Challenge

NHS Hull Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Community Health Partnerships (CHP) recognised that a new facility was needed to bring hospital referrals back into the community and to take the pressure away from  the acute setting (accident and emergency department). The new centre would be aimed at frail elderly people to make the referral journey easier and more efficient for the patient, ensuring they are treated quicker and can remain in their own homes, or usual setting, for longer.

Sewell Construction was chosen to deliver the new £9.5 million health centre after a long partnership working with Citycare and the NHS to deliver 13 LIFT estates across the city.

Development

Due to the complexities of the scheme, a collaborative approach with the client and extensive amounts of community engagement took place from the outset and before construction work began.

Sewell Construction was part of the design team alongside Sewell Facilities Management to help maintain longevity for the building.

Sewell also engaged with Pickering & Ferens Homes who were constructing a new housing development on the same site. It was fundamental that both teams worked together before construction began to plan how each site team could work in partnership during the delivery phase.

Community engagement was key throughout the development, with ‘meet the builder’ sessions, start on site letters from the project manager, fortnightly updates on the development and regular meetings with the local church.

Delivery

As the centre is built within a residential area, work took place between 8am and 7pm to ensure disruption for local residents was kept to a minimum. Deliveries were also co-ordinated with restricted access and to avoid congestion in the local area.

Key milestones in the project included creating a new access road, erecting the steel frame, laying the brickwork which involved special guests from Estcourt Primary, internal fit out throughout the building and onto completion.

Weekly and daily progress meetings were held throughout the projects alongside briefings to  ensure all subcontractors were updated on the order of work and the plan for the week ahead.

During delivery, Sewell Construction installed six bat boxes around the site to create a home for the local wildlife during delivery.

Results

The development was delivered on time and on budget.

88% of labour was from the local area and there were 4 apprentices on site.

Sewell Construction also gave a helping hand to the local church hall when it had a damaged fence and offered to fix it free of charge.