Beautiful view

There's been so much going on lately it's been hard to find the time to keep the blog updated - but there is now a lot of material to add over the next week or two. First and foremost we have some lovely sketches of what the nursing facility might look like. The actual design will of course depend on the features of the site, and any existing buildings or structures already present. We will endeavour to strengthen, or at least preserve positive features, and minimise negative impacts on the local area.

Quids in

Don't know about you, but I always thought when you were awarded a grant there would be a photo of you with a big cheque, like this:

Sadly no, just a transfer made to our bank account, which I only found out next time I checked the balance.

Awhhh.

The search for a site

Now the really hard part - finding a suitable site. There are so many factors to consider. We've devised a decision matrix, and included the following criteria:

• area (~8ha - apparently a football pitch is 0.8 hectares - so this means 10 football pitches)


• physical geography - shape of site, slope, aspect, drainage, etc


• previous development (was it industrial? are there existing buildings? is there anything we can "reclaim"?)


• accessibility and communication - public transport connections are absolutely crucial if we are to keep our carbon footprint down (or a good cycle path in the unlikely event we can find one anywhere 'round here), access roads, Broadband, etc


• skills proximity - local workforce nearby (who will be using the bus, cycle path, etc as above!). Deep Green aims to upskill people, so the main factor is a local population with a sufficient number of potential care staff who will share the values of Deep Green.


• cost - current ownership has a huge influence here. If public sector, they may be willing to let Deep Green have the land very cheap because of the social capital we will be creating in the area. If a prime site for residential development, the cost could be millions.


• Planning permission - a site which was already deigned as residential in the draft Local Development Framework might be easier than a former industrial or retail area.


• Environmental concerns - a catch-all for "other" such as green belt, site of special scientific interest, potential for wind turbine, contamination and any remediation needed


• Partners - is the local authority supportive? Is there a Registered Social Landlord (RSL) i.e. housing association, covering that area who might be willing to work with us? Is there a regeneration initiative?


• Site history and neighbours - has there been any kind of local protest over the site? is it a site used by travellers? are there problems with community safety, vandalism, theft, hate crime, etc?


• and last, but not least, the aesthetics of the site, does it look attractive? Does it have potential?

So any readers (either of you!) who know of a site we could consider, please let us know.

Water, water everywhere...

The weather lately has turned my mind to thinking about how we will use water at Deep Green.
Here in the developed world we are crazy enough to use excellent drinking water to flush our toilets! We transport this precious commodity from beautiful lakes in Cumbria or North Wales - and along the way an awful lot is lost to leakage. It's desirable from a sustainability perspective to use as little as possible. This concept doesn't fit that well with conventional health care, where there is great emphasis placed on washing - bodies, clothes, bed linen and floors! So how to maximise cleanliness and infection prevention and control whilst minimising water use?
We will be exploring:

• reusing "grey" water from sinks, baths and wet rooms for flushing purposes.
• harvesting rain water for the gardens
• low water use laundry - I understand that the new oxygenating washing processes remove the need for extensive rinsing

We will also consider how we can minimise run off from the site, by keeping hard paving/asphalted surfaces to a minimum.

We will be inviting United Utilities (our local water purveyor) to become a partner, initially providing technical advice and expertise, but from there who knows?

We made contact with the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Wales, several months ago, to see if one of the people studying on one of their courses might be interested in examining different methods for treating laundry. Can't understand why no one has bitten the cherry ...

Business Development Grant awarded!

Very good news Subject to contract, SEIF has agreed to award us a Business Development Grant! Apparently we are the first award of this year's round. One of the first steps is to establish the size and shape of the market for the Deep Green offer, and how much health and social care commissioners would be willing to pay.

The search for a friendly local authority will now be pursued in earnest. We have a real proposition, with likelihood of securing funding, which will create 100 jobs, plus the short-term jobs created in the construction - a sector which is crying out for work at the moment. This factor will make the costs of building cheaper now than they would have been 2 years ago. As we will be using environmentally conscious building methods, this will give the workforce experience which can only enhance their future employment prospects. "Green" building is increasinly making sense as the longer term energy costs continue to rise. So we make an attractive proposition for a local authority wanting to stimulate some business growth, and we "tick lots of boxes" - social enterprise, woman entrepreneur, person with disabilities, ethical, environmental, providing social benefit...how could they possibly say no?

Business Plan and Financial Forecasts complete-ish

Considering this time 2 years ago I hadn't realised that this was what I wanted to do - to now having written a Business Plan (with a little help from my friends) for a £6,000,000 development is amazing. Paul has written the two 3 year financial forecasts, using the huge, complex spreadsheets provided by SEIF (see previous) - one of those where changing a variable on one page, e.g. monthly utility bill, automatically updates the others, so you can play around with the figures to your heart's content. For instance, I hadn't factored in any extra payment for unsocial hours, so we were able to add on 5 day's pay per year (for staff who will work Bank Holidays - 10 days at time and a half). The forecasts take us up to 2015. We've projected the home opening for business in 2012, but I think that is extremely optimistic -there are so many factors around finding a site, getting it surveyed, getting Planning permisssion, who knows - being gazumped?
The next step is that our Investment Adviser will prepare a case for the development to a specially convened panel - by which I mean a panel which comes together when they have a couple of proposals to vet - rather than working to a pre-determined schedule. It will probably be September before we hear if we have been awarded a Business Development Grant to allow us to take the Business Plan and financial forecasts to a stage where we will be "investment ready". Then it will be a Dragon's Den scenario..... (yipes!)

Good news - on 6 June 2009 we finally had contact from the Social Enterprise Investment Fund (SEIF) - a Department of Health fund, now managed by Futurebuilders England, in response to an application we submitted 31 July 2008! We were advised to withdraw that application, and apply under the new terms which were coming out the next week (search for SEIF on www.dh.gov.uk if you're interested). We have since had contact from our Investment Adviser, and submitted draft business plan, 6 year cash flow forecast, and Statement of Investment Use, to her so that she can help us get them sufficiently robust to go before the next Investment Panel.