The grand feature staircase, modern ensuite bathrooms and solar panels on the roof are now all in place at the first NHS National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), as plans which have been in the pipeline for a decade continue to come to life. The 70-bed purpose-built rehabilitation centre near Loughborough will be staffed and run by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and aims to transform rehabilitation in the UK. The £105million NRC programme is part of the New Hospital Programme. As 2025 progresses and the NRC prepares to begin accepting its first patients in the summer, construction efforts at the site near Loughborough continue to gather pace, with more than 200 tradespeople working on the build each day. Inside the building, the statement staircase has been installed in the main atrium where patients will first enter the centre, and bedrooms continue to take shape as bedheads are installed and the en-suite bathrooms fitted. Elsewhere, flooring is being laid and miles of wiring installed. The latest drone footage shows the solar panels in place which will help to power the building alongside air source heat pumps, as well as the metal framework progressing along the outside of the building, ready for the final rainscreen cladding. Ryan McCormack, Head of Commercial and Construction for the NRC, said: “With fewer than six months to go to when we will be welcoming our first patients, it’s exciting to see how quickly the interior of the building is changing on an almost day to day basis. “It’s been a pleasure to see this incredible building emerge from the ground up, and these next few months are where it will all suddenly come to life as more and more of the fixtures and fittings are installed and finishes are complete, ready for our very first patients.” The construction is being carried out by IHP, a joint venture between VINCI Building and Sir Robert McAlpine. The Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate near Loughborough, already home to the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre which opened in 2018, was carefully selected as the site for the NRC to bring together these two centres of excellence and drive rehabilitation standards both nationally and internationally. The design of the NRC uses modern methods of construction and will be highly energy efficient, with plans for the building to support the NHS ambition to be Carbon Net Zero by 2045. Work continues to integrate the Smart Hospital design to make the NRC as digitally advanced as possible, with the capability to incorporate additional cutting-edge technology in the future. Find out more about the construction of the NRC on our NRC website. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Henry Boot Construction has begun major refurbishment works on mental health facility, Maple Ward, at the Longley Centre in Sheffield, to provide a safer and more supportive space for staff and patients. The £3m project includes a full refurbishment of the two-storey mental health unit and involves redesigning the layout to create 17 en-suite bedrooms, an accessible bedroom, calming de-escalation facilities, and a newly landscaped garden courtyard. As part of the improvements, the team will be installing new drainage, manholes, and window and door openings, alongside refurbishing mechanical and electrical systems. Patient safety will also be a key focus, with the removal of fixed ligature anchor points throughout the site. The renovation will also create or upgrade several essential spaces, including a quiet space, dining room, staff rest area, lounge, clinic room and dispensary. Maple Ward provides important assessment and treatment for individuals experiencing a diverse range of emergency mental health needs. Commenting on the project, Lee Powell, MD of Henry Boot Construction, said: “We’re very proud to be delivering the refurbishment of this important mental health facility in Sheffield. “This project is obviously much more than just bricks and mortar – it’s about creating a safe, calming, and supportive space for those experiencing urgent mental health needs. The refurbished ward will also be complemented by a new garden courtyard, creating another open-air retreat for self-reflection and relaxation. “Well-designed healthcare environments are extremely important for our community, and we’re committed to ensuring the space meets the highest standards for both patients and staff. “It’s a privilege to contribute to such an impactful project that will make a real difference in people’s lives.” Adele Sabin, Head of the Therapeutic Environments Programme which is behind this refurbishment, added: “We are doing this work to put the comfort and safety of our service users at the forefront, removing ligature anchor points and creating high-quality environments for care. “I’m really excited to see our plans for the site come to fruition, and I am very proud of everything our team has done to get us to this stage of making our plans a reality.” The refurbishment is expected to complete in late autumn this year and the ward will then be reopened. