Designing and constructing modern mental health facilities

Works are continuing at pace at Tolworth Hospital, where a new five-ward building will provide state-of-the-art accommodation for mental health patients.

We are the main contractor for the project on behalf of the South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust’s (SWLSTG) development partner, STEP - a joint venture between Sir Robert McAlpine Capital Ventures and Kajima Partnerships.

Set for completion in mid 2027, the project is the final part of the Trust’s Better Environments Programme, which builds on the recent £150m redevelopment of Springfield Hospital in Wandsworth, also delivered by STEP and SRM. Both projects were funded by sales of the Trust’s under-utilised estate at the Springfield site.

A solid programme of work so far has seen the superstructure completed, with work on the façade beginning ahead of schedule along with early MEP installations and fit out now progressing.

Once finished, the Tolworth site will house five acute and older persons wards alongside a range of outpatient services.

Harriet Gladwell-Phillips, SRMCV Head of Public Sector Partnerships and Project Lead for STEP (pictured right), said: “Tolworth Hospital will deliver much needed mental health accommodation and will really ensure the facilities match the level of excellent care that have been delivered here for many years. It will provide a welcoming environment, not only for patients but for people visiting patients here, breaking down the stigma that people with mental ill health can face.

“Building a second hospital for SWLSTG after delivering at Springfield is a real testament to our partnership with the NHS Trust. We’ve been working with the team there for almost ten years and this is the culmination of the whole of their estate modernisation programme.

“We’re delivering the new facilities alongside the NHS providing their usual care, and that’s a real challenge. The team on the ground at the Trust and SRM work carefully together to plan the works and communicate elements that may have an impact on Trust operations.”

The ambitious development is set to transform the way mental health care is delivered. As part of the build, Tolworth will be opened up via new and improved landscaping, access routes, a central plaza and a café, aimed at breaking mental health stigma and integrating the site into the community.

We are working incredibly hard with our stakeholders to construct a safe and secure environment which meets the needs of service users once the site opens in two years’ time.

Leigh Draper, Project Director at Sir Robert McAlpine (pictured left), said: “The whole idea of Tolworth Hospital is to not only increase mental health care capacity in the local area, but also the quality of care provided. The design is around the bedrooms being in the external face of the building, so that patients maintain a continued external connection with the outside world.

“Every ward also has access to safe and monitored external spaces, either through the courtyards, winter gardens or sky gardens.”

Emma Shakespeare, Principal Design Manager at Sir Robert McAlpine (pictured right), added: “There are many points in the design stage where we can check we’ve got our processes right and deliver the correct facilities to the standard the client requires.

“We have to make sure our details and interfaces are robust and considered. It’s very well having something that’s tested in a scenario that will meet expectations, but it’s the specific interfaces – walls, joinery, any elements which come together in a juncture – that we need to carefully consider and ensure it’s safe in the setting we’re putting it in.

“We work hard with key suppliers to ensure they understand the standards that are met. Predominantly, those people have worked in these environments and delivered these settings before. We also acid test everything with the Trust to ensure they’re aware of what they’re getting and they think it’s fit for purpose within the environment.”

Leveraging digital tools during construction

At Tolworth, the team are utilising the latest digital tools and techniques to achieve efficiencies and safeguard against delays before they occur.

This project is using Buildots, the AI progress monitoring platform driving data-led construction progress reporting and decision making. Buildots digitally captures a record of the works’ progress on site and compares against the federated model and programme to provide an AI generated assessment of actual vs planned progress, available work areas and line of balance assessments to allow the project team to foresee production risks and opportunities.

This also provides a qualitive and positional assessment of the completed works, identifying potential non-conformances for detailed assessment by the team.

We’re also using Nialli, a digital collaborative planning tool. Nialli allows the project team to input the rolling 8-12 week phase plan via two interactive screens – this enables the subcontract teams to collaboratively plan the works on a rolling two-week cycle in a digital space before being ‘locked in’. The plan is then reviewed daily to status completed tasks and identify new make ready needs.