What is an SCIM Design Statement?

Starting a new or redevelopment of a healthcare facility can be a daunting task for health board members who are new to this type of project. If you're a member of a health board and require help on where to start, you've come to the right place. 

We've put together a short learning resource to help you transition into the right mindset to undertake this sort of work. It starts with a brief and ends in a Design Statement.? 

The basis of any project is a clear brief. This should capture not just what the development must contain – the spaces and functions – but what it must support people to do: 

• To reach help more easily 
• To relax in peace or to encourage people to be up and about? 
• To communicate with colleagues better 

How your design team can achieve these attributes will rely on their skills in merging the different aspects of the brief and site. 

To build confidence in a better future and ensure the delivery of the project is on the right track, you can develop a shared vision at an early stage of the project.  

For new or substantially refurbished health projects’ a shared vision is captured in a Design Statement. 

A SCIM Design Statement is typically eight to ten pages containing short statements of needs matched with images of what success might look like to these. It also includes a view of how the development will provide a positive addition in a community context. 

Your approach to how this brief will be used to inform key decision points completes this statement of need and intent. 

A Design Statement is developed through engagement with a broad range of stakeholders. These include: 

• health board representatives  
• external clinicians or medical staff of your facility 
• patient representatives such as former patients or family members of patients 

The starting point of this engagement is the business objectives for the development, such as improved access to services, increased integration, increased efficiency, etc.? 

Using these, the group verbally walks through a ‘day in the life’ firstly of a patient, then a staff member and a visitor. This captures what the facility must do for these people at each stage of their journey from home to treatment and back again.? 

These needs are recorded as short statements, and benchmarked through examples of good practice, learning from the successes of others.