Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE), 2025

PLACE aims to promote the principles established by the NHS Constitution that focus on areas that matter to patients, families and carers:

• Putting patients first;
• Active feedback from the public, patients and staff;
• Adhering to basics of quality care;
• Ensuring services are provided in a clean and safe environment that is fit for purpose.

PLACE encourages the involvement of patients, the public, and both national and local organisations that have an interest in healthcare in assessing providers.

PLACE assesses a number of non-clinical aspects of the healthcare premises identified as important by patients and the public, known as domains:

• Cleanliness
• Food and hydration
• Privacy, dignity and wellbeing
• Condition, appearance and maintenance
• Dementia: how well the needs of patients with dementia are met
• Disability: how well the needs of patients with a disability are met

The criteria for each represent good practice as identified by professional organisations whose members are responsible for the delivery of these services e.g. the Healthcare Estates Facilities Managers Association, the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals and the Hospital Caterers Association. Dementia domain criteria draw heavily on the work of The King’s Fund and Stirling University.

All healthcare settings in England are eligible. Whilst the programme is voluntary, all sites are encouraged to participate provided they meet certain criteria as the assessments give patients and the public a voice in discussions about local service provision.

A fundamental part of PLACE is the inclusion of lay assessors known generically as ‘patient assessors’. All assessment teams must include a minimum of 2 patient assessors, making up at least 50% of the team.

On the day(s) of assessment, the teams visit the various areas of the hospital and unit (e.g. wards, communal areas) filling out the relevant scorecards (paper or digital) based on observed conditions. The full suite of assessment forms and associated guidance are available here: The PLACE collection

Results are sent to NHS England by hospital staff using the Estates and Facilities Management (EFM) online portal (login required).

Marks awarded for each question count towards one or more domains. Domain totals are then calculated on EFM and expressed as a percentage of the maximum marks available for each domain for each organisation and site.

National, site types, commissioning region, and organisation (mean) averages are calculated using the formula:

Average score = Sum of [(site achieved points / site available point) x beds at site]
                                                                   Total beds in all assessed sites