SSE LANDSCAPE Specialist Landscape Designs for Educational Settings
Introduction SSE Property & Grounds is just one of the services provided by Support Services for Education (SSE), a traded unit within Somerset County Council. As an organisation, SSE offers a wide variety of services and training to all education providers such as Schools, Academies, Further Education Colleges and Universities. Our Grounds Team provide a comprehensive range of design and project management-based services and are specialists in designing schemes for educational settings. The team has a range of skills including Landscape Architecture, Play & Sports Design, Arboriculture and Grounds Management covering every area needed to deliver high quality and cost-effective projects.
Some of the services our Landscape Team offer... - Landscape Architectural Design. - Play & Sports Area Design and Development. - Early Years Play & Learning Areas. - SEN Play & Learning Areas. - Sensory Gardens. - Wildlife and Environmental Areas. - Design of Lakes and Ponds. - Planting Design. - External Drainage Works. - Fencing Projects (safeguarding and security). - Car Parks and Hard Landscaping. - Grounds Audits and Site Development Plans. - Planning Applications, Listed Building and Conservation Area Consent.
Fees and Charges SSE works on a not for profit basis, so our fees are kept to a minimum to maximise your budgets. Fees to design and manage a project are based on complexity and as such each scheme is priced individually. Our initial site visit to discuss a project is FREE OF CHARGE. All projects with play equipment installations come with a free inspection by SSE’s in-house qualified Play Safety Officer to ensure compliance with safety standards. We have a group of approved independent landscape contractors, who price work for us on a tendered basis to provide a true best value approach. All contractors are DBS checked before working on school sites. We can provide a service at any stage of the design process (please see flow chart below) from running all aspects of a project and concept design, right through to managing the work on site and selected elements such as design, or planning only.
The design process made easy -
Initial site visit (free of charge)
Appointment to deliver design services
Tender evaluation delivered to client with recommendations
Project tendered to approved contractors
Client approves costs and contractor appointed
Works start in site managed by SSE Property & Grounds
Concept design produced and delivered to client
Detailed design and specification stage
(planning permission application submitted if required)
Works completed and signed off for use
Why use a Landscape Architect? Using a professional designer to run your project is the most cost-effective way to deliver a successful scheme. Our Landscape Architects specialise in working in educational settings and as such can tailor a design to your exacting needs. We ensure that all appropriate standards are met and design installations can stand up to the unique way schools use outdoor space. We work with a wide range of suppliers and contractors to give a truly flexible approach to selecting the right elements for your project. By tendering a fully designed, specified and quantified project, contractors pricing work have more confidence and less risk, which helps to reduce costs.
“On behalf of the school, thank you for all your input into this project. An area that had become something of an embarrassment to us has been transformed into one where children can play and learn in safety."
"I would just like to say how pleased we are with our new fence and artificial grass - it is definitely a huge improvement!"
Don’t just take our word for it! This is what our customers think…
"The playgrounds look fantastic and I’m really pleased with the outcome. Thank you so much for all your hard work in pushing this through in such a tight time frame."
"The best project contractors we have had on site. A regular crew that was accommodating of noise during GCSEs, they were polite and just got on with the job in hand - thank you!"
Play Area Design Designing play areas for schools is our most popular service. We can design creative spaces, specifically designed to make the most of the area you have. We can design purely to facilitate good play or add an element of education so children can learn while playing. We have also designed many spaces for children with additional needs and can work closely with your SEN advisors if required. Sports Facilities Outdoor sports areas are increasingly popular in education environments. We have designed and project managed the installation of all types and sizes of sports facilities, including full size floodlit all weather pitches (both hockey & 3G football), MultiUse-Games-Areas (MUGAs), tennis courts and natural turf pitches. A well designed, all weather facility can also provide an additional income for school sites by charging for community use. Environmental Areas, Lakes & Ponds We can design and advise on the management or refurbishment of environmental studies and wildlife areas. These can be small or very large scale depending on what space you have available. Ponds and lakes can be a very good educational resource and we have access to some very good contractors who specialise in this type of work. Planting and Soft Landscaping Planting design is often overlooked in education settings but using the right plants for the right location can not only make the site look great and provide a good visual impression, but can also cut down on maintenance costs. Providing landscaped
areas such as mounds and natural amphitheatres, for example, can really make a difference to the way children play and also adds interest to sites with minimal character. Hard Landscaping Good design of circulation paths and playgrounds can make a huge difference to the day to day running of a school. We design using a wide range of surface types and can advise on the best products to use for different situations. We can design new paths and playgrounds from the ground up or refurbish existing facilities to help stretch your budget. Fencing & Safeguarding The team have designed hundreds of miles of fencing schemes over the last few years. We specialise in designing fencing schemes for site security and safeguarding and can specify a wide range of products. We have also designed many schemes located near listed buildings and can produce sympathetic solutions which may be required to obtain heritage consents. We can also design and detail access control systems, CCTV and gate automation. Drainage The least glamorous of the services we provide, but often the most important. We have worked with many sites who have ongoing drainage problems resulting in areas becoming unusable. With space at a premium on all education sites, getting this resolved can make a huge difference. We can design new drainage schemes and refurbish existing systems for all hard and soft surfaces.
Key Contact details Helen Acreman - Property & Grounds Service Manager Chris Winn – Landscape Service Manager Kate Edwards – New Business Development Manager Email: sselandscape@somerset.gov.uk Tel: 01823 355874 Mobile 07808 368301 For latest news and updates follow us on twitter @SSESomerset Website details www.supportservicesforeducation.co.uk If you would like to discuss any of our services in more detail, then please do not hesitate to email us sselandscape@somerset.gov.uk.