Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) BASES

This was an interesting project for John Perkins Construction, which we were awarded by North Somerset Council after a competitive tender process. The project required the refiguration and refurbishment of areas across five different schools in the county during the Summer of 2023.

The council’s motivation behind this work was to enhance the counties SEND facilities for local families, to reduce the need to travel out of the county.

It was important for all work at the schools to be completed concurrently, to ensure that all locations were completed for the start of term in September 2023 or as soon after as achievable, thereby avoiding any unnecessary disruption to the children.

The work consisted of a small extension at Churchill CE Primary to provide new space for a dedicated SEND room, the creation of a resource base at Milton Park Primary School and additionally nurture group spaces at Broadoak School, Hans Price Academy and Crockerne CE Primary School.  All of these schemes required existing spaces at each site to be physically reconfigured and then finished with new flooring, ceilings and decoration, as well as a new basic kitchen facility. Although individually these projects were small in scale the overall improvement to SEND provision in North Somerset was significant.

Delivering five projects simultaneously over five locations had its logistical and management challenges. Working with our partners at Alabas Construction and rigorous open, transparent and regular communication between the JPC team, CGA Architects and Atkins Realis (project manager), made it possible to deliver these projects successfully.

As with all of our projects from the middle of 2023, additional support was provided to the schools after practical completion from our Aftercare Manager. He was introduced to the client team prior to completion and remained in close contact with the individual schools to provide continuity of support throughout the defect’s liability period.