Supporting a Healthy Workforce for the NHS

The Health and Care Academy at the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital (NSEC), host to a trailblazing partnership between Northumbria NHS Foundation Trust and Sunderland University, trains the workforce of the future through provision of a state-of-the-art nursing, midwifery and allied health professional training facility. In addition, as winner of the Healthy Workplace Award at Healthy City Design 2024 and targeting WELL Gold accreditation, it is a fantastic working environment. This extends to the collocated uses within the building, including conference accommodation, a community health professionals base and GP practice.

There is an emphasis on providing different workspaces including breakout, a wide range of meeting spaces and more traditionally configured offices. Dedicated telephone and digital consulting spaces to support the GP’s modern ways of working, recognise the increased need for facilities to interact digitally with patients. Staff rest areas and external spaces are also key.

By targeting the ten WELL concept areas of Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, and Community, we integrated a series of features with distinct health-focused intentions into the overall design, creating a healthier place to work and making it the first healthcare building in the UK to achieve WELL Gold accreditation.

The Northern Centre for Cancer Care, Cumberland Infirmary, completed in 2021, was driven by a goal of all-round sustainability, including being socially sustainable and a successful building where people aspire to work or be treated. This was in response to a service deemed to be at risk, partly down to a lack of specialist staff.

Working closely with building users to create a successful working environment with emphasis on having the spaces that staff need in the right location to support the working flow, Suzanne Stanley, Oncology services manager at Cumbria NHS, said: “We can see how the architects really listened to feedback - adding a staff rest room and meeting room; a flow allowing movement between LINACs and CTs without walking through the main waiting areas; side rooms for chemo patients that retained visual access from the nurses’ station.”

A few years on, the building has set a precedent for a welcoming, user-friendly environment for staff and patients which has been carried through following projects at Cumberland Infirmary and has been shown to improve the recruitment and retention of nurses and radiographers.

"By designing spaces that support and value staff, we’re not just building them a place to work, but somewhere to learn and grow, and in turn helping to build a stronger, more sustainable NHS workforce.

Looking ahead, we will reflect on how including more consideration of staff spaces during project inception can create successful projects in terms of attracting and retaining the NHS workforce." Sharon Cook, Healthcare Lead.