Estates and Technology Transformation Fund

NHS England’s Estates and Technology Transformation Fund (ETTF) is a multi-million pound investment (revenue and capital funding) in general practice facilities and technology across England (between 2015/16 and 2019/20).

It is part of the General Practice Forward View commitment for more modernised buildings and better use of technology to help improve general practices services for patients.

The ETTF funding comes out of the £1bn Primary Care Infrastructure Fund which as well as providing a funding boost for estates and technology has invested in other areas of general practice such as workforce.

Some examples of what the ETTF funding is paying for include:

  1. New consulting and treatment rooms to provide a wider range of services for patients and so more patients can be seen
  2. Improved reception and waiting areas
  3. Building new facilities to deal with minor injuries
  4. Creating better IT systems to improve the way information is shared between health services in the area
  5. Extending existing facilities to house a wider range of health staff including GPs, nurses and clinical pharmacists.
  6. Building new health centres which have a greater range of health services for patients in one place.

See how ETTF funding is benefitting patients in Staffordshire:

View further case studies from across the country showing how this funding is benefitting patients.

How the ETTF programme works

The early stages of the programme focussed on improving and expanding the size of existing GP facilities.

Building on this, local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) submitted recommendations to NHS England for further investment, in line with their local estates and digital plans. This includes proposals for new buildings and technology schemes.

The main aim is to develop more modernised infrastructure in general practice to improve and expand services for patients. The development of some schemes may involve a wide range of different organisations and the size and types of scheme will differ, which the delivery time for each scheme will vary. Building a new, purpose built health facility for example will take considerably longer than small changes to increase the capacity of a practice.

How is funding being spent

Every ETTF scheme goes through a series of detailed checks before it is approved to ensure it is feasible, value for money and delivers the maximum benefit for patients.

2015/16 was the first year of the ETTF and 560 schemes were completed. The majority of these schemes were improvements to existing GP facilities. View some recent case studies.

From 2016/17, local Clinical Commissioning Groups identified over 800 further schemes for potential investment, subject to due diligence checks and approval. View a list of these identified schemes by region.

Progress in 2016/17 meant that 198 schemes were completed, 169 were in delivery and 656 were subject to due diligence checks and approval. These schemes are in addition to those completed in 2015/16.

Spending is likely to increase each year as larger developments come to completion. Many of the developments will enable practices to work with other services, including local authorities, voluntary organisations and NHS Trusts to provide services that people need to access locally.

Further information

For more information, please contact the team at england.gppremisesfund@nhs.net