Content

That Worthing Borough Council to appoint
Bellrock as Managing Agent to oversee the management facilities and
NHS tenants of the Worthing Integrated Care Centre (WICC) on an
interim basis from 1 April to 1 July 2026, until such time a
permanent Managing Agent contract has been formally proposed and
recommended for approval through the Joint Strategic Committee.
 
Fees payable to Bellrock under the appointment
are collected by them from accrued Service Charge payments made by
the tenants of the building under the terms of their lease.

Reasons for the decision

Savills had previously been appointed by the
Council to provide the managing agent requirements. Savills are
currently acting as managing agents for the WICC Building and were
originally brought into the management process for the building
because at that time the NHS tenants had not entered into a lease.
This responsibility was with the Council to fulfil through
Savills.
 
The reason for the change is, that in the
development of the Service Charge arrangements, Savills established
that the level of Health Technical Memoranda (HTM) requirements
necessary to serve the NHS services who will operate from the
building, is above and beyond what Savills are specialised to
perform.
 
The enhanced specialist compliant requirements
to operate a HTM compliant building to be provided by Bellrock
include:
 

·        
HTM governance

·        
Healthcare engineering expertise

·        
Enhance compliance reporting

·        
Infection control integration

·        
Critical infrastructure resilience

·        
Water treatment and monitoring

·        
Clinical waste handling
 
All necessary operational policies,
maintenance regimes, and audits align with the relevant HTMs.
 
Although Savills are fully versed in managing
large scale commercial buildings they do not offer the enhanced
level of structured competency and governance to facilitate the
important services to meet NHS estate governance requirements.
Therefore they will not be in a position to manage the day to day
management of the facility for the following:-
 
NHS Occupiers
 

·        
Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust

·        
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

·        
Worthing Medical Group

·        
Paydens
 
Bellrock are already engaged and familiar with
the property and have the specialised expertise to fulfil all
necessary HTM compliant services as part of a current consultancy
appointment. Whereby Bellrock has been working with Savills and the
NHS to ensure the WICC is ready to become fully operationalised at
the point issues associated with the water system are resolved.
 
The Council intends to appoint Bellrock for an
interim appointment as the managing agent to ensure continuity of
service for the management of the building is assured, while the
Council determines the longer term procurement requirements for a
formal Management Contract Award. As part of this contractual
appointment the existing Facility Manager with Savills’ who
holds the knowledge and experience of the building, will be TUPED
from Savills to Bellrock to support the ongoing management of the
building.

Alternative options considered

Managing HTM compliance requires specialist
Building Management expertise to facilitate and manage. Bellrock
will be appointed by the Council to undertake initial consultancy
services due to their knowledge of what is required in terms of
integrating NHS and health services. This is essential. There are
not adequate resources to fully procure alternative Building
Management services to commence by the beginning of April.