Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT)
The Local Improvement Finance Trust / Private Finance Initiative (LIFT/PFI) Programme is based on a partnership between Wolverhampton City Council, Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust and the private sector to provide six bespoke buildings from which to deliver health and social care services. The buildings will be:
- three Primary and Community Care Centres
- three Mental Health Resource Centres and Community Health Centres.
Facilities will combine health and social care services with leisure, library and adult education programmes. In doing so, the programme challenges traditional models of health and social care.
Programme progress
The LIFT/PFI project is making good progress. The Treasury has endorsed the council's Outline Business Case for £29.38m of Private Finance Initiative credits to help fund the new buildings.
All six of the LIFT/PFI Programme sites have now been agreed.
The three Primary and Community Care Centres will be located at Showell Park at Low Hill, Bilston Urban Village and on the site of West Park Rehabilitation Hospital. They will have GPs, community nursing, therapies, social care, day opportunities and information services, plus beds to support people leaving hospital as well as respite care services.
The three Mental Health Resource and Community Health Centres will be sited at Showell Circus at Low Hill, the Portobello regeneration site and Whitmore Reans Health Centre. They will house mental health social work and community nursing teams and offer day opportunities and therapy, consultation and treatment rooms.
Work to develop the models of care and service specifications is ongoing. Service specifications will drive the design of the LIFT/PFI buildings so that facilities are sufficiently flexible to meet changing needs and work practices.
Modernising services
These new buildings are part of a wider £90million programme of investment across the city to provide community and primary care services for residents, including older people and people with mental health needs.
Brian O'Leary, the council's Chief Officer for Older People, said: “This is great news for the people of Wolverhampton. The range of services we will be providing in the new buildings is unprecedented in the city and represents our commitment to providing comprehensive and accessible care, support and health services.
“Citizens will have services that are easier to get to thanks to more flexible opening times, with social and primary care services located in the same building alongside advice on healthy lifestyles and leisure activities. The new facilities will also help in the regeneration of their local community.”
As we move towards the detailed planning stages of the six LIFT/PFI buildings, the council will be looking to involve elected members, staff and service users in signing off both the design of the services and the design of the buildings. This will be through a range of different ways including meetings, user groups and questionnaires.
Construction of the first site is expected to be completed in 2010, with work on the rest finishing over the following three years.
Read the newsletter
Click here to be taken to a page containing the latest issues of the Care Closer to Home newsletter, packed with information about the new services.
Every Adult Matters
At the heart of the LIFT/PFI project is our commitment to modernise services in line with the city's Every Adult Matters Strategy and the Government's White Paper Our Health, Our Care, Our Say.
Download
To download the Every Adult Matters Strategy click on the PDF icon below.
