Construction and projects

We advise on a wide range of projects for NHS organisations including high value builds:

  • self-build – new clinical facilities – many standalone projects for NHS organisations
  • collaborative developments – which can involve other NHS organisations; universities; local authorities; primary care practices; independent health providers
  • third party developments – advising healthcare clients on a variety of development agreements and agreements for lease when engaging with commercial developers
  • energy management agreements – negotiating project agreements, varying them to incorporate new technologies, dealing with related real estate issues and grant funding agreements
  • premises management and hard and soft facilities maintenance – depending on scale and complexity, these sometimes involve addressing TUPE and re-tendering obligations
  • PFI, PPP and Strategic Estates Partnerships – we advise on PFI variations, LIFT schemes, and Strategic Estates Partnerships (a joint venture framework agreement for accessing private finance and delivering multiple projects)

We focus on the following areas of advice:

  • public procurement – assisting contracting authorities to carry out construction projects compliantly, using frameworks where appropriate. We support trusts to use the ProCure 22 and ProCure 23 frameworks as well as other frameworks available to them
  • building contracts – advising on the JCT and NEC standard form building contracts and negotiating project-specific special conditions
  • professional appointments – advising on suitable professional appointments, to avoid the pitfalls of relying on purchase order forms
  • ancillary contracts – reducing risk throughout the phases of a project by using, where relevant, heads of terms, development services agreements, development agreements for lease, letters of intent, pre-construction services agreements, advance payment bonds, vesting certificates, performance bonds, parent company guarantees, deeds of variation, collateral warranties, deeds of novation, deeds of assignment, section 38 and section 278 agreements, etc
  • project assurance – assisting with approvals processes by liaising with other advisers and stakeholders, delivering opinion letters and legal reports to support business cases, and preparing board resolutions
  • disputes – resolving construction disputes – including payment claims and defects claims, seeking favourable settlements where possible otherwise handling adjudication or mediation

Our experience includes:

  • University Hospital Southampton NHS FT – main entrance and retail development, multi-story car park,
  • Dorset County Hospital NHS FT – multi-storey car park, patient discharge facility, key worker accommodation, emergency department and critical care unit
  • Royal Surrey NHS FT (RSFT) – multi-story car park, a deal with a private sector healthcare provider for a Cancer Treatment Centre,
  • Healthcare Partners Limited (WOS of RSFT) – Community Diagnostics Centre, Cancer and Surgical Innovation Centre.
  • Mersey Care NHS FT – Low Secure Unit, Medium Secure Unit, Hartley Hospital and Liverpool 2 Project.

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    • Legal 500 2022
      “. . . prominent practitioner is construction expert Crispin Pettifer.”