Getting Ahead of the Curve: A Practical Introduction to Sensors, Occupancy Data and Workplace Optimisation for NHS Trusts

Across NHS Trusts, senior leaders responsible for estates, facilities and sustainability are making decisions about space that carry long-term financial and operational consequences. As working patterns continue to evolve, it has become harder to rely on traditional indicators alone to understand how workplaces are actually used day to day and gauge the value they provide. 

This blog introduces the thinking behind our Designing the Future NHS Workplace webinar series and offers a practical, non-technical view of how utilisation insight helps Trusts move from assumption to evidence when planning and managing their estates.

Why utilisation matters more than ever

In many NHS workplaces, patterns of activity can be uneven. Areas may feel busy at certain points in the day, while seeing much lower levels of use at other times. Without continuous insight, it can be difficult to distinguish between perceived demand and sustained use. 

Traditional methods - walk-throughs, surveys or historic allocation models - provide useful context, but they rarely capture patterns over time. This creates risk: Trusts may continue to operate and maintain space that no longer reflects actual need or miss opportunities to improve how space supports staff.

To move from assumption to evidence, Trusts need a reliable way to understand how space is used over time, not just at isolated moments. This is where workplace sensors come in, providing continuous, objective insight into utilisation without disrupting staff or operations.

What workplace sensors actually do

Workplace sensors provide that visibility, documenting how shared spaces are used without intruding on staff or operations.

OpenSensors currently uses state of the art occupancy sensors, which records usage anonymously across workplace assets and movement into and out of spaces. They do not identify individuals and do not rely on staff interaction. Instead, they build a clear picture of how frequently spaces are used across days, weeks and months by capturing real-time utilisation data to uncover patterns and trends.

The result is a GDPR-compliant way to understand utilisation, capturing how spaces are used over time without needing staff input or disrupting day-to-day operations.

Turning data into insight

Utilisation data is not about micromanaging space or monitoring staff. Its value lies in what patterns reveal over time when viewed as a trend rather than a snapshot.

Through a single, intuitive dashboard, occupancy data is brought together in one place — combining real-time and historical views to make it easy to see which areas are under- or over-utilised, how usage patterns change across the day or week, and when peak demand occurs. This allows estates and facilities teams to move quickly from raw data to practical understanding, without needing to piece together information from multiple tools or spreadsheets.

Utilisation insight helps answer questions such as:

• Which areas are consistently used — and which are not
• Where space is busy only in short peaks
• How usage varies across buildings, floors or departments
• Where opportunities exist to repurpose, consolidate or improve space

Alongside live insight, automated reporting can be configured to show trends over time — monthly, quarterly or in line with reporting needs — reducing the need for manual analysis and supporting clearer, more consistent decision-making.

What we mean by workplace optimisation

Workplace optimisation is not about cutting space indiscriminately. It is about ensuring environments support staff effectively while using resources responsibly.

For NHS Trusts, this might involve improving common and shared areas so staff want to use them, redesigning spaces to better support focused work or collaboration, identifying under-used spaces that still incur ongoing cost and aligning space provision with actual demand.

Why this matters financially

Even when spaces are empty, costs continue. Heating, cleaning, maintenance and energy consumption do not stop simply because a room is unused.

According to the 2023-24 ERIC  Report , The Cost of Empty Space in the NHS: Quantifying Waste and Unlocking Efficiency, NHS estates cost £18.8 billion annually to operate. Yet over 2.3 million m² of that space is empty, underused, or not fit for purpose - equating to £1.1–1.5 billion wasted every year. 

By aligning space provision with real demand, Trusts can reduce unnecessary operational spend, avoid investment in under-utilised areas, and build stronger business cases for change. Across large estates, small data-led adjustments can translate into meaningful savings.

A Top 20 US Research Hospital leveraging the OpenSensors Occupancy Solution said the following: ‘We saved £700k in our first year and cut energy-waste by 30%’.

Designing the Future NHS Workplace

In support of teams responsible for space planning across hospitals and medical centres, we are launching the “Designing the Future NHS Workplace” webinar series. The series is designed to demonstrate how utilisation insight can be used in practice to support confident, evidence-based decisions about space — without adding complexity to already stretched teams.

Across the sessions, we will explore how estates, facilities, sustainability and transformation teams can:

• gain a clearer picture of how space is actually used across different times and locations
• identify under- and over-utilised areas with greater confidence
• support staff wellbeing through better-informed workplace design
• reduce unnecessary estates and energy costs
• use data to inform long-term estate and sustainability strategies

Each session focuses on a specific theme — wellbeing, efficiency or sustainability — using NHS-relevant examples and practical insights to show how utilisation data can support real-world decision-making.

Are you responsible for estates, facilities, sustainability, transformation or procurement? This webinar series is designed to help you approach workplace decisions with greater clarity and confidence.

Join the first installment of Designing the Future NHS Workplace webinar series,

A Data-Driven Approach to Wellbeing, Efficiency & Sustainability.