Lead Supplier to the NHS Estates Technical Standards and Guidance Programme, UK
Archus is delivering the multi-year NHS Estates Technical Standards and Guidance Programme, providing best practice guidance on the planning and design of healthcare buildings across the primary, secondary and tertiary estates.
The NHS Technical Guidance publications are a seminal part of setting the standards for high quality care environments and considered best practice not only in the UK, but in healthcare systems around the world. We are committed to driving positive change in the healthcare sector, working alongside NHS teams and an exceptional range of partners, to bring further innovation to this already successful programme
Chris Turner, Director and Head of Technical Advisory at Archus and Programme Director
Guidance for future healthcare projects
The quality and fitness-for-purpose of the healthcare estate is vital for high quality, safe and efficient healthcare for both patients and staff alike. Well-designed healthcare buildings help patients recover their health and well-being and have a positive effect on staff performance and retention, improve the efficiency of operational relationships and support better value for money for the taxpayer across both capital and whole-life cost.
To support this aim, NHS England produce a suite of guidance documents as part of the National NHS England Estates and Facilities Management (EFM) technical standards and guidance (TSG) programme. The programme aims to ensure patient care is delivered in a clean, safe, secure, suitable and sustainable environment; a sentiment echoed in the NHS Constitution. The documents are currently available free of charge and disseminated via the .gov.uk website (see HBNs and HTMs). Providers of NHS services use this guidance and associated tools to demonstrate that they meet the essential requirements of the regulators and adopt healthcare industry best practice.
End-to-end delivery
Archus has been commissioned as lead supplier for the programme since 2019, providing a broad range of specialist skills and support to the core team at NHS England. Through our appointment, NHS England benefits from the certainty that we will provide the best-possible Technical Standards within the desired timescales and to budget.
As part of our end-to-end delivery service we employ a dedicated team with significant experience in technical publishing services, supported by an international team of partner subject matter experts, ensuring that the programme benefits from the most experienced, capable, and qualified array of expertise in the industry.
Our work relates to every aspect of the development and publication of these official policy documents, including best practice project management processes aligned to the rapid development cycle. Key to our success is the ability to communicate at all levels with clinicians, patients, staff and other users of health estates facilities, Royal Colleges, professional membership organisations, health estates managers, specialists (e.g. healthcare ventilation engineers) and all those within the wider community of interest.
Best practice on future design
Macro shifts are playing out which radically alter how health estates function and therefore how we design them – from the virtual hospital, telemedicine and digital patient monitoring, to modular and offsite construction techniques and the drive to net zero. We deliver scoping and subsequent revision of programme topics on a rolling basis, working with stakeholders to determine the extent of updates required for existing topics, as well as the need to develop new topics to ensure guidance responds to and reflects opportunities for innovation, incorporating leading-edge best practice.
Since our initial appointment in 2019, we have successfully overseen the development and publishing of the ground-breaking NHS Net Zero Building Standard, alongside several other HBNs, HTMs and strategically important guidance documents.
We have recently been reappointed for a further four years and are looking forward to continuing our work alongside NHS England and key NHS stakeholders to bring further innovation to the already successful programme.
