Creating an environment where children feel safe
DATE: 2024 | LOCATION: NORTH NOTTINGHAMSHIRE | PROJECT AREA: PROJECT DELIVERY | PROJECT STATUS: COMPLETED
Almost one million young people each year are referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), with this number increasing by 27% in the last three years.
The Sewell Advisory team, as part of our joint delivery of management services to seven LIFTCos, worked with North Nottinghamshire LIFTCo to repurpose underutilised and void space in one of its primary care centres in Balderton into a new CAMHS hub.
The challenge
Balderton Primary Care Centre is a Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) building in Newark, built in 2007 and run by North Nottinghamshire Lift Company.
As well as housing a GP practice, minor surgery suite, community nursing services and an on-site pharmacy, the facility also had a mix of administrative and counselling space that was not well utilised.
At the same time, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust wanted to improve its mental health offering for young people by bringing their CAMHS services together into a hub.
We worked on behalf of North Nottinghamshire LIFTCo to manage the scheme to repurpose the underused areas of the facility to create a new CAMHS hub.
The Solution
We managed the project to transform under-utilised space on the first floor into a mix of consulting rooms, an art therapy room and CCTV-monitored counselling rooms. We also created an open-plan office space for partners and other services to use.
The specialist nature of CAMHS brought challenges for the design to ensure that anti-ligature and anti-jump measures were in place to avoid self-harm. The building was also occupied throughout the project, meaning we needed to maintain access at all times, whilst also keeping visitors to the facility safe. We also had to manage contractor working hours so the most disruptive work was done outside of the facility’s busiest times.
We managed the full project through from the initial feasibility, design and tender phases, to construction and defect resolution.
The result
The finished project created a brand new hub for CAMHS, bringing together mental health professionals from across the region to enhance their collaboration in high quality for purpose accommodation.
The new space created more capacity for the CAMHS service, with extra appointments meaning more young people could be helped, in a bespoke, safe, controlled and fit-for-purpose space. Local young people can now attend specialist clinics for conditions such as eating disorders in their own community, rather than having to travel to hospital sites.
Balderton Primary Care Centre is now fully occupied, showing the flexibility and adaptability of LIFT partnerships in modernising the community healthcare infrastructure, and bringing care to the places people live.
Helping people get better
Interested in mental health projects? Check out our work as strategic estates partner to a mental health trust.
