Minimising Safety and Safeguarding Risks in Care Home Construction

Safeguarding and Health & Safety are two major risk factors in any care home business. While it’s the occasional high profile failure that hits the headlines, the real issues for most managers have more to do with day-to-day compliance and good practice.

That is, until a significant and out of the ordinary factor comes into play – such as deciding to extend your facilities. Construction sites are among the most hazardous work environments in the UK. Additionally, with a traditional build there will be a significant number of different tradespeople and subcontractors accessing the site at different stages of the project.

Safeguarding and Health & Safety issues for your residents are suddenly magnified. There will be contractor staff coming and going, vehicle and plant movements, likely scaffolding being erected and additional risks from falling objects.

The freedom for residents to enjoy the use of outside spaces may need to be restricted while construction work is taking place, which is not ideal for an extended period.

How Risks can be Reduced and Managed

The hybrid system of Innovaré  panels and precast concrete floors was developed specifically for care homes. The objective was to design a robust building system that involved the minimum possible risks in terms of site deliveries, on site works and the number of personnel needed. In short, a quick, efficient, safe and high quality build with minimal disruption and risk.

The entire structure is precision made offsite and delivered to the site for assembly as needed. All of this is carefully coordinated by our in-house design, manufacturing and installation teams.

Levels of noise and disruption for existing residents is much lower than with traditional builds and safety risks are much more straightforward to identify and manage. Additionally, practical issues such as contractor access and ensuring DBS checks are in place are easier to manage when you have fewer people coming onto the site.

For care home managers this means that concerns over safeguarding and Health & Safety shouldn’t stand in the way of developing your facilities and shouldn’t be a major headache for you to manage.

To find out more about this solution contact Innovaré on 0845 674 0020 or visit our website for more information.