Mace Group

Information

HCC/Mace have managed and delivered forty-three new children's centres in Hertfordshire as part of the government's ‘Every Child Matters' agenda. The centres will play a central role in improving life outcomes for all children. They needed to be accessible, welcoming, flexible, inspirational places offering a range of services tailored to meet the needs of each local community. The children's centres needed to be planned as a coordinated whole.

Where possible rooms have been designed to be multi-functional and detailed consideration has been given making use of existing spaces where possible. An integrated approach has been essential to the successful delivery of the programme.

Delivering a large number of centres in a very short time period was never going to be easy but the co-operation of the head teachers, centre management, site staff and contractors made it all possible.

Identifying spaces (and sometimes seeing the potential for what appeared to be unlikely locations) was our major task and then creating the required areas from this space was a challenge. Compromises had to be made and not every centre got exactly what was wanted due to budget limitations but now at the end of the project, the feedback has been entirely positive and we have spaces that work to deliver an excellent service for families and children in the location where they are most needed.

The construction cost for each children's centre ranged between £250k and £600k depending on size, specification and location.

Links

Client: Hertforshire County Council
www.hertschildrenscentres.org.uk/

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