Telford and Wrekin Nursery

The Borough of Telford & Wrekin identified a need to provide quality daycare nursery facilities in its College and Arleston ward. The nursery was to be funded through the Neighbourhood Nursery initiative, which meant it had to be completed to a very tight timescale.

With this requirement for speed, the Council decided to look into the possibilities of modular building. The Council was aware that Portakabin offered a specially designed Lilliput nursery building, which had proved a big hit with nursery providers up and down the country.

After completing its best value analysis and comparing the modular solution to brick-built alternatives, the Council opted to buy a brand new Lilliput building. Portakabin worked closely with the Council’s architects and the appointed childcare providers to come up with a nursery design that met the specific requirements of the project.

The building was located on the site of a public school, which the Council had recently purchased for redevelopment. The new Lilliput nursery was delivered on time and installed in a matter of days, to meet the Council’s deadline.

The 48-place nursery, called Smiley Faces, now caters for children up to five years old and is open ten hours a day, providing the very highest standards of childcare. The building features a baby room and associated sleep room, pre-school and toddler rooms with doors leading out to a superb outdoor play area, a large daycare kitchen, staff room and kitchenette, a welcoming reception area, offices and toilets.

Pam Marshall, Business and Finance Support Officer for Early Years at the Borough of Telford & Wrekin, says: “Everyone is absolutely delighted with the building. It has become our exemplar nursery design, and we show it off at every opportunity. We wanted the building to be in for the summer, and that’s exactly when we got it, thanks to Portakabin’s quick and simple build programme.

“The team of staff working there love the building, and it is rapidly filling up with children as parents in the area get to know about it. We wanted this to be a very special nursery, and the Portakabin Lilliput building has enabled us to achieve the kind of bold statement we had hoped for.”