Architects launch £4.9m care centre

ARCHITECTS from Leeds have made a “tremendous step forward” with the opening of a £4.9m care unit in Sheffield.

The Sheffield Health & Social Care NHS foundation trust’s psychiatric intensive care unit was part refurbished and part new-build.

The design team included CAD21 building services engineers and Arcadis who led the Project, as well as specialist Leeds architects P+HS Architects, who also have offices is Stokesley and Tyneside.

Now completed, it will provide 11,840 sq ft of residential space, with 10 bedrooms, occupational therapy rooms as well as lounges and staff facilities.

At the end of November, The Sheffield Health & Social Care trust’s chairman Professor Alan Walker opened the new unit, dubbed Endcliffe, at the former Oakwood site at the Longley Centre, General Hospital.

Professor Walker said: “The need to improve mental health facilities for people living in Sheffield has long been recognised locally and we are very proud that this new psychiatric unit is now ready for service users. This is a tremendous step forward towards our aim of providing high quality care in first class accommodation for our service users and staff.”

Cath Lake, director at P+HS Architects and one of the lead designers of the scheme said: It has been a pleasure to work on this scheme with SHSC NHS: their dedicated ambition and progressive approach to mental healthcare service provision has been evident throughout.

“We developed the design in close collaboration with stakeholders from the very outset through to completion, and believe that we have delivered a building that will bring real benefits to staff, service users and their families.”