Making environments accessible for wheel chair use normally comes about because you have to, by regulation or in the case of Christchurch C of E Primary School a specific need is identified. In this case a pupil in a wheel chair who needs to get to the first floor for lessons

It is at this point that you realize you must find a location for the lift and a company able to meet the specific needs of the school and the pupils / users.

As this equipment is specialised, particular knowledge is required to make the right choices. Architects, specifiers and facility managers inevitably rely on the advice of the equipment suppliers.

Unfortunately in this case the school received poor advice, causing an eighteen month delay and the delivery of lift inappropriate to the needs of the school.

Having waited so long the situation became extremely urgent. There were now two pupils who needed to get up stairs to classes with the assistance of a lift.

This served to highlight the importance of choosing the right supplier to advise you with the correct and diverse range of products.

The solution to the schools access problems were not entirely straight forward. The brief was simply to provide access to the first floor, in addition we brought into the equation an aesthetic element as well protection of valuable space. Wherever possible it our policy to integrate our equipment to reduce impact to the working environment but also to make the use of such equipment less stigmatic.

We quickly identified a stairwell as the best location for a vertical "Buckingham" platform lift. This was however a space restricted by a supporting column making a standard sized model either too large for the available area and the use of the next size down leaving too much wasted space. We therefor recommended a custom design between the two model sizes.

Once we had with all concerned that the best solution to the problem and also meeting the needs of the children who would use the lift, it was now time for the lift to go into production

During production Senlac planned / managed the associated works and schedule to reduce the impact of the installation on the school, pupils and staff.

A few weeks later the installation team were on site with little or no impact on the usual function of the school.

In two days we were ready to hand over the lift.

The school, having experienced so many difficulties with the previous attempt at resolving the access problems, were extremely pleased with the result and the minimal impact of the works and of course the speed at which we had turned the project round.

The school have always been keen to emphasise the proactive approach they have adopted to providing unrestricted access to pupils and visitors alike. We therefore decided to put on a grand opening which in turn provided some positive PR for the school and for the team who made it all happen. The architect - The school Council - the Governors - The Arch Diocesan and of course Senlac.