Client: Royal National Orthopaedic Hospitals NHS Trust (RNOH)
The RNOH is the largest orthopaedic hospital in the UK and is regarded as a leader in the field of orthopaedics both in the UK and worldwide.
RNOH NHS Trust has several sites around the UK; however, this study focuses on the Stanmore site in North London. RNOH Stanmore
- Is 1 of only 5 specialist orthopaedic centres in the UK;
- Conducts 11,000 surgical procedures every year;
- Sees 100,000 outpatients every year;
- Trains 20% of future orthopaedic consultants.
There are approximately 1,600 staff employed onsite.
The Stanmore site itself is largely inaccessible by public transport and other non-car modes.
Client Issues
The building stock at Stanmore is aging, inefficient and no longer fit for purpose; more than half of the buildings onsite were constructed before 1948.
RNOH is redeveloping the whole Stanmore site in order to provide facilities that match the world-class care that staff deliver.
This redevelopment will result in the loss of most of the surface car parks; the only solution is to build a multi-storey car park (MSCP) in the centre of the site.
Unfortunately, the only way to fund the construction of the MSCP is through:
This included:
- Use of existing clinical budgets;
- Charitable donations;
- Introducing charges for use of the car park.
RNOH is one of the last Acute Hospitals in England to provide free parking for staff and visitors. The project team were concerned that the possibility of introducing charging could lead to issues with staff recruitment and retention.
RNOH also wanted to seek the views of staff and visitors on the types of improvements that they wanted to see to parking provision, as well as expectations on how charging might work.
Our Solution
The Parking Consultancy was appointed through a tender process where we proved to be most cost-effective and provide the best blend of skills and experience to deliver the project.
The first step was to identify exactly what RNOH wanted to gain from the process.
This included:
- Providing an opportunity for engagement with all stakeholders;
- Communicating clearly using the most appropriate channels;
- Explaining the rationale behind the redevelopment as a whole and the need for a MSCP;
- Clearly explaining the reasons why charging for parking may prove necessary;
- Demonstrating the improvements to parking provision that will be implemented;
- Assuring users that any charges will be fair and equitable and not used to generate profit;
- Paving the way for acceptance of charges, should that come to pass;
- Allowing stakeholders to air any concerns they may have and allaying any fears;
- Obtaining suggestions on improvements to parking provision that users wished to see, providing a ‘shopping list’ for the RNOH Project Team to use when negotiating the final contract with the preferred bidder.
To this end we developed a detailed Communications and Engagement Strategy setting out who the key audiences were and how we would engage them.
In addition to this, The Parking Consultancy also added value by conducting an audit of parking provision onsite and undertaking a traffic count as a goodwill gesture, as well as offering advice on procurement and contract negotiations.
Services Provided
In order to engage as many stakeholders as possible, we delivered the following:
- Designed an online and paper-based survey for staff and for members of the public;
- Produced promotional copy for use on the RNOH website, intranet and social media;
- Recorded a presentation and scripted a video for display on the Trust’s intranet pages.
- Included a survey link in staff payslips;
- Produced materials for ‘static’ information stands placed around the site;
- Set up staffed exhibition stands at the locations with the greatest footfall to engage with stakeholders face-to-face;
- Arranged an all-day Staff Open Forum, consisting of the delivery of a presentation then Q&A sessions for attendees;
- Set up a series of one-to-one meetings with Departmental leads throughout RNOH;
- Delivered presentations and answered questions at various internal groups;
- Engaged local resident groups.
The Results
Over the 10-week period of engagement over 500 surveys were returned from RNOH staff; this represents almost a third of employees at the Stanmore site.
During the same time, more than 400 members of the public responded. Many more were engaged during the face-to-face events and their views logged.
The client was particularly satisfied with the high number of people engaged.
While opposition to charging was predictable, in most cases this was due to unrealistically high expectations of what those charges might be. The Parking Consultancy was able to allay many fears by pointing out typical levels of charging at other NHS Trusts, opening the way for a more detailed conversation further down the line.
A clear list of improvements that all service users wanted to see was compiled from both survey responses and face-to-face engagement.
Contract Data
Duration: 3 years
Contact: Ian Goodwin and David White theparkingconsultancy@outlook.com
Tel: 01430650343
Mobile: 07410117113
Case Study