Sewell Construction has won three awards at the recent Considerate Constructors Leading Lights Awards, the Mental Health, and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Awards, as well as the overall Site Award Workforce Category.
The first award recognises the team for their efforts in supporting Mental Health on site whilst building the pioneering new health centre hailed as a beacon of future primary care services, West Hull Health Hub.
The initiative aimed to bring health benefits from the outset of the project with the theme ‘The Journey Starts Now’, and not just once building works were completed. With the project starting in the height of covid, the team were very aware that people’s mental health was suffering, so they wanted to raise awareness and offer support to our workforce.
Over 804 toolbox talks, and inductions focused on mental health and wellbeing, and the team also invited Andy’s Man Club along with other organisations to talk about mental health, offering independent support for the team as and when required.
Project Manager Dave Major said;
“The theme focused not only on our own people but our supply chain too, many of whom are smaller contractors without the capacity to roll out initiatives on the same sort of scale we can, with the backing of the wider Sewell Group and our delivery partners, Citycare.
“Our overall aim was to bring health benefits to the fore through toolbox talks, inductions, external workshops and ‘open door’ policies. We also had Men’s MOT workshops looking at different aspects of physical health too, as well as awareness sessions from Rachel Alexander and online training in Suicide Awareness.
“As a business we also have mental health first aiders and champions across our sites; two of which were on West Hull Health Hub.
“The construction industry can provide a challenging and pressurised lifestyle resulting in poor mental health, but a cultural change is taking place to tackle these issues. As a mental health first aider myself, I’m now better positioned to understand how mental health can affect people and know how to assist properly.”
The second award saw Sewell Construction take home the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Award for the team’s notable contribution towards maintaining an equal, diverse, and inclusive environment whilst working on Hull’s first purpose-built base for children with autistic spectrum condition (ASC), Broadacre Primary School alongside delivery partners on the project Esteem Consortium LEP Ltd and Hull City Council.
Creating an inclusive, equal, and diverse learning environment was not just seen as an end goal for this initiative, but as a journey for all involved from planning and scope, pre-construction, delivery and beyond. The site team engaged with all visitors and workers from the outset to educate them on the impact of the project, whilst also enabling them to act as champions for inclusivity and diversity within the workplace.
Martin Standley, Project Manager for Broadacre Primary School said;
“795 inductions took place over the course of the scheme, and every single one of them incorporated autism awareness, as well as signposting and resources being visible and referred to regularly within our site cabins.
“We went one step further and partnered with young artist Luke, who has Asperger’s syndrome, who went on to become an ambassador for Autism Awareness in his own right. Even post-completion, the relationship has continued with Broadacre Primary School and Luke working closely on other projects, especially with ASC students.
“I’m sure I speak on behalf of everyone involved in both of these projects, when I say we’re incredibly humbled and proud to have won an award in areas that are extremely important to us and a key part of why we do what we do.”
The Broadacre Primary School team then went on to win the overall Site Award Workforce Category. Joint Managing Director, Mark Boothby added;
“Both projects winning awards in their nominated categories is brilliant recognition of the commitment from the teams to make a difference beyond delivering excellent buildings.
“To then go onto become the overall winning in the Workforce Category for the team’s contributions in supporting Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, we’re absolutely blown away.
“In both cases, these awards are the cherry on top of the cake in recognising what we do as a business, and that our team really does go the extra mile to make a meaningful difference in the communities we serve.
“On behalf of all Senior Leaders, our thanks go out to all our team in their continued commitment, passion and dedication to make a difference and support our communities, alongside a product delivery to be proud of.”