
- Aberdeenshire Council has leased accommodation to Grampian Police at Insch to provide a "new" Police Station.
- Aberdeenshire Council and Grampian Police discussions have provided for a new Police Station at the new Oldmeldrum academy.
- Aberdeenshire Council and Grampian Police have identified a site at Peterhead, which could provide a new Police Station.
- Aberdeenshire Council is facilitating the lease of surplus Police accommodation to Scottish Ambulance Services at Banchory.
- Potential for Scottish Ambulance Service, Grampian Primary Care NHS Trust and Aberdeenshire Council to identify a new Health Centre/Ambulance Station Braemar.
- Better progress has been made with outstanding heritable asset transfers between Grampian Primary Care NHS Trust and Aberdeen City Council.
- Potential of property being jointly leased by Aberdeen City Council and Grampian Primary Care NHS Trust at Denburn and Raeden subject to service/legal issues being resolved.
- Identification of a site by Aberdeen City Council at Cove to provide community facilities which in Phase I will include Health and Police.
- Land/Property/Buildings being discussed with public sector partners prior to being declared e.g. Whinhill Road - benefit:- shortening of time to capital receipt being received and no marketing/advertising fees being incurred.
- Torry has moved forward positively - however without a group such as this I doubt that it would have. Problems have been identified/shared and solutions have emerged.
It is the Property Sub Group's belief that many of the aforementioned aspects are indeed quick wins. The reality is that quick wins in property will be identified through more inclusive longer term planning and the financial effect to the public sector could result in more efficient use of public resources for the future.
The PUBLIC SECTOR PROPERTY GROUP in GRAMPIAN also supports two specialist-working sub-groups to fulfil the initial remit:
Property Database Sub Group - to develop a common format to share property and asset information across public sector agencies in Grampian and thereafter develop performance and benchmarking indicators.
A property-mapping workshop was held in April 2002 to identify the hurdles and required solutions to delivering a common GIS interface between public sector agencies. The Office of Government Commerce and the Scottish Executive Health Department took away a list of issues to resolve. To date there has been no progress on this aspect. However the working model in Forth Valley is seen as the direction of travel.
Energy & Utilities Sub Group - to share and compare energy procurement, energy management, water and wastewater charges and management and commercial rating so that all agencies could financially benefit
Gerry Donald, Trust Redevelopment Agency Manager
30 November 2002 KW/SEHD
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