Feasibility Study Executive Summary

Kemble Centre
Feasibility Study Report
Executive Summary
July 2016

Background to the Study

The Feasibility Study was commissioned in December 2015 by the Ewyas Harold Group Parish Council (EHGPC) following an Awards for All grant for this work to be undertaken.

The EHGPC had purchased the former St. John Kemble Church having secured a loan from the Public Works Loan Board in January 2015 and wanted to gain further insight into the feasibility of establishing a Health and Wellbeing Centre, referred to as the Kemble Centre, on the site.

The aim of the proposed development is to provide a wide range of services to support the health and wellbeing and independence of local communities through self help and preventative activities. The Centre would provide a focus to integrate early intervention with the services provided by the local GP Practice for their 6,000 patients, and would help to reduce the need for hospital visits and stays. Some initial developments had been put forward by the Golden Valley GP Practice that could provide a new model of care that would meet with emerging NHS plans to improve access to services at a local level.

The Feasibility Study followed on from the successful developments and consultations carried out by EHGPC and the Kemble Centre Working Group to date, including a postal survey of local households. All the responses received through these early consultatons were positively in support of developing the proposed Centre adjacent to the Golden Valley GP Practice.

Feasibility Study Research

To better understand the need for the proposed Centre, further consultation was carried out with a wide range of organisations and individuals. This covered those who had already expressed an interest, and others whose services could be of benefit to local communities.

The following contacts were made through a series of interviews and presentations:

• Local providers in the area to establish compatibility and mutual benefits or otherwise.
• Service providers from the voluntary, statutory and private sectors who may be interested in providing their services from the proposed Centre.
• Herefordshire Council’s Planners to seek advice on what could developments could be permissible.
• Neighbouring Parish Councils to ascertain their interest in the proposal.
• A EHGPC Annual Public meeting to present the proposals and the developments to date and in hand to the local community.

The further consultation work with those listed above clearly endorsed the need for a Health and Wellbeing Centre to be developed on the site.

Options were then developed for the Working Group to consider what would be the best and most viable model for the proposed Centre. The optimum model supported by both the Working Group and EHGPC was to continue to work with the Golden Valley GP Practice in developing a Centre that will provide a venue for community health specialists, social care services and local community activities.

What next?

The aims for the Centre are very much in line with the NHS Shared Planning Guidance 2016/17 which outline a new approach to ensure that health and care services are planned by place rather than around individual organisations. The Planning Guidance requires all health and care systems to produce a sustainability and transformation plan that shows how local services will work together to improve the quality of care.

The One Herefordshire Plan produced by local health and social care providers sets out their proposals on how this is going to work in Herefordshire. EHGPC and the Kemble Centre Working Group are working closely with One Herefordshire to determine how the proposals for the Centre and all that is could offer can be delivered to meet with their transformation plans.

The EHGPC have a Business Development Plan in place that will help to take this initiative forward as the project is in very early stages of development. Communications with local communities and providers will be central to taking this project proposal forward.

This project has enormous potential in its aim of bringing service providers to work together collectively to make health and well being services and activities more tailored to local need and more locally accessible.

EHGPC would like to thank everyone for their time and contributions to date and look forward to working with you further on the proposals as the project develops.

Please contact Carla Boyles, Parish Clerk on clerk@ewyasharoldgpc.org.uk or 07399 497077 for further information or if you are interested in being involved in the developments.

Feasibility Study Report for the Proposed Kemble Centre

Proposed Kemble Centre Business Development Plan

KC RAG Progress Tracking