Post report work

The journey continues

Since we conducted our research, it became obvious that this would be an infinite journey - something we would continue to invest in, way beyond the white paper.

It's with this in mind, that we've appended the white paper to help shine a light on just some of the work that has been continuing to improve the design and delivery of SEND schools.Before we were all hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the key contributors to the initial research, joined us for a day-long workshop in Duxford, to discuss the findings.This helped support our initial discussion and guide the narrative that would eventually weave together the Build Better Futures Report.Upon releasing the report, we continued to work on our white paper commitments...

Post Occupancy EvaluationsThis included the undertaking Post Occupancy Evaluations on all the SEND schools we had delivered, as well as a POE on a recent SEND school delivered by another contractor.In parallel, we undertook detailed technical workshops with our delivery teams to look at the lessons learned and design success and improvements across the six SEND schemes we had delivered.

How important are POE's

Vital - they should happen on every job
Important, but we often don't get to do them
Unimportant - we never learn from them

Virtual workshopsAfter centralising and trending the data, we were able to form a structure for delving deeper into the detail in the form of five in-depth virtual knowledge forums.These forums included our original key contributors, but also gathered a wider pool of specialists - for example, when looking at external spaces, we brought specialist and experienced landscape architects into the conversation to help formulate ideas.

Data centricityFollowing the workshops, all held in November and December 2020, using online collaborative ideation tools, we were able to capture over 600 data points that will be fed straight back into the development process.These data points enabled our specialist internal SEND team to process the information go through a detailed interrogation process to match, trend and fine tune the aspects that needed to go forward, resulting in a fine-tuned set of information to help deliver on the commitments we have made.

The virtual knowledge forums have been invaluable. The time spent on gathering the right information and discussing the direction for the sector with the benefit of so many fantastic experts, is something we are really grateful for. There is still so much work to do, but we all agreed that it is something we have a duty to do, if we truly want to make a difference.

Peter Whitmore, Managing Director - East

Q1 2021 and beyondAs at April 2021, all the data points gathered have now been mapped, and we are working carefully to integrate them into a guidance document which will form the foundation of the documents we committed to producing in the white paper.

Keeping the conversation going

As part of our ongoing journey, we've just released a brand new podcast episode, starring two of our SEND Knowledge Forum partners. For the full podcast episode, click on the play button at the foot of the episode tile below to get access to the Morgan Sindall Construction podcast channel InSite.

It's about trying to create something for children in all of our designs that gives them a better day. It is a journey, there is learning, we do make mistakes, we learn from those mistakes, but let's give people the examples and information they need to start the journey in a positive way, with the best tools they have available to them.

Alison Revell, Cambridgeshire County Council

A massive part of what we're doing at the moment is designing spaces that respect children and young people. It's ultimately about dignity and making sure that some of their specialist needs such as personalised care and therapy are just delivered in a dignified way.