Sparkbrook Community and Health Centre

Uniting diverse facilities under one roof to create a hub at the very heart of a community

Creating a new breed of community and health facilities, this landmark centre was possible thanks to Prime’s ability to develop a mixed ownership model with multiple stakeholders who shared a key vision – improving a communities access to health, cultural and welfare services.

Prime’s expertise in spotting and seizing commercial opportunities, was crucial to the success of Sparkbrook Community and Health Centre. A £12m project that rejuvenated primary care facilities and community services – creating one dedicated, coherent and integrated site.

Located in a bustling and dense urban area of Birmingham, Sparkbrook was serviced by a wide range of well-loved but disparate services. The health and community centre, located on a prominent crossroads, was suffering from tired and outdated facilities. So when the church at the opposite side of the crossroads was damaged by a tornado in 2005 it created an opportunity; one that would lead to regeneration of the whole site and the creation of landmark joint health and council building.

As the private sector partner, Prime worked collaboratively with four additional stakeholders to bring this project to fruition – Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust, (HoBtPCT), Birmingham City Council, The Diocese of Birmingham and local LIFTCo Birmingham and Solihull LIFT (BaS LIFT).

With Prime’s property and funding expertise, plans were devised in close consultation with the community to develop a new health and care centre and church. Prime understood that by engaging the community from the start, they would develop a sense of ownership of the project and encourage future use of the community spaces.

The ambitious project brought together three GP practices, community dental services, a library, council customer service centre, office spaces for start-up initiatives, community space for hire, training facilities, a church and cafe. With so many stakeholder interests involved, Prime’s experience of merging multiple funding streams helped to unlock financial complexities and remove traditional property and funding barriers. In addition, our development team were fundamental in devising a phased site assembly to ensure health and community services could remain operational throughout.

With experience of successfully bringing partners together, Prime was able to communicate with and involve stakeholders in the creation of a truly holistic community and health service. Perfectly demonstrated in the creation of a Peace Garden and art projects created in partnership with local community representatives. The new centre encourages ambitious ways of working and creates an ideal environment for cross-referral between services. Providing fully integrated solutions for patients and users, the new scheme helps to improve people’s lives, cut out duplication of services, saving taxpayer money in the process.