Grosvenor Estate’s Barton Park in Oxford has indicated willingness to take part
NHS England is on the hunt for five new towns or schemes of more than 250 homes where it can partner with the developers to trial new design ideas and digital technologies to improve health and well-being.
The project, part of its Five Year Forward Review, hopes to develop promising ideas about integrating health into communities and building-in digital care and monitoring to help them become established across England’s 200,000 homes a year output.
The project was announced last week by Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, with expressions of interest from promoters and landowners sought by September 30. The five selected projects will be revealed in the autumn.
The five will be offered a package of support and expertise, with NHS England paying for consultancy advice and upfront development work, although it also hopes to act as a broker to leverage support from existing project partners such as BT Health.
Three ongoing schemes have already indicated that they hope to take part: Old Oak Common in west London; Grosvenor Estate’s Barton Park in Oxford; and Taylor Wimpey’s Cranbrook in east Devon.
Taylor Wimpey’s Cranbrook in east Devon
A spokesman said that NHS England could offer design and clinical expertise to a project seeking to develop a well-being centre, and was “definitely supportive” of embedded digital technologies.
“We want to use this as a test bed on innovations in embedded technology and active monitoring, or facilitating virtual consultations. In the US, we know that a lot more healthcare is being run through technology,” said the spokesman.
“One of the reasons we want to do this is we feel this thinking is not mainstreamed enough, so that’s the longer term objective.”
Other examples of ideas it wants to support include:
- creating communities that support social cohesion, physical and mental well-being, walking, cycling and sports in place of current “obesogenic” built environments;
- designing-in the use of new digital technologies to help people live independently in their own homes;
- sharing land and buildings infrastructure such as new NHS clinics, schools, police and fire stations and other public services.
Stevens said: “This country needs a big expansion in affordable new house building, but as we do so, let’s future-proof our new communities for the health and care challenges of this new century – obesity, dementia, new models of digital health.
“We want to work together with local councils and others to design and develop new town partnerships that put innovative health and social care practice at the very heart of urban planning to create healthier places to live from the outset.
“In practical terms that means a triple agenda: designing-in healthy living, capitalising on new home-based care and technologies to support older people at home, and sharing infrastructure across public services to make smarter use of taxpayers investment.”
