On 24 May 2019, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published guidance on the procedures that will apply in relation to the potential transfer of primary and community care properties which are currently in the ownership of NHS Property Services Limited (NHS PS) or Community Health Partnerships Limited (CHP) to NHS Trusts or NHS Foundation Trusts.

The guidance details various requirements which will need to be met when an application is submitted and Trusts applying will need to ensure that they are compliant to avoid applications being rejected by DHSC.

Background

The dissolution of Primary Care Trusts required the transfer of all their primary and community care property portfolios to other appropriate stakeholders within the NHS, namely to either NHS Trusts that had taken on the provision of community services or NHS PS.  Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) properties were transferred to CHP without exception.

Since that time, a number of STPs and NHS providers have lobbied DHSC on the possibility of taking a transfer of facilities within the primary care / community estate where there is a strategic case to do so.

DHSC has therefore issued guidance setting out a high level summary of the requirements which need to be met for a transfer to proceed and the procedure for making an application.

Eligibility

The application procedure for the transfer of a NHS PS or CHP property is available to both NHS Foundation Trusts and Trusts.

However, applications can only be made in relation to properties which will remain in long term NHS use.  No specific details are included within the guidance on what is considered “long term NHS use” but the intention here appears to be to avoid the submission of applications in relation to properties which are suitable for disposal.

How Capsticks can help

Capsticks has prepared a set of guidance notes which are intended to help Trusts to follow the correct procedure. If you would like a copy of this, please get in touch with our team here.