Private Finance Initiatives / PFI

Having been established for over 50 years and worked in the "traditional consultancy role", on healthcare projects since the inception of the NHS and on education projects since Oliver asked for more, we took a hard look at the way Government was seeking to procure future projects by involving the private sector.

When the last Conservative Government concluded that the way forward for the upgrading of NHS stock was to rely on the private sector and the following Labour Government carried on with a similar route and extended the principle to education, the law, the fire service and street lighting, THA realised that if we were to stay involved on large scale developments we had to find a way, as a small Private Company, to understand the process and assist in two ways:

As advisors to the Public Sector
As part of bidding consortia for projects

As advisors we found that we had the experience to help in our own right and as part of the Trust Advisory Team. Working for the Client we began to understand the process, needs, language, availability of funds and the role of the other members of the advisory team. This is particularly so on Healthcare and Education projects enabling us to become valued "team players". We have continued in this role and are currently advising the Education Authority in Sunderland on their Sandhill View project and the Tyne and Wear Fire Service on re-provision and modernisation of their fire stations. By this means we were then able to add real value to any bidding team.

We realised that as bidders we may be too small to taken seriously in our own right and therefore we helped to form a sister Company, called SSL (State of the Art Solutions Limited), the composition of the company is specialised healthcare professionals with expertise in healthcare design, management, IT and economics. The Board members have expertise and background in the NHS at senior management levels, or are in private practice architecture and quantity surveying, development and information technology. This niche Company is prepared to take an equity stake within consortia giving our whole team a vested interest in formulating what is ultimately provided to a Trust. We have found that utilising our professional healthcare background creates a non-adversarial approach which Trusts respond to positively.

If required the team will work within other consortia where appropriate and we are currently working with Miller Construction, Jarvis plc and Laing O'Rourke in preparing bids for PFI lift projects and schools.

This approach was successful and by careful selection of project bids SSL is now working on two healthcare projects that have past financial close. One is North Birmingham (shown right) working with the local Mental Health Trust on an £11m project for the re-provision of mental health facilities. The other is in South Wales where we are working on a new £50m local General Hospital for the Bro Morganwg NHS Trust.

(right) North Birmingham mental health facilities

New Hospital Development Manchester Royal Infirmary

Telford Hart Associates were engaged as Project Managers to carry out the pivotal role of Construction Project Manager, leading on liaison/monitoring between the Project Contractor and the Trust.

(left) New Hospital Development Manchester Royal Infirmary

Our role on PFI projects to date has been from the outset of each, assisting in the formation of the bidding team consortia, using our extensive network of connections within the PFI arena including financial and legal advisors, contractors and facilities managers, offering the consortia construction cost advice and life cycle costs when required for the bid pre preferred bidder. Following selection of preferred bidder status we prepare quantities for the successful contractor on site, monitor and track change etc., using our expertise on the delivery of complex projects for the benefit of the consortia as a whole.