Alder Hey office makes way for £20m expansion

The Liverpool children’s hospital has won approval to turn Knotty Ash Care Home on East Prescot Road into staff offices, releasing a site to house additional health facilities. 

The care home, which closed in 2018, would provide offices for 150 hospital staff moving from other buildings to be knocked down under the hospital’s expansion plans. 

The hospital’s NHS trust first outlined plans for the site, which sits next to the main hospital with Eaton Road to the north, in October 2017.  The trust needs the office to house staff from eight departments, including both clinical and non-clinical services, which are currently located across several buildings within the trust’s estate.

Mersey Design Group is the architect designing the care home conversion.  

The proposed hospital expansion, designed by Cullinan Studio and described by the trust as a ‘community cluster’, comprises two buildings called The Hive and Dewi Jones Building.

The Hive would house a 12-bed inpatient mental health unit and the Dewi Jones Building would provide inpatient facilities and support functions for children. Construction firm Galliford Try has been appointed as main contractor to build the scheme, including the staff office component. 

Meanwhile, the hospital’s Springfield Park is being expanded to feature an outdoor gym, outdoor cinema, concert space, urban farm, sports ground, play area and cafe. Turkington Martin is the landscape architect. 

The Hive is due to house a 12-bed inpatient mental health unit

Galliford Try said the community cluster project would complete next year. 

Leigh Carter, healthcare lead for Galliford Try North West, said: “We understand the importance of providing a facility that is both functional and attractive, and have been challenged to design and build a facility that will provide the users with a first-class working environment and deliver an excellent patient experience.”