HFMA: Roundtable / Building for the future (8 June 2026)

Summary

The soon-to-be-published NHS 10-year workforce plan will attempt to set out the staff that the NHS will need in future – both in terms of numbers and skill mix. This promises to take account of the reformed model of care described in the government’s 10-year plan for health, with more care delivered out of hospital in the community, greater reliance on digital technology, and a bigger focus on prevention. But what will the NHS estate need to look like to support this new way of working? And what needs to change in the current financial regime to help the service get there?

The HFMA, supported by healthcare construction specialist Darwin Group, recently organised a roundtable, bringing together estates and finance professionals to discuss how the NHS estate needs to change to be fit for the future. The roundtable covered a lot of territory, from accounting rules to system behaviours, but one thing was clear – significant reform will be needed to provide an estate that supports the government’s ambitions.

Roundtable chair Helen Hughes, a former NHS finance director and now chief executive of the charity Patient Safety Learning, said the discussion was taking place against a backdrop of significant demand for capital, but limited funding in a difficult financial environment for the whole public sector. She highlighted the ‘scary figure’ of £15.9bn across the NHS to address its backlog maintenance – bigger than the whole Department of Health and Social Care capital budget for the current year.