Brief IV
Provision Design Brief
What should we build, staff and specify for the pupils we expect, and what should we avoid?
For schools and trusts planning a new inclusion base or specialist provision. An educational brief your architect and leaders can work from, written by someone who has opened a school and lived with the building. Most useful at RIBA Stages 1 and 2. Whether you are setting up an inclusion base, opening an ARP or adapting a building for pupils with SEMH needs or autism, the brief turns your plans into clear requirements your architect can design to.
What it covers
- Cohort profile and needs analysis
- Purpose, model and admission approach
- Zoning, arrival, sightlines and regulation spaces
- Physical specification: doors, acoustics, lighting, intimate care
- Staffing model and curriculum links
- An avoid list of common, costly mistakes
What you will have at the end
- An educational brief: cohort profile, model, adjacencies and zoning notes, room schedule
- A specification annex: doors, fixtures, acoustics, lighting, intimate care
- An avoid list
- A staffing model
- Comments on your architect's drawings
Brief aligned to Building Bulletin 104 area guidance and the DfE inclusion bases guidance, for your architect and specialists to verify. Educational advice only: not architectural, structural, fire or occupational therapy advice.
Questions
Questions schools ask.
When should we involve you?
As early as possible, ideally at RIBA Stages 1 and 2 before the layout is fixed. Changes are cheap on paper and expensive in concrete.
Do you replace our architect or OT?
No. The brief sets out what the provision needs educationally. Your architect, engineers and, where needed, an occupational therapist check and design to it.
Can you review plans remotely?
Yes. A remote plan review returns marked up drawings and a short note within 5 working days.
Let's talk
Twenty minutes is usually enough to know whether a review would help.
If it would not, I will say so, and point you to free support instead.
Book a 20 minute call