The Building Better Healthcare Awards celebrate excellence and innovation in healthcare, shining a spotlight on projects that improve patient experiences and outcomes. As part of our winner spotlight series, we're showcasing standout initiatives that embody collaboration, creativity, and impact. In this edition, we hear from one of this year's winners about how their pioneering, patient-centred approach is transforming healthcare and inspiring progress across the sector.
What motivated you to participate in the Building Better Healthcare Awards, and how did you anticipate they would benefit your projects?
Our motivation to participate in the Building Better Healthcare Awards stemmed from a desire to showcase East London NHS Foundation Trust's (ELFT) innovative and collaborative approach to enhancing patient engagement and imbedding it into estate management. The awards are sector leading and provide a respected platform to celebrate excellence in healthcare, particularly in estates and facilities, which play a pivotal role in fostering patient well-being and recovery. Our hope is that other Trusts can learn from our examples to further enhance codesign and coproduction with patients.
East London NHS Foundation Trust's submission into the 2024 BBH Awards
Could you share more about the winning projects, including its goals and key elements involved in bringing it to life?
As an Estates leadership team - we knew that we had to transform how we engaged with Service Users to improve our environment and our processes around out service delivery
Our goals were to...
- Empower service users to shape estate decisions.
- Promote sustainability through the Green Plan.
- Foster transparency and owenership in care environments.
We knew that to truly do better and maintain momentum - we had to have a dedicated People Participation lead, and we worked hard to create tht role on a permanent basis. We now have service users embedded into each of our estates areas and our decision making processes;
- People Participation Lead: Bridges communication between patients, clinical leads and estates.
- Coproduction & Codesign: Service users co-create policies, including safety and environment strategies.
- Environmental Assurance Groups: Patients managed and assessed their care environments.
- Service User Reporting & PLACE Programme: Transparent feedback actively improves our environment - providing us real scores and relevant action plans to improve our environment. We prove that we are listening.
- Contractor Engagement: Patients participate in contractor selection.
- Impact: Our patient-centred approach enhances transparency, collaboration, and estate quality, aligning with ELFT's mission for innovation and sustainability.
What has been the most valuable lesson or insight you gained from working on this project?
The most valuable lesson from this project has been the power of collaboration and the transformative impact of truly listening to service users.
By involving patients in estate-related decisions—whether through Environmental Assurance Groups, the PLACE Programme, or coproduction initiatives—we gained first hand insights into their experiences and priorities.
This was essentially the case with PLACE - our scores and comments truly reflect those made by our patients. They are not glossed or washed - and this may result in a lower score - but they are honest, accurate, and give us real opportunity to improve.
What advice would you offer to others in the healthcare industry looking to innovate or improve outcomes?
Our advice is to prioritise your collaboration and patient-centred approaches. This cannot be light touch or be by lip service.
Estates leaders should directly engage patients and service users as partners in the estate management process, rather than just recipients of care. This can be achieved through coproduction, where patients actively shape policies, environments, and services to better meet their needs.
This can easily be done by listening to Service Users and involving them in every single stage—from strategy design to implementation, from recruitment to retention, from tendering to performance reviews. Their perspectives are invaluable for creating environments that promote well-being and recovery.
The Building Better Healthcare Awards continue to champion innovation and excellence across the sector. With entries for the 2025 edition opening in March, don't miss your chance to showcase your work—sign up for our newsletter to stay updated and be a part of the conversation.