Can you tell me a little bit about the journey and the vision behind your highly commended win? What was the vision for the project, how did it evolve, and what were the key challenges along the way?
Andrew Panniker: Okay, so what I’m going to do is tell you a bit about the RFL PS element first, and then we’ll go into the specific projects, which are the CDCs and the NHP — New Hospital Programme. That’s when I’ll bring in my colleagues here as we talk.
RFL PS started in 2018. We are a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Free Group. We started with seven people, and now, on the consultancy side, we are up to about 70 people, so we’ve grown rapidly in that time. The good thing about our journey and vision is that we are largely all healthcare professionals who live and breathe healthcare. We get a deep understanding of working within clinical environments, how to get the information we need to make projects successful from all the clinicians who work in the hospitals. Understanding the pathways, the activities, and the patient needs is critical.
When we look at a specific project, it’s all about transforming the clinical experience for the patient and improving outcomes. Embedded healthcare experience is really important in developing that. What we do is develop schemes based on the outcomes, taking the theme of this year’s IHEEM of prevention not cure. Ours is about benefiting the patient and making sure that the estate responds to what the patient needs.
It’s about changing pathways, understanding policies, processes, and protocols, and then applying that into a designed solution. It’s more about patients, improving outcomes, improving pathways, transforming, and really improving the throughput of patients in the hospitals. That’s the ethos that drives everything we do.
In terms of your award for Consultancy of the Year, what is the biggest challenge then? Is it gathering clinician evidence, educating staff, or something else? What do you have to overcome to get to the design phase?
AP: Before we talk about specific projects, our biggest challenge really comes down to providing service excellence, making sure that the funding is in place when we need it, and actually securing the required resources.
Simon Corben talked about apprenticeships, getting graduates, and getting more people into the NHS. That is a real problem across estates and facilities. External consultancy practices are attractive, and being embedded in hospitals is becoming more attractive, but it’s been a long, long journey.
Getting skilled people into health and estates as a long-term career has been difficult. It is improving, but we need to accelerate that. Simon has ten graduates starting in NHSE, which is really good. At RFL PS, we’re trying to play our part to accelerate that.
Funding is another challenge. NHS budgets are constrained, and delivering transformational projects within those budgets is increasingly difficult, especially with inflation and construction costs rising over 30% in some areas. Balancing innovation with financial realities is an ongoing issue we have to navigate.
Absolutely. Do you employ apprentices or have graduate schemes? Are you working with universities or schools to encourage people into the industry?
AP: We have some engineering apprentices, which is good but only a small number — less than five on the ENF apprenticeship. We’ve got two survey apprentices who are just about to be chartered, which is great. But we’ve got to do more, and that’s where we are focusing our efforts.
We also try to engage with universities, schools, and other educational initiatives to give people exposure to healthcare estates work early. The idea is to show that healthcare estates and facilities can be a long-term, rewarding career.
On workforce diversity, there’s a notable lack across the industry. Are you trying to address that?
AP: Absolutely! I’ll let my colleague Laura speak to that because, recently, several of our team have been involved in presentations on women in construction. We have a diverse workforce, which is really important for us to continue developing.
Laura, thank you for joining us. Could you elaborate on diversity and inclusion?
Laura Wilkes: Yeah, absolutely. As Andrew said, the industry is very male and very white, so promoting diversity, inclusion, and belonging within RFL PS is vital.
This year, we established a Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Belonging Group with representation across the organisation. It’s sponsored by an exec but not led by one. Representation exists at all levels, looking at how we can drive future strategy.
There’s more work to do, but it’s critical in building on what Andrew was saying about workforce challenges and attracting people across the country. Making RFL PS an exciting and appealing place to work for a wide group is challenging, but essential.
That leads to my next question about positive outcomes. What impact has your work had on healthcare estates, facilities, patients, and staff?
LW: I’d like to talk about Finchley Memorial Hospital Community Diagnostic Centre. We’ve been involved since 2021, right at the start of the CDC programme. The idea was to stand up services quickly, get business cases approved, trial solutions, and then make them permanent.
