Work on a new health campus in Newtown remains on track despite the the North Powys Wellbeing campus in Newtown remains on track, councillors have been told.

At a meeting on Thursday, December 16, members of Powys County Council’s health and care and learning and skills scrutiny committees were updated on the project's progress.

Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) and Powys County Council (PCC) are working together on the project.

The Park area of Newtown has been earmarked for the campus – which will bring health, social care, education, voluntary sector and even housing together in one place.

The council’s head of social services commissioning, Dylan Owen  explained the next step would be to submit a strategic outline case to the Welsh Government “very soon”.

Mr Owen said: “If this works it will be a blueprint across the rest of the county.

“We’ve done a lot of work in the background, what the demand is and what capacity our services have.”

He added that work had taken “longer than it should have” because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen health and social care staff at the frontline of the emergency.

The emergence of coronavirus has also had an impact on the data needed to help plan the facilities,

Mr Owen added: “We are to a degree as with everything in health and social care at the moment, planning in the fog, and trying to understand what will be coming at us over the months and years.”

Assistant programme director, Carly Skitt of Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) told the meeting that working on the case for the campus will be dependent on staff and operational capacity, but they were still aiming at 2026.

Ms Skitt said: “The main focus is getting the SOC approved by early summer and develop the business case through the next financial year.

“Then we’ll be looking to procure our design and build contractor and develop our final business case by the end of 2025 with a view to building and opening in 2026.”

Committee chairman, Cllr Amanda Jenner asked to see the strategic outline case “now” so that she could decide which parts of  the “jigsaw” to bring in front of the committee to scrutinise.

Cllr Stephen Hayes believe that the business case and governance arrangements would also need to be examined.

In May 2019, the Welsh Government announced that £2.5 million of funding has been made available to start the project.

The proposals include:

  • New school building for Ysgol Calon y Dderwen
  • Health and care facilities, including the potential to carry out some outpatient diagnostic services and day-surgery as well as in-patient beds and services currently delivered at the Park Street Clinic
  • Health and care academy
  • Library provision
  • Shared community space
  • Community garden space
  • Short-term supported living accommodation.