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Achieving the NHS’s aim of becoming the world’s first fully net zero carbon national health service by 2045 will rely upon thousands of NHS professionals in diverse settings and roles, including its clinicians, managers, estates leaders and operations experts. Maria Manidaki (right), Technical Director, Decarbonisation, Mott MacDonald examines what is needed. NHS England’s “Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service” report recognises that achieving ambitious net zero targets in an organisation so complex and specialised is a significant challenge. Its teams will need to work collaboratively to drive a substantial transformation of the NHS’s built environment and infrastructure assets, while continuing to prioritise high standards of care, which will also need to be decarbonised. With the net zero goal in mind, NHS decision-makers will need to begin translating net zero goals into strategy, and then into real-world programme and projects. While everyone is clear about the scale and urgency of our climate challenge, the sector cannot make the case for investment or take practical action without good governance, synergies and trade-offs with other objectives and value for money. Those diverse decision-makers will often be responsible for busy, sensitive clinical environments, estates projects, or operational resources. To ensure they can play their part in achieving a net zero NHS, it’s crucial to ensure they’re supported to deliver low carbon impact in their day-to-day work. Baking it into organisational governance, alongside well-established ingredients like finance and clinical models. And, providing them with the tools for success. This is where PAS 2080 excels and is already making a difference in the UK’s infrastructure sector. PAS 2080 is a global specification for managing whole life carbon within infrastructure and the wider built environment, recently updated in 2023. It provides an effective, practitioner focused framework for reducing carbon emissions throughout the lifecycle of infrastructure projects, with a focus on systems-thinking, whole-life carbon management and value chain collaboration. The PAS 2080 carbon management process enables every decarbonisation project practitioner, no matter the role, to consistently and straightforwardly understand their baseline emissions and establish clear accountability for their projects. It also creates a framework to engage with their teams and supply chains to influence and measure the progress they make. In addition to driving best practices for the further decarbonisation of NHS estates, the use of PAS 2080 also has the potential to better enable holistic thinking about the role of carbon. That includes thinking about carbon alongside achieving cost, nature, circularity, climate resilience and care outcomes. As the NHS’s decarbonisation objectives go beyond estates to include its Scope 3 indirect emissions, like medicines, telemedical devices, IT services and travel, this is going to be essential to achieve success. In practical terms, that means addressing complex clinical challenges, like the 2% of the NHS’s emissions footprint that are generated by its use of current anaesthetic gases. But, those gases play a critical role inproviding a high standard care, and will have established cost and supply chain arrangements that make themeffective. It’s imperative to enable and empower NHS teams to address the problem at every level, with creativity andconfidence. By looking at whole-life carbon emissions from the materials, energy and other consumables usedthroughout the lifespan of assets, the NHS can make important whole life carbon and cost reductions. It will also better understand the impact of maintaining, repairing, repurposing, adapting, upgrading, expanding and eventually repurposing or removing them. PAS 2080’s application of value chain collaboration is key. This enables NHS managers to assign accountability for sustainability and engagement at multiple levels, as well as incorporate it into the work of each department. It also outlines what targeted engagement is required with clinical professionals and the wider supply chain to evaluate and implement selective decarbonisation initiatives. Taken together, this can provide the creativity and confidence required. It enables an NHS Trust and its teams to approach different carbon hotspots such as anaesthetic gases, where innovative new solutions will need to be fully evaluated and then delivered by a complex supply chain. It enables the diverse range of professionals who will deliver a net zero NHS to consistently break down the challenge and make success possible. As the government develops and progresses a new 10-year Health Plan, using PAS 2080 can help shape better operational and capital expenditure, with a clear understanding of its stakeholder requirements and wholelife value of the interventions it makes. In doing so, it can demonstrate value for money, as well as the delivery of carbon reduction alongside care and resource efficiency. Other sectors with comparable challenges are already implementing the principles of PAS 2080 with success. Some asset owners have gone for full verification to PAS2080, while others have considered the carbon management framework principles and have developed their own carbon management approaches. For example, Heathrow Airport is a 24/7 operational environment, with an aircraft taking off and landing close to every 45 seconds. It is using good carbon management practices, including the principles of PAS 2080 to identify, pioneer, test and standardise the use of new low carbon construction materials, as well as considering lower carbon assets across different asset delivery programmes. Heathrow Airport has developed its own carbon management framework following good principles from PAS2080 to ensure its stakeholders are properly engaged, its suppliers understand their requirements clearly and whole-life carbon reduction performance can be properly understood. But, while delivering the net zero pledge will not be simple in the NHS, adopting good industry practice solutions like PAS 2080 can ensure its achievable for every part of our healthcare system – whether it is to identify and target carbon hotspots in the supply chain for the consumables and products the NHS uses or simply to optimise the capital investment programme of its estates. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

