Trusts can no longer afford to ignore a challenge that now exceeds £13.8bn.

They must adopt a structured, evidence-led approach to secure funding and ensure facilities remain safe, compliant and cost-effective.

In just one year, from April 2023 to March 2024, the cost of maintaining NHS facilities surged by 18% to reach £13.6bn. The situation is further intensified by a maintenance backlog that has climbed past £13.8bn. Many of these cases are critical and cannot be delayed. 

The reality is it's not your fault; there are severe funding constraints with different NHS trusts. We're here to evidence where additional revenue is required to help meet these demands.

The consequences extend beyond financial pressures. Non-compliance with regulations can result in fines averaging £150,000 per breach, with some exceeding £2m. Operationally, failing assets disrupt appointments, delay treatments and damage public trust, which in turn reduces confidence in future funding requests. 

This is why SFG20 were seeking to understand the difficulties faced by facilities teams and carried out its State of FM Survey, which identified budget constraints as the most significant barrier to effective management. For healthcare, operational cost reduction is the second major concern.

If you want to see the detailed findings from the State of FM Survey, get your copy here.

Standing here telling you to spend more money on the backlog clearly doesn't align with those challenges, so we need to find ways to justify addressing the backlog and securing that additional maintenance budget.

A compelling, evidence-backed business case will help secure additional funding. These are steps that trusts can take:

• Highlight risk and compliance issues: Demonstrate the legal and operational risks of neglecting maintenance
• Align with statutory requirements: Use SFG20 schedules to ensure maintenance activities meet Government regulations
• Conduct gap analysis: Compare current maintenance efforts against statutory tasks to identify underperformance
• Customise maintenance regimes: Tailor schedules to the unique asset profiles and challenges of each trust.

The cost of inaction is far too high. Not maintaining facilities can cost lives by preventing the delivery of care.

SFG20 provides an integrated suite of tools to help trusts optimise maintenance strategies. Its traffic light system prioritises tasks and integrates with CAFM and CMMS systems, while keeping trusts updated on more than 700 legislative and regulatory changes each year. This includes significant updates to fire regulations, building standards and cladding requirements. 

Reviewing existing schedules against SFG20's statutory benchmarks helps trusts strike the right balance, avoiding wasteful over-maintenance and dangerous under-maintenance. This approach provides facilities teams with the credible evidence needed to influence decision-makers at the highest level.

A key solution is the forward maintenance register. This tool combines asset condition surveys with SFG20 schedules to forecast maintenance requirements over one to two years, two to five years and beyond. Mapping out lifecycle expenses and resource demands enables trusts to justify investment in planned maintenance, rather than continually responding to urgent, reactive repairs, that are more often than not, short-term. 

An NHS trust used the register to secure an additional £1m in maintenance funding. They carried out a condition survey, used SFG20 to forecast requirements and then delivered the maintenance with the same tool. They delivered a clear picture of their future costs and that evidence made all the difference. 

If you want to access the Forward Maintenance Register template, download it here.

Neglecting maintenance can have severe consequences for the people in their care - those that rely on the safety that facilities managers provide. 

Even minor maintenance delays can snowball, leading to earlier-than-expected asset failures and unplanned costs.

This risk is particularly critical in the NHS, where much of the estate is ageing and requires increasingly intensive upkeep.

Your next step is to engage decision makers and secure fundings. Trusts must tailor their case to different stakeholders, from CFOs and boards to IT departments and operational managers. Recognising  stakeholders have varying priorities is crucial to securing their support. Shape the business case around organisational goals and showcase how proactive maintenance can lower risk and deliver significant cost savings. 

The NHS maintenance backlog cannot be ignored, but with the right approach, it can be overcome. The combination of SFG20 schedules, condition surveys and forward maintenance registers provides a robust roadmap to help FM teams secure more funding for maintenance in the NHS.