We brought in business case writers and construction project managers to set up equipment as soon as funding was available. We’ve stayed with the project to ensure services meet targets and improve throughput.
To date, the centre has delivered over 450,000 tests, from MRI to phlebotomy, with all core CDC services in place.
We built a Power BI reporting tool to track performance: patient numbers, DNA rates, GP direct access, and other metrics. This allows targeted projects to improve digital access and primary care integration. Small, sharp interventions help the centre meet its objectives.
So in terms of data gathering and monitoring it, how often is that happening? Who has access to that data? How is it shown, analysed?
LW: So, what we’ve done is build a tool, the challenge has been to make it as automated as we can. The starting point was the service managers not believing us that it would be correct, and separately keeping their own excel schedules of ‘this is how many patients have been through the door’ etc and where we knew we’d won is when we were able to correct them on their data because there’s a risk of human error. So, the tool gathers the activity live from each of the services. Its updated weekly and reported to our board on a monthly basis. And that shows us where the patients are coming from. It shows us everything we’d need to know to see if the centres are performing as we need it to.
In terms of using this technology, was there a lack of trust or need for education?
LW: Absolutely. Tools are only as good as people trust them. Often digital kit in the NHS isn’t set up properly or people don’t trust it. Service managers initially maintained separate Excel schedules. Once the tool proved accurate, they began to trust it. It’s about guiding people through adoption and ensuring user-friendly systems.
Collaboration seems key. How important is it in delivering your work?
LW: Collaboration is essential. We’re NHS, supporting the NHS. Most of us have worked as NHS project managers and teams, and that means we understand what it feels like to be them. We embed ourselves in project teams rather than maintaining a formal client-consultant distance. Being part of the team is critical to understanding challenges, sharing successes, feeling the wins, and delivering results.
Darryn, were there any unexpected lessons learned from working with different clinicians or clients?
Darryn Kerr: Yes, there are always unexpected hurdles. We take a blended approach. Our work has a heavy focus from a national government policy perspective, blended with operational needs. Collaboration across the health community and other sectors is critical.
Supporting trusts to get business cases over the line often involves pre-consultation business cases, engaging the wider health economy. That collaboration is essential for effective business cases and successful project delivery.
Sustainability and innovation must also be central. Can you talk about that in the NHP?
DK: Absolutely. People think NHP is about building hospitals — it’s not. It’s about transforming services. New hospitals are an outcome, but the focus is on modernisation, innovation, sustainability, and digital solutions.
The bridge to how we do things now to how we want to do things in the future is a digital one, is a quote I think is relevant here.
We’re a small but highly experienced team — nearly 200 years of combined NHS experience. We work across business cases, hospital technical libraries, Smart Digital Hospital Programme, sustainability, technical services, and hospital briefs.
We learn from other countries. For example, Nordic systems use local vacuum systems rather than traditional piped copper, which is better environmentally. We adapt these lessons to NHS standards.
Sustainability is challenging. We use modern construction methods, electrification, solar, and heat pumps. This increases electrical infrastructure demands, but NHS Net Zero targets require it.
Andrew, looking ahead, what’s next for RFL PS in 2026 and beyond?
AP: It’s about embedding innovation into everything we do. Understanding the consequences of failure — not just to buildings but to clinical activity and patients — is critical. Recruitment is a priority to embed NHS experience within RFL PS.
Standardisation is key. We want pathways to be consistent across hospitals, so patients and staff experience familiar processes.
DK: Standardisation extends to NHP inpatient wards. All wards will have the same layout, so staff can familiarise quickly.
We’re also developing a digital flight deck, consolidating millions of data points to predict failures rather than react. This improves planning, productivity, and keeps critical areas like theatres open longer.
Finally, Andrew, what advice would you give to the sector?
AP: Collaboration and partnerships are essential. One organisation can’t provide everything. Blended solutions and open collaboration across systems will improve efficiency, innovation, and outcomes.