LAST WEEK, Gedling Borough Council unanimously approved Delamere’s planning application for a new residential addiction treatment clinic in Bestwood, Nottingham, at the former Nottingham Fire and Rescue Service site. Totalling around £20 million, this development will represent the biggest investment in an addiction treatment clinic in the UK. The planning application includes the demolition of the existing site, significant landscaping, and the creation of more than 50 jobs for the local community. Delamere’s team will be made up of psychotherapists, recovery mentors, a 24/7 nursing team, and a hospitality team. Once operational, Delamere will provide premier clinical and therapeutic care for up to 32 guests struggling with alcohol dependency and substance misuse or behaviour addictions at one time as part of its 28-day treatment programme. The site will include a premium wellness suite, which will include ice baths, a fully equipped gymnasium, a steam room, a sauna and a meditation area, in addition to individual and group therapy rooms. Delamere is working with Architects Anderson Orr, Landscape Designer Tom Stuart-Smith, and Project Managers Edge P,  on the development of the rehab clinic, which will draw on the similar trauma informed design principles utilised in Delamere’s Cheshire site. Bestwood St Albans ward councillor, Rachael Ellis, was the only member of the council to comment on the application during the planning committee meeting, stating that she was happy that the site is being redeveloped and will create local jobs.  Delamere plans to officially open its doors in Nottingham in Q1 2027. Martin Preston, Founder and Chief Executive at Delamere, said: “We are thrilled by the committee’s decision to unanimously approve our plans for Delamere’s second site. Our development represents a huge investment and opportunity for the borough, and our ambitions for the Bestwood clinic to be a flagship in Europe. “At Delamere, we have a very clear purpose – anyone can recover from addiction with the right help – and in five years we feel that we have proven our proposition. Identifying the right location for our second site has been something we have worked hard at for several years, and so we are excited to be given the opportunity to create something the local community can be proud of.” Delamere’s site in Cheshire has treated more than 1,000 people since opening in 2020. For more information about Delamere, visit delamere.com. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

by Lydia Sullivan,Director of Procurement, Sustainability & Social Impact,NHS Shared Business Services. NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) is proud to be awarded the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply’s (CIPS) Corporate Ethics Mark, a symbol of dedication to ethical sourcing, responsible supply chain management and the highest standards of corporate ethics. Currently one of only three NHS organisations to receive the CIPS Corporate Ethics Mark, staff at NHS SBS have been assessed as having full competency in ethical sourcing and supplier management. The certification reflects the organisation’s ongoing commitment to fostering ethical practices in every aspect of its procurement processes. As responsible procurement becomes ever more a central focus within supply chain processes and management, it is crucial for procurement teams to establish, implement and uphold ethical practices. This includes outlining a company’s code of conduct and demonstrating a clear commitment to environmental, social, and legal responsibilities. The mark signals to NHS SBS suppliers, customers, prospective employees and other stakeholders, that they are working with a business that prioritises the training of staff in ethical sourcing practices, and ensures ethical values are upheld in the way suppliers are selected and managed. Being awarded it represents NHS SBS’s commitment to ethical procurement and supplier management, and a pledge to ensure these standards are embedded across the organisation. Lydia Sullivan, NHS SBS Director of Procurement, Sustainability & Social Impact commented: “The CIPS Corporate Ethics Mark is an important sign that we are well underway with our long-term goals of achieving sustainability and net-zero emissions. It supports our vision of a future where every business transaction contributes positively to society and the environment. “For our customers, the mark represents more than just a certification. It is a testament to the values we uphold in our business operations. By choosing NHS SBS, customers can have assurance they are partnering with an organisation that places a high priority on ethical procurement practices, sustainability, and responsible sourcing. “For suppliers – both to NHS SBS, and those we enable the NHS and wider public sector organisations to source and buy from efficiently and compliantly, the mark reinforces the importance of shared values and the significance of aligning with an ethical partner. It strengthens our collective commitment to sustainability, reducing environmental impact, and promoting fair labour practices. “By earning this mark, we reaffirm our dedication to embed ethical practices into every part of our supply chain, helping to drive change not only within our organisation but across the verticals in which we operate.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals